Join Ben Long for an in-depth discussion in this video Making a 360 degree panorama on the iPhone, part of The Practicing Photographer.
When you're facing a big broad vista like this, it's hard to know where to start to try and capture it. Obviously it's nice to try to find a representative sample that makes a good concise composition, but sometimes in a spot that's so pretty you can't do that. And so you aim to get it all. Fortunately, as digital photographers we have a lot of tools for doing that. The ability to shoot a panorama and stitch it together into a very wide frame is fantastic. If you have an iPhone, you've got another option, which is to shoot an entire 360-degree panorama.
Now you can do this with a regular camera. But it requires usually a special tripod head, and a lot of post production work. With an app on the iPhone called 360, you can very easily shoot full 360 degree panoramas, and that's what we're going to look at this week on the Practicing Photographer. I'm Ben Long, and I'm holding a very odd contraption. If you have seen my iPhone course, you've seen this contraption already. This is simply a way that I can show you what I'm doing on the iPhone screen. I've just got a video camera pointed at the iPhone.
The iPhone's camera is pointed out. So, you're going to be able to see the screen and my finger. Unfortunately, you're also going to see a lot of glare on the screen. But I think you're going to be able to get the idea of what's going on. So, I have here the 360 app. I'm just going to launch it, and it immediately drops me into this shooting mode. So it's showing me a view, out the camera, but it's also using the iPhone's tilt and, and bearing sensitivity to figure out where this view fits inside of a giant virtual sphere, that's what this grid is.
So now my job is to point the camera enough ways to completely paint the inside of that sphere with imagery. It's going to take care of doing all the stitching and exposure equalization and that kind of thing. It's really pretty simple, but it takes a while. So I'm going to start it up and just work my way through this and you're going to see as I go how I start by taking a picture and then I just start tilting until on this particular slice I feel like I've captured a good amount of horizontal, I'm sorry, of vertical imagery.
Now that I've got this slice, I'm going to pan over here to the left, let it fill that in and start tilting up and down to grab this. So, I'm just shooting a whole bunch of vertical slices in a circle. I'm not doing anything to compensate for exposure as I move around. I'm trusting the software to all that on its own. It's a little bit of a problem, possibly. Because I'm going to be pointed into the sun. I don't know how that's going to work out. What I'm aiming for, when this is done, is a little VR world that I can pan about.
But something that is very cool about this application, is I can do other things with the results. I can actually output still images in a number of different ways, as you're going to see. So right now I just have to finish painting my way around this circle. I'm getting here to the end and it's, it's, it's actually kind of like a video game of some kind. It's fun just trying to blot out these last little bits. Now it just made a sound indicating that I should have a full wrap so I'm going to hit the done button.
It's going to do some calculation, do some enhancing and then it throws the result into its own internal little camera roll thing which I can get to down here. So here you can see the last few that I've shot. This is the one I just did. When I tap on it I'm immediately into this VR mode, where I can pan around the scene. So this is pretty cool. It's a nice way of giving this to someone else and letting them experience the environment. But I'm a photographer I want print. I want an image on paper. To get to that I go up here to this photo button.
And I've got a number of different options. If I go to stereographic, I get a cool little tiny worlds effect. You've might have seen another Practicing Photographer where I show how to do these the hard way by actually shooting with an SLR. So I got a few different options here. I need to save both of them. Nothing has been saved to my camera roll so if there's anything I like here, I need to go to the share menu, hit camera roll. I can also go out to email, I've also got lots of different social options for posting this stuff in ways that people can really get in and, and do the whole navigation things.
So this is a very cool, very easy, and pretty fun way to capture an environment when you can't find a single shot or even just a slice of panorama that you feel really gets that environment. So, I encourage you to stick this on your phone, give it a try. It's a very very different way of visualizing the world.
Author
Updated
2/21/2019Released
5/19/2013Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: Why can't I earn a Certificate of Completion for this course?
A: We publish a new tutorial or tutorials for this course on a regular basis. We are unable to offer a Certificate of Completion because it is an ever-evolving course that is not designed to be completed. Check back often for new movies.
