What are your rotating pictures called? Are they a video?
How are virtual tour images made?
What can a virtual tour display that a series of still photos can’t?
Are there any limitations to virtual tour photography?
I’d like to put a couple of 360º images of our business on our website. What’s involved?
What sort of virtual tours do you have?
Why do you claim your virtual tours are more effective than the rest?
What’s an Interactive Floor Plan? How does it work?
Why is image-specific text of added value?
What do the virtual tours cost? How can I get a Quotation or a Price List?
How long does it take to take the photography for a virtual tour?
What preparations should I make? Do I need to be there?
How long does it take to build the virtual tour and put it on the Internet?
How do people find my virtual tour?
How long will my virtual tour be on display?
Are there extra charges involved?
Primary Service Areas for Photographer on-site visits
What are your rotating pictures called? Are they a video?
The moving images are known as "360° panoramic images", "immersive imaging", "virtual tours" and “look-arounds”. They allow a website visitor to look around an environment as if they were actually standing on location. The term "virtual tour" can also be used to describe a series of panoramic and/or still images that combine to show an extended view of an environment.
Virtual tours are not videos. Videos have large file sizes and take too long to download. With videos, you are restricted to viewing what the video director has chosen. Our virtual tours allow you to go forward and back, and to pause and zoom in and out wherever you chose. Unlike some other systems, Internet Pictures' virtual tours allow vertical movement so you have a wider range of view than normal.
How are virtual tour images made?Special photographic lens and a compatible digital camera are used to capture a 360° view of an internal or external view in a single shot, or two separate images that are joined together in post-production to create a complete 360° view. The process requires trained photographers and the use of special software to de-warp and enhance digital images. Out technicians then build the completed images into informative, involving virtual tours.
What can a virtual tour display that a series of still photos can’t?Still photographs are excellent at showing subjects and general views. 360° images on the other hand show a website visitor the full setting in one go – they do not have to look for points of continuity from one image to the next. virtual tours replicate what you would see if you were to stand in the position of the camera – the full view.
Virtual tour images are invaluable at conveying ‘feeling’ or, if they are images of a property, its ‘ambience’.
Are there any limitations to virtual tour photography?Virtual tour panoramic images are captured by advanced digital cameras using special lens. The photographic process results in a limited depth of field. This means that more distant objects look further away than would be the case with a normal photograph. If you are photographing a long narrow room for example, and want see the whole room, it might be better to take two panoramic images each covering a separate half of the room.
Often, we can locate the camera where it can capture two rooms in the one shot. Where this is possible, the image will only count as one panoramic image. Please remember the above limitations and do not expect to get great detail in more distant walls and objects.
The photographic technique cannot use supplemental lighting so it relies on existing natural and artificial lighting. The camera often has to be located in positions to minimize excess light intrusion into the image or to meet technical requirements dictated by the lens system. It is not always possible to take a panoramic image from the centre of a room, which may be the logical position. Our photographers are trained to find identify the optimal location that meets your presentation needs and the technical requirements of the photographic process.
I’d like to put a couple of 360° panoramic images of our business on our website. What’s involved?We have a number of different solutions available if you wish to place some panoramic images on your own website. Please contact us to discuss your needs and request a Quotation.
You can reach us on 1300 555 963 or click here to send an email message to us.
What sort of virtual tours do you have?
We have different virtual tours for different markets. Apart from four panoramic images in a basic viewer, we offer other attractive layouts – still images with or without panoramic images PLUS an Interactive Floor Plan or a Property Overview and image-specific text or, the Lot.
Different product names and features may apply in different markets. For example, in some markets, the clients’ pay extra to choose the shots they wish to present and for web pages with greater functionality. Each product range has pricing steps to cater for different budget and communication needs.
Why do you claim your virtual tours are more effective than the rest?There are established principles in the multimedia industry that have been developed from extensive clinical and real-life research. Two key principles are that greatest learning and information retention occurs where images accompany text, and the text and images appear next to one another.
Unlike other service providers that require the website visitor to flick back and forth between the images and the property description, Internet Pictures puts it all together in our top product range – it becomes a complete mini-website with all information in the one location and the capacity to action from the mini-website. Most of our products include the Clients’ logotype, contact details and email links for further action.
What’s an Interactive Floor Plan? How does it work?Your floor plan can be scanned and saved into a JPEG (or image) file or an outline floor plan can be prepared for you. It is often better to use an outline plan as the home plans you have are often too detailed.
Different photographic images are taken around the property and are built into a mini website like all our virtual tours. We attach an overlay over the floor plan that allows us to locate an icon at very specific points. An image is then linked to each icon. With an interactive floor plan, you can click on an icon and the applicable image immediately loads into the viewing window. All Internet Pictures products display thumbnail images that allow you to activate images by clicking on a thumbnail.
