A Beginners Guide To Tiny Planet Photography (Third Edition)

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This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968,
no part may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be
exercised, without the permission of Ben Claremont, NSW, Australia, 1st May 2019.
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Table Of Contents
A Beginner’s Guide To Tiny Planet Photography
Foreword 5
Introduction 6
1. What is 360 Photography? 7
2. Why Tiny Planet Photos Stand Out 16
3. Which is the Best 360 Camera? 21
4. The Best Tiny Planet App 23
5. How to make tiny planet photos 26
Holding the the Camera 30
POV (Point of View) Shots 42
Join the Mile High Club 44
Group Shots 45
Step Away from the Camera! 50
Looking Through Windows 57
Get High with a Selfie Stick 59
Painting with Light 64
6. Inverted Planets 67
Flip Your World Inside Out 72
Surround Yourself 75
Putting the Camera in Small Spaces 82
The ‘Mouth Shot’ 85
7. Recycling Images 87
8. Animating 360 Photos 92
9. Tiny Planet Videos 100
Video Style 1: Holding the Camera 103
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Table Of Contents
Video Style 2: Static camera, moving subject 107

Video Style 3: Static camera, moving planet 110
Video Style 4: Advanced 360 Animations 112
10. Color Correction 115
Color Changes Everything 116
11. Marketing Your Work 126
Growing Your Audience 127
Your Instagram Grid 128
Only Post the Best 130
Consistency 131
#Hashtags 133
Tagging Businesses 136
Enter Contests 139
Interact with Your Community 141
Share Your Work As Far As Possible 144
The Best Time of Day to Post 145
Take Hints from Others 146
12. The Future of 360 148
Bonus Chapter: Inspirational Accounts to Follow 154
About the Author 157
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‘If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved
the results you want, copy what they do and you’ll achieve the
same results’
—Tony Robbins
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FOREWORD
At the time of this writing, the Dow is a little over 20,000. How
would you like to have been able to place an investment back
when the Dow was a little under 7,000 20 years ago? Or how
about if you could go back in time to the beginning of the Dow,
when it stood at 62.76?
A similar opportunity is available to you today. The art of 360

photography is literally just beginning. You know legends of
photography such as Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
With 360 photography, there are no household names yet. And
there’s a very good chance that the future masters of this craft
are likely among the readers of this book.
Whether you will be one of them is entirely in your hands, and

you’ve already taken a great first step by learning from a
renowned 360 photographer, and a true pioneer of this art, Mr.
Ben Claremont.
Congratulations and enjoy your journey.
Your fellow traveler,

Michael Ty
360Rumors.com
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INTRODUCTION
I remember when I saw my first tiny planet photo. Mindlessly

scrolling through Instagram late one night after a long week of
video editing for clients, I noticed my favourite camera blogger
Philip Bloom (@philipbloom) posted a picture of himself sitting
on a beach in Abu Dhabi sipping a fruit cocktail. But. There was
something very different about this image. Something I’d never
seen before. It was incredibly silly, yet jaw-droppingly perfect.
Was this the most unique photo I’d EVER seen? I looked away
and looked back incase my eyes were deceiving me, only to see
that nothing had changed. In this photo, he was sipping his fruit
cocktail while sitting on a floating ball of sand!
How did he do this? Was it Photoshop? Was this photo taken from
the international space station?
I studied the image carefully, and after much confusion, denial,
anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance, I realized
it wasn’t a complex Photoshop trick nor an optical illusion. The
image he’d taken had captured his ENTIRE surroundings,
which was then wrapped around itself to form this mysterious
‘planet-like’ sand ball.
After ten minutes on Google figuring out what he’d done and
how simple it was, my life as a creative changed forever...
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1
What is 360
photography?
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What is 360 photography?
Only when technology advances significantly do we truly

realise how limited we were before. Technological evolution is
a wonderful thing that exists to make life better and easier for
us in all walks of life, and photography is no exception. The
emergence of 360 cameras in the past few years has been a
game-changer for photographers worldwide, due to the
boundaries being shifted of what is and isn’t possible to capture
in a single photograph. Once upon a time, we were limited to a
narrow rectangular image, leaving us to take four or five
photos to get a proper impression of an environment. This is
the exact same technology most people use today as their
primary method of photography. It looks something like this:
Yours truly enjoying a cool beverage on sunny Waikiki beach!
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Now, there’s nothing wrong with this photo (aside from my

patchy beard), however when looking at it, the viewer only
experiences a very narrow perspective of what it was like to
stand on Waikiki beach on January 12th, 2016. How it felt.
What the atmosphere was like. Where everything was in
relation to everything else.
Yes, I could have taken lots of photos on my phone, but I’d

