Dedicated Real Estate Photo Portal Now Online

A lot of our work has been done with real estate companies, where our high-end 360° panoramas have a strong impact on marketing a property.  Therefore, we have decided to launch a special web site to present our work in this sector.  immo-foto.eu showcases our conventional real estate photography as well as 360° panoramas, including our IDR technology.

As TSI is based in the Munich area, most of our real estate work has been in the German speaking world.  Thus, immo-foto.eu is only available auf Deutsch for the present.  But there is plenty to see even if you do not speak German - there are eight galleries to peruse.  And since hotels can be technically seen as very short term rental properties, we have taken the liberty of including some of our best work in the hospitality sector also.

We try to keep as much unique content on each site as possible, but some duplication is unavoidable.

All the panoramas both here and at immo-foto.eu are presented in Flash format for one reason: almost everybody has a Flash viewer on their computer.  There are several other formats which offer superior quality but they require plugins.  (Our favorite is the Spi-V viewer, which is based on Shockwave, a sibling of Flash.)  Many people are simply averse to installing software that they will barely use.  Almost every single panorama generator and virtual tour creation software now publishes to Flash – and many of them do not even offer an alternative format.

So while it looks like Flash is indeed the format of choice for 360° panorama projection, the rise in use of mobile devices presents a major problem: Flash will not work on iPhones (or iPads).  Is it not a bit skewed that Apple refuses to support Flash on these devices at the same time that they are backing away from QuickTimeVR, their own proprietary 3D rendering engine that was also one of the very first formats for presenting 360° panoramas?

Time will tell how all this eventually plays out, but because of Apple’s politics, panorama photographers have to publish each panorama or virtual tour twice.

There are lots of neat things one can do with 3D projection of 360° panoramas, but the three most common –and practical – projection formats are cylindrical, where the viewer can move through the image only to the left and to the right, spherical and cubical.  In both the latter formats the projection result is the same, allowing the viewer to be able to look up and down as well as left and right and thus see 360°x180°.  There are important differences between spherical and cubical for the photographer; a great explanation of the formats can be seen here.

Cylindrical panorama with a narrow vertical field of view.

Equirectangular image used for spherical panoramas.

Yet spherical panoramas seem more immersive and can be more interesting for the viewer, so we try to make a 360°x180° panorama whenever possible.  We also print panoramas from time to time.  The curvatures found in the flat images and especially the warped effects of the equirectangular images used to create spherical panoramas are often quite interesting.

This panorama can be seen in the Tourism Gallery, or you can see the full screen version by clicking on the image.

Imagine you are a real estate agent away from the office and a potential client calls you on your cell phone about a property.  You’ll want to get this hot prospect information on the object as soon as possible.  What a better way to make a first impression than to immediately send over a 360° panorama to their mobile device?

The newest trend in 360° panoramas is viewing them on mobile devices.  It is quick, simple, fun and can be a very effective sales tool – a great instant way to follow up on inquiries.  The only (slight) caveat: you have to ask the receiver if they have Windows Mobile or an iPhone, because the formats are different.

Yes, there are now apps to make your own 360°s from your iPhone or Android.  These are neat and fun to play around with, though somewhat rough around the edges.  They are not tools for creating professional panoramas, of course.  But we are fans of anything that helps promote the use and acceptance of 360° panoramas.

For more information please drop us a line.

If you are involved in marketing anything that has a sense of space or place, 360° panoramic photography can likely help boost your efforts.  Panoramas are mainly used these days to promote locations, events, and enhance a company’s image.  But they are also used for many other purposes, from off-site building planning to showing off car interiors to simply being an art form of its own.

Like any quality photography, our high-end 360°s really help you make a good first impression, attract interest in your property or event, and keep users on your web site for longer periods.  360°s are both intuitive and interactive, and people love anything that they can play around with.  In short, our 360° panoramas are a simple, fun and very effective way to add a dynamic element to your marketing efforts.

TSI is committed to producing rich and engaging imagery for our customers.  We have been producing hi-end photographs and 360° images since 2003.  Our professional panoramas will make a stronger visual impact to help you and your web site stand out from the crowd.  They will also convey your professionalism and commitment to excellence.

For more information please don’t hesitate to contact us!

IDR, which stands for Integrated Dynamic Range, is our term for the technique we use to create realistic and fully exposed 360° panoramas.  It differs from HDR in that with IDR, we create life-like exposure balance, whereas HDR is most often used with artistic license.  Our goal is to represent what the human eye actually sees, so that the image the viewer sees on the computer monitor or in print looks as realistic as possible.

The IDR technique involves, like HDR, blending exposures, but we take the extra time to mask in correctly exposed window scenes and shadow areas.  The graphic below depicts how we mesh correctly exposed views through the windows with a properly exposed interior.

For more information please feel free to contact us.

IDR = Integrated Dynamic Range