What is Photosynth?

Photosynth is a powerful set of tools for capturing and viewing the world in 3D. You can share these views with your friends on Facebook, publish them to Bing Maps, or embed them in your own Web site. Here’s the big picture:

How do I Capture the World in 3D?

Photosynth offers two styles for creating immersive 3D experiences: synths and panoramas. The following diagram shows the differences between them, and the tools available for creating them.

Panorama

Choose a panorama when you can capture everything from a single location with a single zoom level. Great for giving a sense of what it feels like to be in a one particular place. Can be 360° in both directions, but doesn’t have to be.

Simple to navigate - all you can do is go left/right, up/down and zoom in/out.

Synth

Good for capturing different sides or details of an object. Synths were the original experience on this site, and they remain its unique feature.

More complex to navigate than panoramas because you are moving from photo to photo.

Making Panoramas

Making Synths

How do I get Started?

First create a Photosynth account. Then download the tool or tools you need:

• To make panoramas from your iPhone, get the Photosynth App from Apple’s App Store.
• To make panoramas from your PC, install Image Composite Editor and the Photosynth application.
• To make synths, just install the Photosynth application, if you don’t already have it.