See how Google’s Business Photographers shoot indoor 360º panoramas for their Street View service.
Google’s Street View panoramas have come a long way since they were first introduced a few years ago, with more and more locations viewable in full 360º of detail.
Besides the self-driving cars capturing panoramas on the street, Google also has adventurers with special backpacks that can capture the panos off the beaten track, and now they’ve begun shooting the interiors of public spaces as well as private offices. This allows viewers to not only find businesses on the map, and view their exteriors, but to “step inside” and take a look at their offerings or retail space, without even leaving their home.
As interior photographs do not require that exact moments are captured at once with multiple-camera rigs, a simple DSLR and ultra-wide angle lens on a tripod can be used to shoot the Street View panoramas. Here’s a great look into the process with Jeremy Powlus, a Google Business Photographer interviewed by Tested (a website created by Adam and Jamie from Mythbusters).
Jeremy uses a crop-sensored Canon 7D with a Sigma 8mm circular fisheye lens to capture the 360º by 180º panoramic images which the Google Street View software wraps into the familiar spherical view. He explains that while full frame cameras are also permitted, the fact that the APS-C sensor crops into the circular fisheye image results in higher resolution files once everything is stitched together.
Currently, it doesn’t look like Google has any trusted photographers in South Africa, but perhaps they just haven’t had any applications yet. If you’re interested in this type of work, you can find more info here.
Via PetaPixel.