Related Courses
-
Photography Foundations: Composition
with Ben Long5h 29m Intermediate -
Photo Tools Weekly
with Chris Orwig20h 54m Intermediate -
The DIY Photographer
with Joseph "PhotoJoseph" Linaschke2h 39m Appropriate for all
-
The Practicing Photographer - New This Week
-
Lens flare removal New6m 28s
-
-
Introduction
-
Previous Episodes
-
Choosing a camera5m 27s
-
Let your lens reshape you7m 26s
-
Working with reflections1m 26s
-
Exploring mirrorless cameras7m 25s
-
Using a tripod3m 33s
-
Wildlife and staying present5m 58s
-
Why Shoot Polaroid11m 12s
-
Seizing an opportunity4m 4s
-
Shooting wildlife7m 24s
-
Using a lens hood4m 48s
-
Working with themes2m 48s
-
Setting up an HDR time lapse7m 55s
-
Processing an HDR time lapse7m 55s
-
Scanning Photos5m 37s
-
Jpeg iPad import process3m 17s
-
Warming up3m 26s
-
Taking a panning action shot10m 17s
-
Shooting a silhouette3m 9s
-
Using Lightroom on the road6m 28s
-
Shooting level2m 42s
-
Photoshop and Automator8m 54s
-
Softboxes vs. umbrellas2m 55s
-
Working with hair in post3m 28s
-
Exploring how to use Bokeh5m 38s
-
Shooting stills from a drone6m 57s
-
Working with models2m 40s
-
Tips for shooting panoramas7m 16s
-
Dry sensor cleaning6m 23s
-
Composing in the center2m 48s
-
Vignetting9m 56s
-
Inspire3m 29s
-
Minimizing camera baggage4m 24s
-
Working without a tripod4m 11s
-
Printer options6m 51s
-
Exploring lo-fi printing options11m 58s
-
IOS macro photography gear12m 25s
-
IR Conversion Part 27m 27s
-
Raw editing in Lightroom mobile10m 35s
-
Shooting a macro insect shot13m 5s
-
A brief history of photography12m 19s
-
How to look at a photograph10m 19s
-
Shooting with a Petzval lens9m 49s
-
What is a low-pass filter?4m 35s
-
Teleconverters and lenses5m 12s
-
Media card care7m 19s
-
Dual slot4m 2s
-
Exploring smart previews9m 12s
-
Flying and photo batteries5m 41s
-
Partial vignettes on photos8m 38s
-
360 image editing plugins6m 59s
-
Using a gimbal with an SLR8m 13s
-
Choosing a lens6m 27s
-
Switching camera systems7m 42s
-
Using 360 drones5m 41s
-
VR gimbals4m 16s
-
Working with a photo subject14m 26s
-
Posing a photo subject12m 53s
-
Framing and safety7m 7s
-
RAW converter options3m 59s
-
Drone flight7m 19s
-
Basic abstract photography8m 51s
-
Aspect ratio3m 40s
-
Focus lock on your camera2m 11s
-
Using the Astropad app6m 33s
-
Working with dim sunlight6m 33s
-
Configuring dual cards2m 52s
-
Long lens options4m 45s
-
Moving images from catalogs7m 47s
-
Photography education11m 7s
-
In-camera focus stacking9m 52s
-
Exposure isn't everything4m 17s
-
Why shoot film?8m 55s
-
Culling4m
-
Choosing a film camera8m 38s
-
Analog workflow9m 9s
-
Easily produce giant prints10m 15s
-
Luna Display4m 19s
-
Choosing film7m 50s
-
Photo fads4m 46s
-
Portrait lighting techniques8m 32s
-
Diopter control2m 56s
-
Loupedeck for Lightroom6m 48s
-
Printing small3m 37s
-
- Mark as unwatched
- Mark all as unwatched
Are you sure you want to mark all the videos in this course as unwatched?
This will not affect your course history, your reports, or your certificates of completion for this course.
CancelTake notes with your new membership!
Type in the entry box, then click Enter to save your note.
1:30Press on any video thumbnail to jump immediately to the timecode shown.
Notes are saved with you account but can also be exported as plain text, MS Word, PDF, Google Doc, or Evernote.
Share this video
Embed this video
Video: Making a 360 degree panorama on the iPhone