This article was published on May 13, 2014

Google+ Auto-Awesome will now convert your DSLR panoramas into immersive Photo Spheres


Google+ Auto-Awesome will now convert your DSLR panoramas into immersive Photo Spheres

Google introduced Photo Spheres with Android 4.2, but the 360-degree image format is yet to hit the mainstream. In an effort to make Photo Spheres more commonplace, the company has enabled a new Google+ feature that converts shots taken on a traditional DSLR.

On Google’s social platform, you can now create an interactive Photo Sphere by uploading any 360-degree (horizontal) by 180-degree (vertical) equirectangular panorama. If you have Auto-Awesome enabled on your account, you’ll see a new Google+ notification for a Photo Sphere that can be viewed privately and shared on Google Maps and Views.

“This should make your workflow much easier,” Evan Rapoport, a product manager at Google for Photo Spheres, Street View and Panoramio said.

Before, photographers needed to manually add a special piece of XMP metadata to ensure their DSLR photos were shown as a Photo Sphere. The feature joins the new Camera app that Google produced for Android devices running version 4.4 (KitKat) and higher. Given that Photo Spheres used to be locked to the Nexus and Google Play Edition devices, both of these measures could nurture a higher volume of panoramic images moving forward.

Read Next: An in-depth guide to Google+ for photographers: Storage, editing, sharing and more

Photo Sphere [via Google+]

Image Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

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