360 Camera Techniques Virtual Tour Techniques

How to remove yourself from 360 photos automatically with Ricoh Theta

How to remove yourself from a 360 photo automatically
How to remove yourself from a 360 photo automatically

You can disappear from a 360 photo automatically by using the TimeShift plugin for Ricoh Theta Z1, Theta V, and the upcoming Theta SC2. This is also a built-in feature for the Theta SC2 for Business. Here’s how to use it.

When taking a 360 photo, sometimes you don’t want to appear in the shot, such as in virtual tour photos. This is a challenge for 360 photos which can capture everything around it. Typically, to avoid being seen, the user has to hide somewhere such as behind a wall and take a 360 photo with the self-timer or via a wireless shutter.

Ricoh now makes it much easier to take a 360 photo without being seen using a plugin called TimeShift. When you use this feature, you can take two shots with two separate self-timers. You take the first photo out of the view of the front lens, then move to the other side and take a second photo out of the rear lens.

Disappear from 360 photos with Timeshift plugin
Disappear from 360 photos with Timeshift plugin

The camera stitches both sides of the photo automatically, without you being visible in the photo.

You can download the TimeShift plugin for free here.

About the author

Mic Ty

5 Comments

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  • Mic,

    have you already tried it?

    Wondering of I could stand in front of the shooting lens on purpose? For rudementery cloning myself without having to do this in post. Could become another option for taking awesome 360s.

    Have a great weekend
    Felipe

    • Hey there Felipe. Yes I tried it on Z1 and it works! But with the plugin, I can’t see the option to set the self-timers. It automatically uses 5 seconds for the first shot and 5 seconds for the second shot.

  • Hi Mic, my question is does the time shift plugin on Theta V and Z1 do the same job advertised for SC2 for business. What are the advantages or disadvantages. Do you have real world testing of this feature yet!

  • Hi Mic,

    I’ve been asking Insta360 REPEATEDLY for this feature and they seem to think it’s not worth their time or that not many people would benefit from this. It’s mind boggling to me why they can’t just implement this feature, or put two shutter buttons on the screen (if you want it) so you can take a screen-side and non-screen-side photo. I use a MadVenture 360 camera at work for using DocuSketch and if Insta360 would get this feature implemented, I could use my RS at work, but they don’t so I don’t.
    Docusketch draws the floor plans automatically for me, and creates a file that I import into my estimating program, which saves me a ton of time…which is why I haven’t bothered switching.