Date:
Billings Photography, Orlando, FL - Rick Billings, Master Photographer

On-Location Photography
Serving the Central Florida Area



Definitions and FAQ for 360 Degree Photography

Virtual Reality Photography is the interactive cousin of panoramic photography. For short, we say 360VR or 360 panos for our capture of 360 degrees of view. 360VR images are delivered and viewed electroncally over the Internet and will give the visitor or your customer a greater sense of virtually being there. 360VR images virtually convey much more information about the subject or event in context to everything else around it. The experience can also be enhanced greatly with sound bites from the event.

Spherical 360VR images records the full spherical environment: 180 degrees up and down and 360 degrees around. Apple Computer who originally delivered the technology called Quicktime VR also calls them Cubic VR's. This is our specialization at Billings Photography and we are visually trained and equipped to do it exceptionally well in all kinds of shooting environments.

Cylindrical 360VR panoramas are limited view panoramas and do not need the requirements to see fully above and below. These panoramas are typically imaged with a field of View (fov) of 100 x 360 degrees or less. These are taken for subjects that are best suited for limited views like city sky lines and group photos. Cylindrical panoramas are also used for print presentations.

FAQ

What is an interactive 360VR image?
Our 360VR images are full 360 degree spherical panoramic pictures used in building Virtual Tour products. You can interactively explore and look around a travel destination, rooms of a hotel, a conference or business facility, a concert hall or movie set, a museum or campus.

What is a QuickTime VR?

QuickTime is a high performance multi-media platform developed by Apple Computer for playing iTunes, video and digital media files including 360VR images on your computer. A Mac computer will already have QuickTime installed while a PC computer may need to have this additional software installed. QuickTime is a free download and is used by iTunes to download music and video for iPods. QuickTime extends your Web browser's capabilities to view web pages that contain rich media files like QuickTime VR Images. http://apple.com/quicktime/download.

What is a Java VR?
Java is multi-platform computer language from Sun Microsystems and used to give web pages more functionality. We use small Java Applet programs like PTViewer for our Java VR Web pages to play back our 360VR images. All popular Web browsers are Java friendly and should automatically play back Java delivered content.

Should I choose Flash or QuickTime for my web site?
Pick Flash VR if you have to choose the single largest and most available Internet delivery solution for your web site audience. The main disadvantage is the poorer performance of showing larger higher resolution images.

Choose QuickTimeVR if you can control the hardware and/or software used to view your virtual tour like a company network, kiosk installation, CD-ROM or PowerPoint presentation. QuickTime will handle larger higher resolution files for full screen presentations much better than Java as well as streaming sound and video.

A Macintosh computer will already have QuickTime installed while a Windows PC computer may need to have this additional software installed. You can offer to display both and give the visitor a choice. The main disadvantage is not all Windows PC will have QuickTime already installed.

I don't have a web site. Can I still use 360VR Images?
We can host your virtual tour or set up a new web site for you. If you don't need a web site, 360VR images can work with most software capable of playing QuickTime and Flash. This means you can easily integrate 360VR images into a HTML presentation.

I do have a web site. How do I put these images on it?
When you review your 360VR images or 360VR Virtual Tour package in your client review area of our web site you will also have the underlying client-side HTML code to integrate them into your web site. Your Web Master can copy and transfer this code to your own site. If you need help we are here to help you also.

How soon after you take the pictures can I see the images?
Normally within a week after we leave your location and have received your deposit or payment. We will host your new 360VR images in our client review area of our site for you to review.

After the approval stage, a link will be sent to you to download all the necessary files or a master CD can be mailed to you for an additional fee.

Our quoted fees cover photography, production costs and short term hosting. The customer keeps the files with an unlimited license to use them. The original copyright ownership of the images remains with the photographer unless otherwise negotiated.
 

 
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