Georeferencing Retrolens imagery using Google Earth
This post records a simple workflow that used Google Earth Pro desktop for visual image overlays. Google now treats Google Earth Pro as a legacy desktop application and will stop offering new downloads on 25 June 2027.
For new work, use the current historical imagery workflow. Use QGIS when the image needs proper georeferencing and a reusable spatial output. Use Google Earth in the browser when Google's imagery is useful for visual comparison. Use ArcGIS Earth as a free Windows desktop globe for local files and KML/KMZ, not as a replacement for a proper georeferencer.
Downloading a historical aerial photograph is only the first step. To compare it meaningfully with current information, the scan often needs to be connected back to place. That sounds like a technical problem, but georeferencing is also an act of interpretation. We are taking an image captured at one time, often for a survey purpose, and relating it to a present-day coordinate system and landscape that may have changed substantially since the photograph was taken.
For Māori GIS that distinction matters. The goal is not to make an old photograph submit neatly to the modern map. Awa may have moved, coastlines may have changed, roads may have been built and landforms altered. A photograph can help reconnect records and memories to whenua, but its position, its meaning and the conclusions drawn from it still need to be checked against other evidence and, where relevant, the people who know the place.
This older workflow used Google Earth Pro's Image Overlay tool to align an image visually. It can still be useful for people who already have Google Earth Pro installed, but it should now be treated as a legacy exploratory method, not the recommended way to build a new repeatable workflow.