1
\$\begingroup\$

I'm working on a Sphere Image/Video Project, the problem is I do not have the money to pay for a 360° Camera and the Spheres generated on my phone with Google Street App usually have considerable defects.

Hence the need for an open source resource for Sphere photos.

Are there any websites that provide this photos with an open source license?

\$\endgroup\$
5
  • \$\begingroup\$ Can you provide an example of expected result ? What would be your workflow ? \$\endgroup\$
    – Olivier
    Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 17:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ Sure @Olivier I'm looking for Spherical Open Source photos like the one in this example photo-sphere-viewer.js.org , the objective is to take the image and create spherical info graphics in a Virtual Reality environment which will then scale to video. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 18:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ How are you creating the image ? Are you asking for a software to render online an already computed 360 image ? Do you want to assemble a 360 image and then display it ? You wrote Are there any websites that provide this photos with an open source license : this isn't clear. What is this photos ? \$\endgroup\$
    – Olivier
    Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 18:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm looking for a resource where I can find 360/Spherical photos that are licensed according to the MIT, Apache, Common Creatives or other open source standards that permit the user to modify and redistribute the photos taken by another person attributing the person who took the photo. The software and editing is taken care of I just need the photos. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 18:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ Your question isn't about photography then, it is about finding a 360 stock photos website. This is probably off-topic on Photo.SE. \$\endgroup\$
    – Olivier
    Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 19:05

1 Answer 1

1
\$\begingroup\$

Frankly, freeloading off other folks' work makes it seem like you're just being cheap and lazy. You can take 360ºx180º panoramas with a smartphone and fisheye attachment if you know what you're doing, and using a plumbline to keep yourself at least close to rotating around a no-parallax point isn't that expensive. The defects aren't from your hardware/software combination, it's from your shooting technique and/or choice of scene (smaller spaces are tougher to shoot than larger ones). Not to mention that Hugin is open source.

That said, Flickr allows folks to attach rights, including Creative Commons, to each photo they upload. These rights can be anything from public domain to fully copyrighted. The nice part about Flickr, is that you can then limit a search by these rights. I would, however, recommend being VERY careful if you choose to use Creative Commons as your search, as the CC licensing scheme has several options that do NOT allow for derivative works, and many require proper attribution and non-commercial use. I'd recommend sticking to public domain images as much as possible.

Once you've limited your search to the appropriate licensing, you can then search on the equirectangular tag. Nearly all 360ºx180º images on Flickr use that tag, because that's one of the ways to cue the interactive viewer on Flickr.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for this response. Regarding the cheap and lazy part, when you have no money and an idea for a project, the best way to go is open source I am no photographer, I am a programmer working on a prototype with 360 stills and virtual reality, I have no time to take photos or money to buy them. Anyway this has really been useful and solved my question, thank you very much. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 30, 2016 at 17:14

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.