still only be creating lots of 1/16th perspectives, which could
only ever be viewed as just that – a bunch of 1/16th
perspectives. And let’s face it, when someone posts an album
on Facebook with 100+ photos, we avoid it at all costs!!!
This is where 360 photography saves the day. Instead of the

narrow rectangle we just saw, 360 allows us to capture
EVERYTHING at once – what’s in front of the camera,
behind the camera, above and below the camera, with the
simple click of a button.
So what does a 360 camera see in the exact same scenario?
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The full front and

back perspectives,
AND…
The above and below

perspectives
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Point and shoot 360 cameras generally have two lenses which
each see 180 degrees or more, meaning everything is
captured, including the sky above the camera and the ground
below the camera. The engineering and stitching ability of
most 360 cameras is so good you DON’T even see the camera
between your fingers! But what’s really magical is that the
previous four images are actually just one single photo,
cropped for explanation purposes. When stitched, a flat 360
image looks like this:
This is called an ‘equirectangular’ 360 image.
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In a spherical viewer (most cameras have this feature as a

mobile app or desktop viewer), you’re able to pan around the
photo later, just like you would with Google Street View. This
is an amazing way to relive old memories, with the ability to
look around in any direction, just like when you were
actually standing on the beach. This is especially realistic if
you view it in a virtual reality headset, which moves the
photo around in sync with your head.
(press play) A 360 photo viewed in 360 mode.
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Interactive 360s are a fantastic way of sharing such an

incredible perspective with your audience- if they actually
interact with it.
Here lies the problem- such a small percentage of viewers

have the time and attention to interact with 360 photos and
videos beyond just a quick glance, as they browse their social
media feeds and lightning speed. With attention spans getting
shorter and shorter, requiring physical interaction from the
viewer leaves your photo with a very small chance of getting
viewed in it’s entirety!
Here is where ‘Tiny planet’ or ‘Little planet’ photography

saves the day. Using the exact same image as before, we’re now
going to manipulate the equirectangular image to no longer
be a 360 photo, but a fixed perspective no longer requires
interaction from the viewer.
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Greetings from Waikiki planet!
The incredible thing about tiny planet photography is that

it fits a full 360 degree view into one square photo; every
grain of sand, every inch of sky, every surfboard, palm tree
and building. No details from where I was standing on
that day are missing. How I created this tiny planet will be
covered a little later!
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What a regular camera sees
What a 360 camera sees
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Why tiny planet
photos stand out
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Why tiny planet photos stand out
Photography is at it’s most effective when it’s used to

capture the world from new and unique perspectives, using
innovative camera techniques and compositions to show
the audience viewpoints they’ve never seen before. We all
have at least one photograph that caught our eye at some
point, in a gallery, online, on TV, in a newspaper or
elsewhere, that was so powerful we can still remember it
vividly to this day. Can you think of one?
Now think about how many photos are snapped in an

average day on planet earth. Got a number? Of those, how
many do you think were good enough to be published on
Instagram in a 24-hour period? A couple thousand, right?
Try 100 million. Per day!
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If you dedicated the rest of your life to scrolling through a

single day’s worth of Instagram posts (now let’s fast forward 50
years when you finally made it through today’s instagram feed)
and of those 100 million photos, which ones did you actually
remember? What would the top 100 consist of? The top ten?
Which photo took the #1 spot?
Each person’s answer will differ, but what all answers will have
in common is that the most unique, one-of-a-kind photos that
dared to be different were the ones that stood out the most.
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It’s pretty rare that we come across a photo that hasn’t been
taken in one form or another. We’ve seen portraits of every
race of human with every possible facial expression, shot in
wide shot, mid shot, close up, from the side, from the front,
from behind, from below, from above. We’ve seen every
type of landscape shot at every time of day with every type
of lens. Likewise, we’ve seen a cup of coffee photographed
in every way possible – think about it: the coffee shot is one
of the most common photos we see across social media and
advertising. We must have seen this image more than ten
thousand times, in one incarnation or another. But can you
actually remember a single one of them?
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The game changer in creating unique photographic

compositions is technology. With the advancement of cameras’
technical abilities, we’re now increasingly able to capture the
world from newer and more innovative perspectives. It’s
incredible how quickly photographic technology is evolving
and it seems like a new, game-changing camera is being
released every single week. Therefore, I’m challenging you to
join me on this journey and take advantage of this amazing
360 technology that makes us look like amazing
photographers with very little effort (and a bit of creativity!).
Each person’s answer will differ, but what all answers will have
in common is that the most unique, one-of-a-kind photos that
dared to be different were the ones that stood out the most.
Keep calm and float

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3
Which is the best
360 camera?
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Which is the best 360 camera?
This is by far the most common question I get asked. Firstly

