The UCSB Library's collection of aerial photography is the largest known such collection in an academic library: more than 2.5 million images. The collection dates back to the 1920s, with most of our photography covering areas in California. For some areas we’re able to represent every decade. Outside of California, we have unique collections that include areas of China, Central Asia, Africa, and the Pacific islands.
As of June 14, 2024, on demand aerial photograph scanning services are no longer offered by the Library. However, we are greatly increasing our in-house bulk digitization of the air photo collection and new images will be downloadable for free through FrameFinder as they become available. This policy allows us to more quickly provide free access to digital versions of our collection.
About Aerial Photography
Traditional aerial photography is generally created using a large-format camera mounted on the underside of a fixed-wing aircraft. The resulting negatives reveal a straight-down (vertical) view of the landscape. As the plane flies, photographs are taken sequentially at set intervals, often with a significant amount of overlap. When two images overlap at least 60%, a stereoscopic, or 3D, view can be seen with a stereoscope or computerized manipulation. The overwhelming majority of our aerial photographs fall into this category.
To see examples of aerial photography, see our Imagery Examples page. We also have a sample of aerial photographs of the UCSB Campus area. Our Significant Aerial Photography Holdings page describes our key collections.
Flights
An individual set of photographs is referred to as a flight or a mission. A flight is often just that: a single takeoff and landing. Some flights are created over the course of a few days or, less frequently, over the course of a season. On very rare occasions, a flight may refer to a multi-year project (for example, our NAPP flights). A flight may contain a single photograph or tens-of-thousands. The UCSB Library has more than 4,500 flights which add up to more than 2.4 million individual images.
To better understand how our aerial photographs are organized into flights, see Identifying Aerial Photography Flights.
Scale and Resolution
Scale and resolution determine the amount of detail you can see on an aerial photograph. Our aerial photographs have a range of scales and resolution. For further explanation and examples, see our Aerial Photography Scale and Aerial Photography Resolution pages.
Flight Indexes
Flight indexes are maps that show the area covered by the aerial photographs (or frames) of the flight. For a detailed description of indexes and how to read them, see our Reading Aerial Photography Indexes page.
