Best Practices for Quality 360° Images and Accurate Sketches

Tripod Placement

Set the tripod in the middle of the room. If necessary, clear a spot for it so the tripod rests on the floor. This ensures the camera height is correct and the camera is level. This is the only acceptable shooting method to ensure accurate measurements, sketches and estimates:

Corner Visibility

Make sure that all corners of the room can be seen. Floor and ceiling corners work equally well.

1. Floor Corners:

Below you can find an example of a cluttered room. Notice that we cannot see room corners here. This makes it impossible for our system to generate the correct measurements:

2. Wall Corners:

If there is furniture in the way, please make sure that we can see at least two sides of a corner, as illustrated below:

Openings

Make sure that windows and doors of the room can be seen. This ensures we can accurately sketch doors and windows. If curtains are hiding the opening, it will impair our ability to sketch the opening accurately:

Hallways and Offsets

Please take 360° images of the hallways. Ensure that the doors to all rooms are open as this practice allows us to connect the rooms accurately in the sketch. Open doors in 360° images also allow us to clearly determine door type and opening direction:

Below is an example of a sketch that does not include 360° images of hallways. Note the voids in the sketch:

We also encourage using the “Add 360° image” feature to take multiple 360° images of the hallway. Add a 360° image for about every 10 lineal feet of hallway or in front of each open doorway in the hallway:

Use the “Add 360° image” feature in the app to take additonal 360° images around small hallways, offsets or blind corners. Our system may not be able to identify an object (window, door, stairs) in spaces such as these and this could result in an inaccurate sketch:

Note: Remember, we can’t sketch what we can’t see.

Lighting

Use the LED in your kit to light up dark rooms. Proper lighting is integral for any kind of photography, including 360 imagery. Please also be cautions about overexposing your 360° images around very bright light sources or sun shining through openings. Below is an example of how dark rooms appear when uploaded. Unfortunately we can’t sketch what we can’t see:

People in 360° Images

Please try to avoid including people in your 360° images, especially if they are blocking the corners:

Room names

Please spell room names as you'd like for them to appear on your sketch. Also, please avoid using numbers in your room names:

Property address

Please include the actual address of the property you are shooting as it is sometimes necessary to verify the footprint of the structure.

Exterior 360° Images

Exterior 360° images are very helpful for completing an accurate sketch of the property: