Its always fun to take 360 Photos and if you interested in getting a high quality 360 Photos, having the ability to take photos with manual mode to get high quality results and if you already have a DSLR, and on getting few other tools, you can take great quality 360 Photos but note that taking 360 Photos using DSLR Camera requires a good amount of effort too compared to taking 360 Photos from a 360 Camera.
360 Camera will take 360 Photos in a single shot and will auto stitch the photo for you but in case of low light areas, the 360 photos taken in a 360 Camera may not be having a great results. To get great results, you may need to have a high end 360 Camera.
For this reason, going with taking 360 photos using DSLR will give you an amazing high quality 360 Photos but please note that you need additional tools mentioned below for taking 360 Photos using DSLR.
- Monopod (Unistand)/ Tripod
- Panoramic Head
- Fish Eye Lens
- Shutter button(Optional but recommended)
- Ball Head(Optional but recommended)
- Let us see one by one why these tools are required.
- Monopod (Unistand)/ Tripod
We need a good quality Monopod(Uni stand)/ Tripod on which we will place Panoramic Head holding the DSLR Camera. I would suggest to go with a very good quality Monopod instead of a Tripod since hiding the nadir(base area) in the Monopod will be easy in the post processing work with the 360 Photos.
Panoramic Head
Panaromic Head is required to hold the DSLR in such a way where it will have NO PARALLAX POINT. While taking 360 Photos using DSLR, you need to keep in mind that you have to first find the Parallax point. If we simply take photos and try to stitch it using any software it will not work as it will have many stitching errors.
To avoid the stitching errors, we need to first find the Parallax point. To find parallax point, you need one vertical object(such as Light Stand) with you.
Now once you place your DSLR vertically in the Panoramic Head which is on the Monopod, you need to locate a vertical object in a farther distance which can be a pillar, straight vertical marking, etc and rotate the camera in such a way that the farther vertical object is in the left side and keep the light stand in between the farther object and your camera.
Align it in a way the light stand is covering the farther object right its back in your camera and now you need to rotate the camera the left side so that the light stand covering the farther object has to be on the right side end.
If you notice now, the farther object will not be exactly on the back of the Light stand and its called the Parallax Error. You can try this by closing one eye and pointing forefingers top and placing it one back to the other and when you rotate you head, you may see both fingers will not be in an exact line.
To fix the parallax error in DSLR, you need to change the position of the DSLR in the Panoramic Head in such a way that the Lens is at the exact top to the Monopod direction.
Once you get the position you can tighten the Panoramic Head and now when you rotate the DSLR Camera, both the vertical objects will be exactly to one behind the other. It means you have found the Parallax Point. Now you can rotate the DSLR in the vertical and horizontal direction which will not affect the Parallax Point.
Fish Eye Lens
Fish Eye Lens are the must for taking 360 Photos using DSLR. Let me tell you why. If you take 360 Photos with normal lens, you will have to take so many number of photos in different horizontal and vertical angle. When stitching the photos, it will create stitching issues due to number of photos at different angles are more and the end result may not be good.
Fish Eye Lens will make it easy for you to take 360 Photos in DSLR. Using Fish Eye Lens, you may usually need to take just four photos in horizontal direction at four stops 90 degree, 180 degree, 270 degree and 360 degree. You have to take one top facing photo(zenith) and if you want, you take one bottom facing photo too(nadir).
It means you just need roughly six photos of one place for creating one high quality 360 Photo using DSLR. After taking 360 Photos, you can use software such as PTGui in which you have to import the shots and it will stitch the photos for you and give you the high quality 360 Photo.
Above mentioned tools are the necessary ones which will help you in taking 360 Photos using DSLR. I would suggest you to have additional tools such as Shutter Button to avoid shakes while taking 360 Photos and Ball Head to avoid issues in rotation, etc.
That’s it and you will have a great quality 360 Photos using DSLR. I hope this post is informative. Do share your thoughts in the comments.