Have you ever wondered how those 360-degree product or people shots are put together to show on websites? For example, check out t-shirt vendor the-affair and this iPod site.

Now I know. The marketing mavens behind those memorable images could be using a sub-$1,000 tool from Ortery Technologies called the PhotoCapture 360XL. This kit includes a turntable that holds up to 500 pounds and image creation software.

You hook up a compatible camera (including many PowerShots from Canon and C Series Olympus digital cameras).

You compose the pictures you want by zooming in or out or cropping through the software. Once that’s done, the software synchronizes the picture taking and turntable movement as the object rotates 360 degrees. What it does, apparently, is take a whole bunch of photos in sequence — between four and 72 pictures for a single revolution of the turntable. Finally, the software stitches those together to create an animated GIF or flash file.

If you’re not into the 360-degree idea, you can also use the software to synchronize the workflow of photo shoots. (I wonder if Annie Leibovitz used one of these on that Miley Cyrus job from Vanity Fair. Doesn’t Hannah Montana strike you as the kind of girl who’d get a kick out of spinning around?)

Posted on May 1st, 2008 by dian