F4D Skyray — Photogrammetry Model

My initial “photo plan” on diving the F4D was to see if either wing was intact and, if so, get pictures of the shape of the wing since it is such a unique and iconic feature. Fortunately, one of the wings was intact enough to get those photos and then I started to move around and get additional pictures. These pictures were taken with the goal of a blog post and to document the wreck.

When you are at 200 feet deep, time moves both quick and slow. A few extra minutes can add up to exponentially to more decompression time but it also feels like sometimes time slows down.

I got the photos I wanted for documentation and the blog post but still had some time according to our pre-arranged dive plan of 5 minutes down and 20 minutes on the bottom.

Therefore, I started to think about taking enough pictures to build a 3D photogrammetry model and started to shoot away while moving slowly over the wreck.

I got close, but not quite enough, to build a model of the entire site. However, I did get enough to build a model of the wing and the area around that including the landing gear.

Some lessons from this:

• On deeper dives, it is hard to complete, in a single dive, the “conflicting” goals of taking photos for both a blog post (i.e., composing photos) and for a photogrammetry model
  • Either plan on a very long dive with a lot of deco OR pick one photo plan or the other
  • You have very limited time on deeper dives and you need to commit to one or the other goal
• Building a 3D model of what is essentially a 2D wreck site is hard
  • Tyler had a good idea: for “debris field” type wreck sites where there is very little height (or relief as we call it), think about building a mosaic instead which would be a 2D map of the site

Here are some screen captures of the model I built along with a link to the Sketchfab model that people can view.

Screencaps