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If you're not already creating panoramic and 360 degree images with a standard digital camera, then you're in for a real treat this week! This feature of virtual tours seems to amaze most real estate professionals and the general assumption is that there is no way "a typical agent" could create one of these on their own. There are many different panoramic "stitching" software products available, but taking the pictures correctly seems to be the biggest challenge for most agents. We'll try to dispel the "Magic" for you here.
While you may not own a digital camera (yet!), NAR's own survey of members a year ago indicated that 47% of Realtors use a digital camera on a regular basis. That survey is a year old, so I imagine that far more than half of all agents now use a digital camera. It's become pretty standard equipment for marketing real estate in the new millennium. If you do have a digital camera, just follow these three simple steps to create stunning, panoramic images...:
1. Hold the
camera to your eye and keep it level. It's usually best to use the
optical viewfinder rather than the LCD viewfinder for best results.
2. Stand in one location and don't move your feet except to rotate your body from left to right. Some people prefer using a tripod to keep the camera steady, but for many people this equipment isn't necessary.
3.
After you've shot the first photo, rotate to the right and make
sure that you overlap the second photo with the first photo by about
20% or so. Just repeat these steps, rotating your body to the right
for the third photo and continue until you've photographed the entire
area you wanted to include in the panoramic image.
We
have a great visual demonstration for you on these steps on our
website at: http://www.visualtour.com/create_tour2d.asp
It's
really just 3 basic steps to remember:
1.
Keep the camera level and steady
2. Rotate from left to right
3. Overlap photos by 20% or so
Here
are a couple of tips to make this process easier on you and make
your panoramic image display exactly what you want it to appear...
Decide
how much of a room or view you want to show. Most of the time it
won't be a complete circle (360 degrees), but it's up to you. You
want to show the most interesting or appealing parts of a room,
not blank walls.
Then set your lens to its widest setting (or attach a wide angle lens) to capture as much of the view as possible with the fewest number of shots. Keep this setting the same for all the overlapped shots in one panorama.
Once
you've captured the images, just download them into your favorite
panoramic stitching software program and turn the overlapped still
shots into a smooth, scrolling panorama for your virtual tours!
VisualTour.com includes very easy to use and automated stitching
software. Other stitching applications are available in most electronic
stores.
These
panoramic images are much higher quality and show off a property's
features better than video images do. VisualTour.com displays these
panoramic images with built in java technology that makes the images
scroll or appear to "move" when run on the Web.
In future e-marketing
newsletters we'll cover other photographic tips such as lighting
conditions, interior vs. exterior tricks, etc. Stay tuned!
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