Capture FAQ | Notion

Get the answers you need to some of the most common questions.

How do you decide which capture path to take?

There are a few ways to approach this. Asking the POC if there are any specific areas that they would like to highlight or avoid is a good starting point (they may have shared this in the shot list that was provided). Another method is to choose the position of your final photo for that tour. This should be a strike point - that key visual that gives the user an interesting view (go to #5 on the Principles of Capture a Quality Location pdf). From there, you can map out your capture path backward ensuring that you’re following a linear path (clear line of sight) and including the key areas in between the final photo and the starting point. Also, be sure to consider what the most natural flow of traffic is within the space. For hotels, retail, restaurants, and many other guest/consumer-driven spaces, they are naturally laid out to facilitate this flow. We want to deliver a natural walking experience.

The simple answer is no, every corner/area of a space does not need to be captured. In general, our rule is that less is more - but we always want to capture enough. This is a hard balance to strike. We want to show all of the key areas and aspects of a location while cutting out all of the fat, so to speak. The question to ask yourself when capturing is “does this area introduce new information to me?”. Hallways don’t typically introduce new info, which is why we split up separate rooms as separate virtual tours. Keep in mind that any virtual tour over 10 panos can be quite long and it’s unlikely that a user will click through to see whatever it is you're capturing in pano number 11, and so on.

Oftentimes, your POC will be willing to move something small in order to accommodate the shot. You can always ask for it to be temporarily moved. If it is larger or hard to move, the shot should still be centered in between the object and the door.

Whichever doorway is used by the public or most used is the best option. If there are multiple doorways in a given area (connected) the middle one is best because it gives a symmetrical experience.

No! Oftentimes great Grandview experiences start at an angle (e.g. approaching a location's entrance from 45°). This is really up to you. Consider the locations signage and what would create the best experience leading up the doorway. Much of the time a head on, centered approach is great but we often see vertical signage that is best viewed at an angle (think of an old school movie theatre style of sign).

Let the location POC know that they can follow you along for the capture but they’ll have to hide with you as you go. “If you can see the camera, the camera can see you” is a great line for communicating that these cameras can see all the way around them. For other patrons, it’s best to wait for them to pass if possible. If you can’t do that, we don’t typically proactively let these people know that we’re capturing the space (our privacy software will automatically blur their face) but if they ask, we would say something like “we’re capturing a virtual tour of this space. The camera is taking 360° photos so if you can see it, it can see you. If you’d like to not be in the shots, feel free to step away. I’ll just be 1 minute.” Often times the POC of the location will assist with this process.

There are 4 key partner benefits that a location receives which you can read about here including the following: the virtual tour will go on the DMO’s website, the DMO will use it in group and convention sales campaigns, it’s automatically uploaded to the location’s Google My Business Profile (AKA, Google Listing Page), and the location can get access to a shareable link. If a location wants to embed the virtual tour natively onto their website, they’ll need paid access. These plans start at $89/month. They can go to threshold360.com to search for info on their industry application.