Virtual Reality Photography
VR Panoramas
When you stand in a single spot looking straight ahead and turn in a circle, you take in multiple views of the scene over
several seconds, or however long it takes you to complete your turn. When photos are captured in a similar fashion,
the separate shots can be seamlessly compiled such that the entirety of the 360° view is seen as a single image. The most
common way this is done is with a setup that enables a camera to rotate perfectly about a single point and take multiple
pictures in different directions, usually with a super wide-angle lens like a fisheye. These shots are then digitally compiled in
a precise way to form a single unified picture.
When this 360 degree visual data is mapped out onto a flat plane, the image comes out strangely curved and warped,
so VR images look quite different than typical single view shots. The magic of VRs is that they can be projected geometrically
to make them "interactive" on computer screens and allow the viewer to "look around" just as if they were standing at that
location. Thus the term "virtual reality". This is what you'll see here.
VR Objects
With VR objects, the process is a little different. The camera remains stationary while a single object is turned and photographed
from multiple angles. Alternatively, if the object is very large, it remains stationary while the camera is moved around it, pointed
in the direction of the object center. These multiple shots are then compiled, much like individual frames of a movie, to create
a single interactive file that displays the object from a variety of angles or positions, sometimes even tilting up or down to see
the top & bottom. This allows a viewer to examine a virtual object just as though they were holding it and turning it around.
VR Tours
VR tours are integrated compilations of multiple individual VR panoramas linked via maps, floorplans or even menus. With a
central navigational centerpoint, users can instantly jump to a specific location with a single mouse click.
Click the images below to visit each section.
