Taking before and after pictures, how to align?

[bedriver]

I was watching some old (few years old, not so old as you'd think) photos and decided that i would like to shoot what those photos look today.

I couldn't find anything releated to this with search so i started thinking. I need a lens with similiar focal length and i must align the camera just like in old photo. The first one is easy thing to do but I need some help with the latter.

There's same buildings etc. so it isn't impossible to align camera correctly, but trial and error method would obviously be a long process. I was thinking if i could somehow have the old image overlaid on top of the viewer. I have canon EOS 1000D and atleast i couldn't find anything like that on manual nor in the camera itself. But hey, i can hook it up into laptop and use canons EOS software, would it be somehow possible with that?

 

[analog.universe]

Cool idea! There's definitely a software possibly. Programs exist that allow you to adjust the transparency of any particular window individually (provided you have a new enough operating system). You could have the live Canon software window displayed, and then on top of it, overlay a half transparent image viewer with your old photo in it. You could even run edge detects and the like on the old image to make it easier to see when it's transparent.

 

[480sparky]

Hmmmmm. This sounds vaguely familiar. Seems I've seen someone do that before.



Oh, wait.... that's me!

I use Layers in GIMP. Layers in PhotoShop will do the same thing.

 

[tirediron]

I'm not aware of any other way to do this than by the trial & error method. Even if you could overlay your viewfinder image on the old one via tethering software, you would still have to use trial and error to get into the right position. Just print the images you wish to use, and then refine your shooting position by looking at it and comparing that to what you see.

 

[arifbd111]

nice work.. it seems in the older photo, photographer used a bigger focal length than the new photograph. though its a nice idea i learned here and will try to make some on my city Dhaka.