If you are familiar with 360 photography, you will know that one of the mandatory editions is to remove the tripod in the 360 image. In this post, we explain how to remove the tripod, or if you prefer, how to cover it with an image or your Logo.
For any user of photography or 360 imaging, it is not pleasant to come across the tripod and its shadow when looking down. The floor, like the rest of the views, it is important that it looks clean and clear. In fact, the grace of the 360 is to be able to look anywhere, so not obliterating the tripod only includes an obstacle to the vision of a part of the 360 photo. If we want to offer a real 360-degree experience, the photo has to be seen complete, without added objects foreign to the place portrayed.
Nowadays, a company or photographer that presents their 360 works with the tripod without erasing, transmits a doubtful image of the quality that it can offer us. We may not be so professional with color correction, or we may not have enough budget to buy a great 360 camera. This does not mean that you can offer your 360 photographs with a real 360º vision, without a tripod, and therefore, without obstacles. .
The option of covering the tripod with an image or logo is a widely used resource that can even be attractive. Placing a circle with your logo and contact information in the nadir (Nadir: bottom of a 360 photo) is a great idea to communicate to the user who you are, who has taken that photo, and even offer your services as a 360 photographer. .
No one is born learned, and that is why we provide you with a complete step-by-step tutorial for all audiences, to remove and cover the tripod from your 360 photos. You do not need to be an expert. Go for it!
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If you have been searching the internet for a while, you will have seen that there are quite a few methods to perform the action of removing the tripod from a 360 photo. In our step-by-step tutorial, we are going to explain the way that we consider the easiest, so that if you are not an expert , you can solve it without problems. If you are a 360 professional, you may not know this way of removing the tripod from your photos, and that’s what you get!
To carry out the pertinent actions with which we will eliminate the 360 tripod in this tutorial, we will need to have the Adobe Photoshop program installed, and have some basic knowledge of the tool. If you do not have the program, or you have no idea how it works, it is recommended that you jump to the option “Cover the tripod of a 360 photo“. Covering the tripod is easier than removing it, so we recommend it if you do not have minimal knowledge of Photoshop.
In Photoshop, on File menu, click on the “Open…” option. We look for our 360 photo on the computer, select it, and click on the Open button.
When you open the 360 photo in Photoshop, Photoshop protects it from being accidentally edited. Protection is shown on the cape with a padlock on its far right. To remove it, and be able to start editing the photo, simply double-click on the layer name (usually it will be called Background), and in the message that appears, simply click OK. You will see that the padlock has disappeared; Now we can edit.
The 360 photo editing block is not a bad idea, so as not to lose the original photo. Therefore, once you have removed the lock, save the photo with another name so as not to overwrite the original. If we make a mistake at any step, or we don’t like the result and want to start over, we will always have the original photo intact for that.
Maybe in your Photoshop you don’t see the layers. To show them click on the Window menu, and select the Layers option.
As you will see, the 360 photograph is deformed, especially in the tripod area, which will coincide with the lower part of your image. To comfortably edit the tripod, and to be able to remove it easily, the first thing we need is to see it without deformation. To do this, we will follow these simple steps:
Rotate the image 180 degrees, until it is upside down. You can do this quickly through the Image menu, clicking on Image Rotation, and clicking on the 180º option. Now we have the ceiling on the floor, and the floor on the ceiling. Good job!
To eliminate the distortion of the 360 photo, and to be able to see it in a more comfortable way to work with the tripod, we will click on the Filter menu, we will click on Distort, and finally we will click on Polar coordinates. In the window that will appear, we must make sure that the Rectangular to polar option is selected. Finally we will press Ok to apply the filter, and that’s it!
When you’re done editing the 360 photo, you’ll need to follow the steps in reverse: First, apply the “Polar Coordinates” distortion filter, this time choosing the “Polar to Rectangular” option. Finally, you will have to rotate the image 180 degrees again, to turn it right side up again.
Now we see the tripod without deformation, and we can edit it more easily. If we enlarge the image towards the tripod, we will work more comfortably.
At this point, the elimination or deletion of the tripod goes a bit hand in hand with each one, since each type of floor will require one technique or another to obtain the best results. However, for beginners in Photoshop, we recommend the use of the Punctual Healing Brush tool, which you can select in the side toolbar on the left, by clicking on the icon that looks like a band-aid. You can also make use of this tool, simply by pressing the J key.
Before you start painting, you should know a little more about this tool. The occasional healing brush replaces the user-painted area with surrounding color and texture information. It does not usually work very well with patterned or patterned floors, but on sands and even floors, it works great.
