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Old 10-07-2019, 03:17 AM   #1
johndallman
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Aerial reconnaissance photos for (semi-) historical games

I play in a Weird War II campaign, and aerial reconnaissance photos make good props for planning. They're also quite easy to fake up, provided the modern terrain hasn't changed much from the period of the game.

Using Google Maps, or an equivalent service, go to the spot, go into 3D mode, and move around until you get a decent view of the thing you're trying to show. Take a screen grab, and load it into a photo editor (I just used Windows 10's Photos app). Turn the colour down until you have a black-and white picture, turn up the sharpness, and otherwise modify until it looks right.

Here are a couple of examples from yesterday's game, when we were trying to solve the problem of the Roer (aka Rur) River dams.
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Old 10-08-2019, 09:21 AM   #2
Luke Bunyip
 
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Default Re: Aerial reconnaissance photos for (semi-) historical games

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Using Google Maps, or an equivalent service, go to the spot, go into 3D mode, and move around until you get a decent view of the thing you're trying to show. Take a screen grab, and load it into a photo editor...
I can also recommend using GIMP. There's a learning curve, but it's free*.
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Old 10-08-2019, 11:22 AM   #3
Black Leviathan
 
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Default Re: Aerial reconnaissance photos for (semi-) historical games

I tried this with Google Maps photos for Twilight 2000 but it turned out to be harder than I thought to GIMP in some fuzzy T-80 tanks.
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Old 03-16-2021, 10:48 AM   #4
The Colonel
 
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Default Re: Aerial reconnaissance photos for (semi-) historical games

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Originally Posted by Black Leviathan View Post
I tried this with Google Maps photos for Twilight 2000 but it turned out to be harder than I thought to GIMP in some fuzzy T-80 tanks.
To be honest, you could just add the outlines pointing them out - genuine recce photos quite often look like they could be of anything until the analysts have been at them.
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