The beauty of an interactive floor plan is that it puts all the images into context - how the room or spaces fit together.
Why is image-specific text of added value?Property descriptions or Overviews are always a compromise between providing essential information and explaining the various features. Internet Pictures has two ways of adding to the content available to a website visitor. First, the property overview can be different to the content presented in the search results. Second, our webpage presentations allow text to be presented under the main viewing window that is specific to the image being displayed. This means, for example, if an entry has an Italian tile flooring, when that image is displayed, the bullet points highlight relevant features. While this feature should not be over-used, it rewards website visitors when they drill down into the various images on display.
What do the virtual tours cost? How can I get a Quotation?Virtual tours are not expensive.
Contact us to discuss your needs and request a Quotation. You can call us on 1300 555 963 or click here to send an email message to us.
How long does it take to take the photography for a virtual tour?Our photographers know what they have to do and how to meet your presentation needs working within the constraints of the photography systems we use. Typically, a photo-shoot session can take from 20 minutes to about a little over an hour, depending on the size of the tour you have ordered, additional photography requested at the same time, and the difficulty of shoot conditions. It is important that all photo shoots commence punctually at the appointed time and that you have given prior thought to what you want the photography to capture.
What preparations should I make? Do I need to be there?You are about to show your property or a destination a huge potential audience. You need to present it at its best. Prepare the rooms as you would for a physical inspection. Remove clutter and walk through the spaces you intend to photograph looking at what you see in a critical, unemotional way. Look at the property as you would look at another property you see for the first time. Work out what needs to be temporarily removed. What needs to be freshened up with, for example, a floral display. Have an eye for detail. Our photographers will photograph your premises as they are presented when they arrive for their appointment. They will optimise lighting but will not rearrange any setting. Please ensure you are ready for the photographic shoot as a certain will be allowed to take the photography you have requested. Extended shoots and shoots outside business hours will attract extra charges.
It is highly recommended that the owner or Agent commissioning the virtual tour be present on location when the photo shoot is being held. Our pricing does not permit re-shooting of images so we need to have you approval to the composition of the images as they are being taken.
How long does it take to build the virtual tour and put it on the Internet?Some markets (like residential real estate), require an ultra-fast turnaround time. We therefore have designed our systems to offer 48-hour turnaround from completion of photography to completion and connection of your virtual tour to the Internet, where this is required. Our policy however, is to complete all tours within three business days of photography – subject to your supply of all textual and image content (like a clear floor plan in JPEG format) no later than 24 hours prior to the delivery deadline.
How do people find my virtual tour?Your virtual tour appears in an attractive web page presentation that is hosted on a secure server. The web pages are linked to your corporate website or the real estate industry search engines nominated by you. When a person finds your property listing whether through their search terms or direct access, they can click on a button to see the virtual tour. This takes them transparently to our website where the virtual tour is hosted. When they wish to exit the virtual tour, they are automatically returned to the original website listing. You can also email them a link to your property listing or to your website.
How long will my virtual tour be on display?Our IPIX virtual tours stay on your own website 24/7 until you wish to update them. There are no more costs. No hosting fees. Nothing!
We also produce hosted virtual tours for commercial and residential properties. These presentations are normally hosted for six
to 12 months or until the property listing on the real estate portal
or client website is removed – whichever comes first. The
virtual tour presentation is then archived. The price of a virtual tour presentation includes hosting for the original term - extensions are available. An archived virtual tour
presentation can be reactivated and its content refreshed. Contact Internet Pictures
for further details.
There may be extra charges where a photo-shoot a photo-shoot is cancelled or deferred with less than 24 hours notice, there is a delay in the commencement of the photo-shoot for any reason, the shoot exceeds the allowed time (which is usually more than adequate for the work that has to be done), for travel outside the metropolitan area and for shoots outside normal business days and hours and for additional images. You will be advised of these charges, if they apply at all, when you place your order.
Primary Service Areas for Photographer on-site visitsStandard fees apply where a Photographer attends a property or venue to take still or panoramic images. The primary service area is defined by a 30KM radius from the Central Business Districts of Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
Internet Pictures offers extended photographer coverage beyond 30KM in selected areas of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane (into Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast).
For areas photography beyond the defined service areas, please contact Internet Pictures for a Quotation.
For more distant locations, Internet Pictures offers a number of solutions that use you own digital photography and an online image upload service.
Call Internet Pictures on 1300 555 963 for further information on Primary Service Areas, extended service coverage, quotations and D-I-Y photography solutions.