We recommend that before painting, you left click with the mouse on the image, and adjust the size of the brush to a thickness similar to that of the tripod. As for the hardness parameter, lower it to about 70% to get smooth results on the edges. The other settings, for the moment do not touch them, unless when you try you are not convinced by the results.
Now you can paint. A tip: Try to paint everything at once. Don’t release the mouse button until you’ve painted the entire tripod, and you’ll get better results. If when you release the mouse button, you see that there is some imperfection in the photo, or some remains of the tripod, give it another pass to try to correct it.
Finally, if you want a cleaner result, you can finish correcting your image with the Clone Stamp, a tool symbolized by a Stamp on the left toolbar. First, with the ALT key pressed, click on the area you want to copy. Next, position the mouse over the area you want to overwrite, and start painting. What is happening is that the initially copied area is being painted over the area you want to overwrite. Magic!
Instead of removing the tripod from a 360 photo, you can place a circular image on top of it to cover it up. This image will completely obscure the tripod and thus remove it from your 360 photo.
The image you use to cover the tripod must be circular, and have a minimum quality so that it does not look pixelated. As you well know, all the images have a square format, so everything that is not inside the circle must be transparent.
The transparent background is achieved by saving the image in a format that supports transparency. The most used are PNG or TIFF. We recommend PNG as it is the easiest format to set up and is fully functional and valid.
Well, we already know that it must be circular, and it must have a transparent background. And now, how do we do it? We entrust ourselves to Photoshop again, to be able to quickly and easily work on this image.
If you master another program, and you already know how to do it, you can skip this step and go directly to the end, where we show you how to apply the image to cover the tripod.
Click here and we’ll take you flying!
Once we are in Photoshop, we select the File menu, and then we click on “New…“. To the right of the window that has been opened, we will specify that our new image has a Width of 500 Pixels, and a Height of 500 Pixels as well. As for the Resolution, it is fine that we leave it at 72 Pixels/inch. Under Color Mode, we will select 8 bit RGB Color. Background content can be left white. It is done. Click the Create button and let’s get started.
Now that we have the square image on the screen, we see that it is a white block. We need it to be a circle, and with a transparent background. Note: The transparent background in Photoshop is rendered as a grayish checkerboard.
Follow these steps to turn the white square into a circle with a transparent background:
When you create a new image in Photoshop, Photoshop protects it from being accidentally edited. Protection is shown on the layer with a padlock on its far right. To remove it, and be able to start editing the photo, simply double-click on the layer name (usually it will be called Background), and in the message that appears, simply click OK. You will see that the padlock has disappeared, now we can edit.
If you don’t see the layers in your Photoshop, you can show them by clicking the Window menu, and selecting the Layers option.
Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool, which you’ll find in the tools menu on the left side of Photoshop. The icon is a square with dashed lines.
With the tool selected, click on the upper left corner, and drag the mouse cursor to the lower right corner, thus covering the entire image. Once you release the mouse click, you will see that your image with a white background is framed with a dashed line. Now simply press the Delete or Delete key on your keyboard. Has the white gone and in its place do you see a greyish checkerboard? So we’re good. We now have a transparent square image.
Select the Ellipse Tool. You will find it in the left side menu of tools. It is very possible that you will not see the Ellipse option directly, and instead you will find an icon of a gray rectangle with a white border. If you keep the click pressed on this square, more tools will be displayed, among which is the Ellipse option.
Click on the upper left corner, and with the Shift key (or up arrow) on your keyboard press it, drag the mouse to the lower right corner. Now you have your circle, with a transparent background! Now you just have to incorporate your logo, your contact details, or decorate it to your liking.
Once you are done with your design, save the image in PNG format on your computer. You already have it!
If you are a moderately advanced user, you can use the image to hide the tripod by including it in the 360 photo by following the steps mentioned in the option “Remove warping from the 360 photo to edit the tripod” in the section “Remove the tripod from a 360 photo ” from this same post.
If you want to make it easier, you can upload the image in our 360 Pro Viewer, and easily resize it. See how we do it in the following video:
Click here for a copy of Viewer 360 PRO
If you want to obtain an Adobe Photoshop license, visit its website by clicking here: https://www.adobe.com/es/products/photoshop.html
I’m David Jaques, 360 photographer and 360 video editor.
I am the creator of this tutorial. I hope I have explained myself well, even though when you start writing you always want to give everything and in the end everything does not fit. If you need help, do not hesitate to comment below in the comments, or contact me by writing to us in the Contact section.
Thanks for reading us!
Twitter: @davidjaquesjane
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