- While we're mostly gonna focus on how to use
professional equipment like you see here,
the truth of the matter is, is that 360 degree cameras
are making their ways into lots of people's hands.
Consumers have these tools and sometimes professionals
can use these consumer tools.
Or of course, just consumers using it, in my opinion,
brings up the demand for even more 360-degree photography.
For example, what do we have here?
- This is one of my favorite toys, it's a RICOH THETA.
And it takes a full 360-degree shot
in one instant with two lenses.
They fire simultaneously.
And in a few seconds I have a 360 on my phone.
- And that's kind of the ultimate nerd
selfie stick as you see here.
Not only does it take a selfie,
it takes a 360 degree selfie.
And we've seen tools for smartphones
from companies like Microsoft with Photosynth,
or Occipital 360, which make it really easy to
just take out your phone, engage the camera and start it.
And as you pan around, it actually starts
to stitch a full 360-degree environment.
And you can use this to capture great vacation memories,
fun things that can be interactively shared
with social networks.
It's really quite engaging.
- One of the benefits about being a panoramic photography
is the wow factor.
People can look at what I do,
and it's immediately interesting to most people anyway.
And when I can do this instantly and just for fun,
taking a photograph of the family at brunch
because we're having a good time or,
taking a 360 selfie from inside a helicopter,
those are really fun things to do
that you can really share with people
and I think it goes really great with today's social media.
- So with these tools getting easier and easier
with apps available for the phone,
dedicated consumer-grade cameras,
there's just gonna be more and more application for this.
We'll expose you to some of these tools during this course
and I think it's worth considering.
Google's even started a little bit
of initiative recently, right?
- Right.
We've got this Google cardboard right here.
My cell phone's not in it, but with the cell phone in it,
it give you this immersive feel, just by watching the 360s,
much like the ones we're going to create in this course.
- And even YouTube has added 360-degree videos
that can be consumed to allow you
to look around a moving scene.
So the demand for 360-degree photography,
the immersion factor and the need to create it cheaply
is just driving up even more demand.
So make sure you check out some of these
consumer-grade tools as well as
some of the platforms like Google's and YouTube's
which are gonna give you new outlets for sharing your work.