Taking 360-degree photos on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is fairly easy and straightforward, so a quick guide and some tips and tricks are all you need.
Facebook support for 360-degree photos and videos, along with the virtual reality hype and VR headsets that go with it, have made 360-degree photos increasingly popular.
The good thing is that taking 360-degree photos doesn't necessarily require special equipment, you can create VR-ready photos by simply using the camera on your iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus or other iPhone models and iPads.
What Are 360-Degree Photos?
Before we dive right into the quick guide on how to take 360-degree photos on the iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus, first off let's explain the concept.
Facebook is the first social media platform to embrace 360-degree photos and videos, supporting the functionality in order to offer a more immersive experience compared to regular photos and videos.
With 360-degree photos, viewers can check out the surroundings as well to get a better idea of the environment, not just one angle of the photo. Users can look around the scene in a 360-degree photo by dragging it with their finger or cursor or relying on their smartphone's built-in gyroscope.
This adds a somewhat more real feel to a photo, allowing others to get a better grasp of the scene you've shared and feel like they're part of the action even if they're just looking at a photo.
How To Take 360 Degree Photos On iPhone 7 Or iPhone 7 Plus
If you have an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus, you can take 360 photos simply by using the Panorama mode in the built-in iOS camera app. The results will not be as high-quality as when taking 360-degree photos on a special 360-degree camera, but they're still good enough to offer a more immersive experience than standard photos.
On the downside, viewers will only be able to look right or left on your 360-photos, as vertical panning is not supported. At the same time, the functionality is available only for photos, so you can't create 360-degree videos with the iOS camera app.
Nevertheless, taking a 360-degree photo on your iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus, or any other iPhone or iPad for that matter, is as easy as capturing a panoramic photo, provided that you take one tip into account.
Facebook recognizes iPhone panoramic shots as 360-degree photos only if they're a certain width. It's tough to determine the exact width of the panorama while actually capturing it, but one trick is to keep capturing the scene until it automatically finishes. This should create a full-length panoramic shot that's wide enough to pass Facebook's standards for 360-degree photos.
Sharing 360-Degree Photos On Facebook
Once you've captured your panoramic photo, just open the Facebook app, tap to post a photo, browse your photo library and select your panorama. Panoramic photos that can turn into 360-degree photos on Facebook will have a spherical icon in the bottom left corner of the thumbnail.
From there on, just select the panorama, follow the on-screen instructions and check out the preview of your 360-degreee Facebook photo, then add a caption and publish it for everyone to see. If you're having trouble getting Facebook to recognize your panoramic shot as a 360-degree photo although it has the sphere icon on the thumbnail, discarding the draft post and trying again usually does the trick.
