Photo scale formula for an aerial photograph?
likely airborne

Photo scale is just focal length divided by flying height.

  • Big focal length, low altitude → zoomed in, small ground area, lots of detail.
  • Small focal length, high altitude → wide view, big ground area, less detail.

Same trade-off as your phone camera — wide-angle covers more, telephoto zooms in. Aerial cameras are the same physics, just a few thousand feet up.

🔬 Science / formula

📐 S = f / H

  • 🔍 f = camera focal length
  • ⬇️ H = flying height above the terrain

Three ways to express scale: - 🗣️ Verbal: “1 cm = 1 km” - 🔢 Ratio (RF): 1:100 000 - 📏 Graphic bar: drawn on the map

⚠️ Larger denominator = smaller scale. A 1:100 000 map shows less detail than 1:10 000.

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