Newsgathering has changed so much in the past decade. Heck, it’s changed in the past month. And it will continue to change as bandwidth gets faster, devices get smaller and the option to capture news becomes more abundant.
Smartphones allow reporters to ‘bring the scene’ to viewers in ways never before possible. Apartment fire? Snap a photo. Car accident with traffic back-ups? Fire off a Tweet. Standoff? Roll on some HD video and upload to the station server remotely (take cover first, of course).
Now there’s another addition to the reporter tool belt that can help tell and SHOW the story. It’s Panorama and it’s free with iPhone’s iOS6 update (graphic here).
If you’ve already siphoned through the 200+ features added to the iPhone in Apple’s recent update to its operating system, congratulations. You’re much more efficient than I am. I’ve just started to scratch the surface. My girlfriend spotted a very cool camera feature that I would have just blown by if I didn’t take the time to smell the technological roses.
Taking panoramic pictures is nothing new for iPhone. There have been panorama apps around for quite awhile that gave you the opportunity to stitch together images to make a beautiful sweeping, continuous image that even Ansel Adams would be jealous of. But in it’s stylish and clever way, Apple has slipped their version of Panorama into the iPhone flawlessly (so far as I can tell).
Accessing and using Panorama is simple:
> Click the camera app.
> Click Options.
> Click Panorama.
That’s it.
Click the camera icon to start rolling and slowly move across your targeted area trying to keep the arrow on the line (for an accurate shot). Imagine getting a 360 view of breaking news and emailing it to your editor to post during the newscast. It’s much quicker than video but tells a much better story than a single image.
I’ve included a few practice shots I took around or TV station for an example. Happy newsgathering!
CBS4 Studio
CBS4 Parking Lot and Satellite Dishes
CBS4 Control Booth
CBS4 Newsroom Panorama
CBS4 Desk Shot
This would be on 5 only or part of the OS 6 upgrade to 4S as well???
This comes on the iOS6 update but can be used on iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, And iPod Touch 5th Generation.