Virtual Tour - step by step

Assuming your have added or claimed your business on Google, and it has been Verified, creating a virtual tour includes the following steps:

1. Walk-through

We visit your place of business to scope a variety of details that are important to know before we come back to shoot the tour. Based on the collected information, we will be able to determine the total cost and to schedule to appropriate time to do the photography.

2. Commitment

We require your acceptance of the terms of services and your permission to photograph the establishment before we can proceed. We ask you to read the contract, fill out the required information and give us the signed document prior to the shoot.

3. Preparation

We like to see your place of business in the best shape possible before taking pictures. We advise you to make a few adjustments for achieving the best impression. Learn how!

4. Photography

When shooting panoramas, we use a technique that allows us to obtain a 360 view around the camera in both horizontal and vertical direction, which gives us a photo sphere. This requires us to shoot from each locating in 4 directions and later "stitch" the images together. We shoot 3 pictures in each direction, each with different exposure, and merge them together to achieve the best exposure. It may take a few minutes for each shot. Once the shoot starts, and the place is empty, we estimate to complete 30 panoramas within one hour.

5. Postproduction

The postproduction involves reviewing all the photos, identifying the ones to be used in the tour and organizing them in a proper sequence.  Both sets of photographs are than uploaded to the server in order to be ingested into the Google moderating engine. The panoramas are positioned on the map, organized into a "constellation", linked together where appropriate, and oriented properly so the chevrons point into the right direction. Each panorama is checked for privacy and any faces and license plates are blurred. The initial tour views are set for both inside and outside view. All elements are double checked before the virtual tour is submitted to be publishing.

6. Publishing

Once the work is done, we submit the tour to be published. Typically, the tour is published within 15 minutes; however, it may take up to 72 hours to properly show up in all places. We send you a notification as soon as the tour is visible to us.

7 Follow up

Once published, we reach out to you and provide you with the information and tutorials on how to best use the tour.