I’ll say that buying a 360 camera has been the best creative
investment I’ve ever made, in terms of the value I get for the
price paid. I always tell my audience on YouTube (shoutout
to my YouTube peeps!) that any 360 camera is better than no
360 camera. There are many amazing cameras to choose
from, however if I gave you an answer now, this text would
quickly become outdated and you’d hate me for telling you to
buy an old camera. This is why I’d strongly suggest going to
my youtube channel at the time of reading this
(www.youtube.com/benclaremont) and checking out my last
few videos. I post reviews and comparisons of the latest and
greatest 360 cameras every week, so that will answer the
question of which 360 camera you should buy at the exact
moment of reading this.
We won’t cover any one specific camera in this book, instead
we’ll focus more on the creative side of tiny planet
photography; which means regardless of the 360 camera you
own, you can follow along!
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4
The best tiny
planet app
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The best tiny planet app
Prior to the invention of 360 cameras, tiny planet photos

could only be created on a computer by manually stitching
several high-resolution DSLR photos in expensive
panorama editing software. Spending so much time on
one single photo made it impossible to take 360 photos
with a fast turnaround. Fortunately, thanks to
smartphones solving an increasing amount of our daily
problems, we can now shoot & edit tiny planet photos in
less than 60 seconds with a few swipes of our fingers!
A wide array of mobile apps exists for this task, and my

personal favorite is the ‘Theta+’ app for iPhone &
Android. It’s the most intuitive to use, and allows you to
get basically any perspective you need! Go download it
now (it will be the best $0 you ever spent!)
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The best tiny planet app
The most common mistake I’ve noticed on Instagram is

people uploading screenshots of their spherical image from
their camera’s viewing app. Viewing apps have nowhere near
as much flexibility that importing to a dedicated tiny planet
editing app will give you, and the quality will be half as good
or less. Don’t make this mistake – you’ve saved all those
pennies to finally buy a 360 camera, so don’t short-change
yourself by settling for low quality screenshots!
All 360 cameras produce equirectangular photos which means
it doesn’t matter which 360 camera you own, most tiny planet
apps should recognise the equirectangualar file format and be
able to manipulate them into tiny planets. You’re welcome to
use another tiny planet editor, however i’d strongly suggest
Theta+ as your go-to app.
It also doesn’t matter which phone you own, as long as it’s a
known brand (that has either the Apple App Store or Google
Play) and is not ancient (i.e. newer than about 8 years old)
then it should work just fine as your primary tiny planet
editing device.
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5
How to make
tiny planet
photos
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How to make tiny planet photos
Just like in life, tiny planet photography is a matter of trying

something, failing, trying something else, failing (a bit less
this time), trying something different again... failing even
less again. Until eventually… after enough mistakes and
lessons learned, it becomes basically impossible to fail!
(And don’t worry, this book will help you avoid the majority
of these failures)
A photographer’s mindset revolves around being able to
step into any location and quickly locate the camera
position that best showcases the environment and the story
of the environment in the same picture. This usually
involves taking test shots, repositioning the camera,
repositioning the subjects, and waiting for the perfect
moment to strike.
The smartphone workflow (‘workflow’ refers to the specific
sequence of steps you take to do something) makes this
process much faster and easier, which means you can shoot,
upload to your phone and edit in just seconds, giving you
more time and flexibility to decide whether you’ve got the
‘money shot’ or if you should keep shooting.
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For advanced photographers, using your camera’s smartphone

app will allow you to adjust the exposure manually. The same
manual exposure techniques associated with DSLR
photography also apply to shooting in 360 (other than being
able to achieve a shallow depth of field).
Shooting manually can help greatly if the situation calls for it
(mostly low light scenarios). However, given that we’re always
working with an infinite depth of field with 360 photography,
and the fact that most everyday situations have a decent amount
of ambient light and not too much movement, keeping your
camera in auto exposure mode is perfectly fine. If your camera
has inbuilt HDR mode, I’d advise using it in most situations to
help even out tricky lighting, such as the photo below:
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Holding the camera

(DIFFICULTY LEVEL: EASY)
In tiny planet photography, choosing the right camera

position is crucial in terms of the scale you and your
environment will be in relation to each other. The easiest way
to take a tiny planet selfie is by holding the camera in front of
you (roughly at eye level and at arms length) and pressing the
shutter button. This is a good option if you have limited time
and want to shoot a bunch of different photos as quickly as
possible.
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Hold the camera in front of you, press the shutter button..

voila!
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Multitasking like a boss
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So you’re at your shoot location, with 360 camera in hand.

