Cruttenden Children's Monument

thingiverse

A humble tribute stands, commemorating siblings who met untimely ends within a brief 12-month span, circa late 1870s. Noticeable inconsistencies plague the monument; ideally, I should have snapped additional top-side shots as imperceptible over-corrections lurk on the lamb in mesh closures. Years of withstanding South Dakota's harsh climate have visibly worn down the monument itself. Though inscription readability is challenging, correct application of raking light promises successful deciphering. Unfortunately, base replication falls flat due to Photoscan neglecting its surrounding tall grass, producing an awkward result. For documentation purposes, I utilized a Nikon D200 fitted with a 50mm manual focus lens. Settings were dialed in as f/22 at 100 ISO, complemented by tripod steadying and diligent focusing efforts – still a relatively tricky task given my customary reliance on auto-focusing capabilities. A total of 15 RAW images were captured, carefully curated within Adobe Lightroom to optimize exposure, proper focus, and overall quality adjustments necessitated thereof. Corrected photographs were then exported in 16-bit TIF format. To proceed with the photogrammetry process, masked photographs (PNGs) were incorporated alongside their TIF counterparts into Agisoft Photoscan Pro for optimization through heightened detail settings. Upon project completion, output was exported in PLY format – typically the most convenient choice for seamless transmission of combined mesh/texture information. For recipients requiring alternate formats, Meshlab proves a highly capable, open-source alternative, readily accommodating conversion to an array of export options.