Choosing a 360 Photographer

NOTE: This is a tongue in cheek article identifying the unscrupulous behavior of some 360 photographers both in South Africa and internationally. Of course, it is always up to the client to do their own research, and come to their own conclusions when choosing a 360 photographer. This article has upset a few people, but that was never my intention. My intention is to present the facts as they are, and help clients to understand the 360 photography medium, what the industry standards are, and what they should expect from a professional 360 photographer.
I do NOT wish this article to discourage novices, in fact I encourage novices to have a look at my articles about how to make a Virtual Tour , what HDR is, and encourage novices to contact me if they would like to learn more. I have helped a number of novices over they years, and am certainly keen to help many more in the future. But, I can not condone novices posing as professionals, and believe that the client should be completely informed before the buy anything (CPA ring a bell?)

 

Beware of the novices!

As with many industries, the 360 Photography industry is not immune to "charlatans", looking to make a quick buck. They often promise the earth, and yet provide an inferior product which does not meet the promises made or equal the industry standard.

This does not imply that all who fit the description do so with malicious intent. Some are simply novices, who are very excited about the prospects of making 360 photos, that they run out into the market offering all sorts of wonderful things, but are not experienced enough to deliver at the end of the day.

Hopefully the following article will help you to identify for yourself the quality service providers vs the "novices".


Image Quality

The image quality is one of the most important elements of a visual experience, such as a 360 photo Virtual Tour.

What to look for in image quality:

  • Stitch errors - 360 photos are made by seamlessly stitching (joining) a number of photos together, but when care is not taken to do a very good job, stitch errors are noticeable and distract form the rest of the 360 photo. A stitch error can be a small seam error such as a roof that does not line up, or a car that has a "kink" in it, or as bad as people with feet chopped off, or no arms, etc.
  • Blown out windows in interior photos - Professionals use multiple exposure HDR techology and/or masking to make sure the final 360 photo shows details when looking out the window at the view, as well as inside. This is quite tricky to do, and takes a of of time to do well. Poor 360 photos do not show any detail out the window, and it is often completely blown out (totally white, with no details).
  • Poor white balance - Professionals understand lighting conditions in manual mode, and do not rely on any auto or program modes of the camera. When care is not taken to balance the lighting correctly, the photo can turn out very warm (orange) in places or very cold (blue) in places that do not naturally look that what to the human eye (when visiting the location in person). Accurately capturing the location is very important in photography, and especially so in 360 photography.
  • Poor contrast or tonal range - Professionals ensure the contrast and tonal range look as good as possible in each given scene. If care is not taken to capture the correct images, using the correct manual settings, tonal range and contrast can be lost, and no amount of post processing can bring it back. The final image can look washed out, flat or just uninteresting.
  • Boring composition - Professionals know that composition is critical to a good photo. In standard photography novices are taught rules such as the "rule of thirds", but professionals have progressed and learned to break these rules. The same is true of 360 photography. With experience comes an understanding of just what types of compositions make for an interesting image. One that really coveys the feeling of the place. Poor composition may simply show the view of a room from the dead center, with no feeling at all.
  • Colour - Colour is so important when creating a visually exciting 360 photo. Bad lighting, bad time of day, etc all make creating a colourful final image more difficult. A professional will return at a better time of day, better weather conditions, or enhance the photo in some other way to make it colourful and interesting.

 

Bells and Whistles

We focus on what really WORKS for our clients. Our experience has taught us that many times bells and whistles do not add to the final result (conversions).

The following are the bells and whistles which we can provide:

  • Interactive Maps - These can actually be very useful for the viewer to find their bearings, and get an idea of how the property is laid out.
  • Professional voice over - Have a narrator speaking while you view the 360 photo, introducing you to the property, and perhaps delivering a sale pitch. In practice, we have had feedback that this is unexpected, and even irritating to viewers. Particularly when people are viewing the Virtual Tour at work / late at night, and they are expected to be quiet, but as the Virtual Tour starts it suddenly make sounds (and wakes the sleeping baby).
  • Music playing to set the atmosphere - Sounds like a great idea, but in practice it does not add to the experience. Much like websites who have a cheesy start up sound when the website loads, music tends to be more distracting, and does not enhance the Virtual Tour.
  • Video inside the 360 photo - have the TV screen inside the 360 photo play a video.
  • Fly-out and Fly-in effects - When the visitor clicks on a hot spot to jump into the next 360 photo, the view does a fly-in effect (zooms in that direction), then when it has loaded the second 360 photo, it does a fly-in effect (zooming out, and turning the 360 photo to face the direction you came into the room). Although this looks very nice at first, after looking a a number of rooms in a Virtual Tour, the zoom effects can make the viewer feel dizzy, and not want to continue with the Virtual Tour. This means they could leave your website before making a booking. We have found these effects to be nice in demo's, but not practical in real world applications.
  • Sun flare effect -

 

Mobile Support for iPad and iPhone

Do not just believe what you read, test it for yourself. After we announced our support for iPad and iPhone in July 2010, a number of other 360 photographers also suddenly claimed to support iPad and iPhone viewing. At first we were very impressed that others were so up to date with the very latest technologies, but when we tried to test their samples, and their client's Virtual Tours, we found VERY FEW that did work, and NONE that had full capabilities on these devices.

It has takes us many many hours to master the technology of the iPad and iPhones (now android devices are also supported), and to ensure that the Virtual Tours are completely compatible with, and fully functional on the iOS devices.

If anyone claims to support these devices, test for yourself first.

 

Extreme Definition

This kind of marketing is misleading to potential clients!

The word extreme

 

720 degree Photo

A rotation is made up of 360 degrees of rotation. 720 degrees would mean 2 rotations around a point.

Some 360 photographers choose to market their product as 720 degrees in order to

We find this as childish as when children are having an argument and the one says to the other "everything you say plus one!" .

Using the term 720 degrees shows that the 360 photographer has no understanding of 3D space in the context of equiangular images (which is how 360 photos are made), and

This kind of marketing is misleading to potential clients!

 

360 Video

A number of different technologies have been called by some simply: "360 video". This includes:

  • a 360 photo which contains a video inside it (such as the TV inside a 360 photo which is paying a video)
  • a 360 pan created by a video camera on a tripod that turns around a full 360 degrees. (this is still just a video).
  • a 360 photo that has been captured at a frame rate (such as 30 frames per second), and is played back as a video, but with the added feature of being interactive. The viewer can actually click and drag to look around (just like a 360 photo), while the video is playing!

The latter is true 360 video, and is a very new ground breaking technology which we are closely monitoring the progress of.

At this time the quality of the final product, and the equipment available to create such video is very limited, and very expensive.

At this time there is no market for such video (video is extremely expensive compared to photography or 360 photography), devices capable of interactive with the 360 video are still limited (PC, iPhone, iPad, etc can all play 360 video, but a TV can not), and the speed of the internet connection (even internationally), means that the 360 video takes very long to load, even when the quality is dramatically reduced.

At this time , 360 video can be referred to as a gimmick. It can make your product / property stand out, but for all the wrong reasons, and may have very little or no effect on conversions. (it may get a lot of views, but the views are not converted into buyers of your product). Viewers came to see the gimmick and not the product.

 

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