
- #GOOGLE EARTH VR PHOTO SPHERES HOW TO#
- #GOOGLE EARTH VR PHOTO SPHERES MANUAL#
- #GOOGLE EARTH VR PHOTO SPHERES FULL#
Grab your camera and head to the location you wish to shoot. Lastly, shooting in portrait orientation helps to make sure you don’t cut off a tall object. It’s important to note that whichever method you use, you’ll need a Google+ account to add your images.
#GOOGLE EARTH VR PHOTO SPHERES MANUAL#
When using a DSLR to shoot a panorama, it’s helpful to use a small aperture, manual focus, and a tripod for keeping your shots level. Plus, there’s the added bonus of greater control over the images you take, such as shutter speed, aperture, and focal length.

DSLR users are also able to take spheres or panoramas and add them to Views. As you might expect, there are a few more steps involved than there is with your phone, but it’s nothing too crazy. Thankfully, if you’re not on the current version of Android or you’re (gasp!) not using an Android phone, there is another way. Using a DSLRĪccording to Google’s Android developer site, only 5.6 percent of Android users are currently running Android 4.2, the only version that currently includes photo spheres. If you’re comfortable sharing, press “Publish.” A message will pop up telling you that your Photo Sphere will be public on Google Maps as soon as it’s been reviewed. The location and date of the photo sphere will be displayed publicly. You’ll see a warning that you will be sharing publicly on the Web. To share your photo sphere, simply press the Share icon and select Google Maps. Once you’re done capturing, just press the stop button at the bottom of the screen.
#GOOGLE EARTH VR PHOTO SPHERES FULL#
Google says you need to complete at least five rotations, tilting your camera up or down, to create a full photo sphere. You don’t have to hit all the dots, but the more you do, the more accurate the photo sphere will be. Stand in the same spot as you rotate and continue matching up the blue dot to the center of the doughnut. Holding your device vertically and close to your face level, capture the scene by positioning your camera so that the blue dot lines up with the center of the doughnut. Tap the latter one that’s the photo sphere button. Touch this, and it’ll open a menu for video, panorama, or what looks like an inverted panorama symbol on a globe. In your device’s Camera app, look for the little camera icon in the bottom left-hand corner.


Shooting a photo sphere in your Android 4.2 phone or tablet is simple.
#GOOGLE EARTH VR PHOTO SPHERES HOW TO#
Below, we’ll walk you through how to take and upload a photo sphere using either your Android 4.2 device or your DSLR. Google wants anyone to be able to contribute photo spheres, even if they don’t have a device running Android 4.2. Of course, the catch is that user-added photo spheres make Google’s product better, but the company doesn’t compensate anyone who adds a photo sphere to a location. We recently covered how Google Maps depends on the kindness of strangers to make edits and additions via Map Maker, but the new, plainly-named Views allows users to upload 360-degree panorama shots of various locations to add to Google’s new Maps. Lucky owners of devices running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean are now able to use the nifty photo sphere capability of their camera app to add images to Google Maps with Views, a new photo-sharing hub for sharing the 360-degree panoramas. The 360-degree panoramas on Google Maps are definitely fun to explore, but they’ve been mostly created by Google up until now.
