Facebook News Feed is getting jazzed up every day. What began as a simple text and photo sharing feature soon transformed into an eventful platform with Live Feed, Videos, 360-degree photos, GIF and now 3D Photo.
3D Photo on Facebook will add more depth and character to your pictures. The sneak peek came in May this year, during F8, when Facebook promised to add 3D feature to the news feed. It wasn’t quite clear what it actually entailed, until now. Facebook announced about 3D photos on its blog as ‘a new way to share your memories and moments in time’. The feature captures the space between the subject and the background which creates the illusion of space with depth and movement. It almost feels like you can see at the back of the subject.
Facebook is gradually rolling 3D Photo across the globe and with latest updates you might get the feature in a few days. But for now, the feature is only available for iPhones. Facebook promises to make the feature available for all pretty soon.
How does it work?
Begin by shooting a picture in iPhone’s portrait mode. Now head to your Facebook app and tap the ‘What’s on your mind’ section. There opens a list just below it and you can find the ‘3D Photo’ option form the list. Select the option and you will land on your Portrait gallery. Choose the picture you want to enhance with 3D Photo and see a preview before posting it.
You can use this feature either on your desktop or mobile. Also, 3D photo is compatible with VR Oculus. You can use Oculus Go Browser or Firefox in Oculus to post 3D Photo. Once you post through Oculus, now move and tilt your head to see the effect.
How to take best 3D Photos?
Facebook has also quick suggestions for you to become a pro-3D photo user and best utilize this feature.
- Create layers – The more the distance between the subject and the background, the better 3D effect will be created. When you click pictures with iPhone’s (iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus, X or XS) Portrait Mode, the depth maps of the pictures are stored in the phone. 3D Photo uses this depth information to churn out a 3D imaging adding multiple layers of depth. Imagine yourself standing on a sea beach.
- Contrasting colors – This is something very basic but still to drive home the point, when you put a white subject against a black wall the effect is distinctive. The more the contrast the greater depth of field is created through 3D mapping.
- Texture is good – A transparent subject, like a glass of water will have less character to them in place of a rugged surface. The subject should have more surface character or texture to enhance the 3D effect. Try to avoid anything shiny or translucent as a subject for this effect.
3D Photo was more directed towards creating VR content. But VR is taking off at a rather slow pace than what was expected during the beginning of this year. It is the News Feed which has become a popular feature for many social media apps, including Instagram and now WhatsApp. The News Feed is likely to gain more popularity in coming days and will soon become a chosen medium to host ads.
