The very reason why most panoramic pictures are losing its stand these days is that it lies as a stretched strip of paper when uploaded on your Facebook wall. Instagram too chops down the image into squares, removing the purpose of panoramas. Facebook’s upcoming ‘360 Photo’ plans to convert the usual panorama photos taken using the help of your phone’s camera feature, into a 360 picture that can be viewed on your Facebook newsfeed as well as virtual reality headsets such as the Samsung Gear VR, to be precise. Facebook users will now be able to simply hold and drag the picture around to view the entire panorama. When you’re using your phone to see the photo all, you will need to tilt the phone, and the picture moves towards that direction. The alternative way of leveraging this feature is to wear VR headsets such as the Google Cardboard and enjoy the immersive experience gifted by this 360 photo.

How does the transformation of panoramas help the event industry?

• Using the same panorama feature on your phone, you could capture a picture of your well-decorated event venue, and with the support of Facebook’s 36° photo feature, you can easily entice your attendees who are following your Facebook Page. The 360 image that you uploaded on Facebook will now fetch you more attendees or Facebook followers and promote engagement on the social media platform.
• Capture the street leading to your venue and convert to 360° photos and use it to Google street view so that attendees can reach your event venue with more enthusiasm.

A good 360 picture is usually difficult to shoot and demands commendable hardware functionalities. Facebook began supporting the 360 video on its website as well as apps during the month of September last year but it hasn’t received the expected raving response, and the number of such uploads is comparatively less because the 360 video is hard to capture and edit. Now that Facebook promises the 360 photo by digitally stitching the images into a sphere that is viewable in 360 it is set to bring about quite a change in the Virtual Reality era.