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NickMorrison's avatar
NickMorrison
Community Member
2 years ago

360 photos

Hello!
I just watched the video regarding 360 photos, what a cool option!

I'm curious how/where are people getting their 360 photos? 
It's clearly not a "panoramic" photo from something like an iPhone.

Thusfar I haven't really found anything good online about how to actually create a 2:1 360 degree photo.

Any help would be appreciated! 

  • You can create free 360 images via this site I wrote about in the blog

    The challenge with those is that they're stock and generic. My guess is that in most cases a 360 image is only relevant in a specific context. And in those cases you'll need a camera.

    I use the Richoh Theta 2 which is pretty decent. But I'd probably recommend the Insta360. A lot of people in the community say they use that one. They have a sale on them right now [10/7-12]. 

    I also bought this cheap selfie-stick stand

    Many of the photo editing apps will open the file and let you make edits to the images. Some of the cameras come with apps. 

    A couple of years ago I bought a few cameras to test out and the ones above were a good balance of features and price. I am sure there are many more on the market now, but from my experience, I'd stay away from those unknown brands, especially on Amazon as many are not very good.

  • ChristyTucker's avatar
    ChristyTucker
    Community Member

    In addition to the sources Tom mentioned, you might see if AI generated options would work. That clearly isn't a good option if you're creating a tour of a real environment (you need a real 360 camera for that), but to just make up a generic office or something it might work.

    I attended a webinar yesterday by Garima Gupta, and she shared the Blockade Labs Skybox as a tool for creating free AI generated 360 images. They have some AI weirdness, of course, but it might be worth experimenting with (especially up to your limit of free images).

  • NickMorrison's avatar
    NickMorrison
    Community Member

    Awesome.

    Thank you both for your replies.

    I'm looking to create 360 walk-around/throughs for my work place's various work environments. 

    However, I'm not sure if can get the purchase of a 360 camera approved. But only one way to find out! 

     

    • JoshAston's avatar
      JoshAston
      Community Member

      If you do get one approved, can my company borrow it after you?

      I keep coming across blog posts that say things along the lines of:

      "If your phone doesn’t include a built-in feature that allows you to take 360° equirectangular images, no need to worry! There are a growing number of 360° camera apps you can download to create your own."

      Of all the apps I've found, none of them will produce the images in a 2:1 ratio.  I'm amazed that all the apps I have come across are intelligent enough to orientate themselves horizontally but not vertically.

      Guess I'll have to learn the art of brown-nosing before the work Christmas party, and hope someone gives me an intoxicated approval to make the purchase!