When you find a position you’re happy with, take a look at the
horizon line in all directions and make sure you’re satisfied
with the scale of everything in real life, before taking your
camera out. This horizon line will later act as the edge of the
tiny planet, so you’ll want it to be as evenly sized and
symmetrical as possible. Try to find the very ‘middle’ of all of
the best features of the landscape, and position yourself there.
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Choosing the ‘sweet spot’ before getting your camera out can
pay off in situations when you have a busy environment and
not much time to capture it. Often, security discourages
photography in public venues such as galleries, sports games or
concerts where copyrighted works are on display. Therefore
analysing your environment for 360 composition in advance
can pay off greatly.
At Australia’s biggest art exhibition; security are placed at every exit. CLICK.
Got away with it!
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The tiny planet editing process is easy to pick up and once you
get the hang of it you’ll be spitting out planets like they’re
going out of fashion. If you haven’t downloaded the Theta+
app yet, now is the time! Here’s how it works:
Open up the app and

straight away you’ll find
your phone’s camera roll,
where the app
automatically detects all
of the 360 photos and
videos you have saved
on your device. Select
the photo you want to
edit - I’m going to
choose a new 360 shot of
me inside ‘The Pokemon
Center’ in Japan (I’m a
massive Pokemon nerd
and proud of it!).
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Looking at the image on

the right, the first thing
to notice is that there are
a number of viewpoints
available: mirror ball,
little planet, dual screen,
flat and straight,
Personally, I like the little
planet option the most,
as it allows you the most
amount of control when
it comes to reframing
your 360 photo. While
it’s hard to communicate
it through this book, this
app is extremely easy and
intuitive to use. Swipe
your thumbs around and
you’ll see!
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After choosing Little Planet and swiping the screen to my

favourite viewpoint, In just seconds I’ve made an
amazing, Instagram-worthy planet:
Once you’re happy with the composition, at the very bottom

of your screen you’ll notice a few more things:
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Firstly we have filters, which are kind of like Instagram

filters. Personally, I prefer editing colors manually, which is
where the next option comes into play. Tapping on the colors
option (as seen in the middle photo below) allows us to have
more control over our exposure, contrast, color temperature,
shadows, and more. Finally on the right, you can choose
your aspect ratio. Typically, I like to use a square frame, as
this is the most common format for Instagram and other
social media platforms.
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When you’re happy, hit the ‘Save’ button up the top right..
this will automatically save the picture to your camera roll,
and BAM! Now we’ve got an awesome planet to share with
the world.
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Bodies of water always make for excellent watery planets… just don’t drop
the camera!
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Shooting outdoors is always a good idea, because The 360 camera captures a large
portion of the sky above, which later acts as the sky around your edited tiny planet.
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POV (Point Of View) Shots

To mix things up every now and then, you might want to try
flipping your world upside down. Literally. If what’s in front of
you is interesting enough, you may decide to show the planet
from your POV instead of having yourself front and center.
Bula! Welcome to
Fiji.. the place
where the biggest
dude always
plays the smallest
guitar!
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‘No phones or cameras on the tarmac’.. they never said no 360 cameras!
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Join the mile high club

You won’t get a better

view than being 35,000
feet above sea level
(unless you have
connections with
NASA), so keeping
your 360 camera handy
during flights is a great
idea. Take a few shots
and manually adjust
the exposure if needed
to deal with the mixed
lighting between the
interior and exterior, it
will be worth it when
you get an awesome
plane planet!
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Group shots
(DIFFICULTY LEVEL: MEDIUM)
With regular photography, a common issue when you’re

trying to capture a group of people is trying to fit lots of
people into the same photo. Perhaps you were at a restaurant
and the designated photographer, or waiter, backed away
fifteen feet in an attempt to fit everyone into the same shot. It
helped, but the back half of the group still ended up looking
like ants in the final shot, if they even made it into the photo
at all. This is one (of the many) problems that 360
photography solves!
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In the following group shot, everyone is about the same size,

and therefore gets equal representation. We also get a very good
glimpse of the surroundings. Now, it’s not exactly the kind of
photo you’d frame and put on the mantelpiece next to grandma
and grandpa’s wedding portrait, but it doesn’t need to be!
I did this photo for a client (the guy in the middle)- he told me he
wanted a group shot of him with his students. After taking a bunch of
high quality DSLR photos, i handed him my 360 camera and told the
students to gather around him. Click. He ended up liking the tiny
planet version even more than the DSLR shots!
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With group shots, it’s important to position everyone an

equal distance from the camera if possible. This adds
symmetry and therefore your photo will become nicer to
look at. Visible human faces bring the planet to life and gives
the planet ‘inhabitants’. Hold the camera perfectly vertical to
avoid your arm covering someone’s face.
Also let’s not forget that with every 360 photo we take, we still
have the option to view it in 360 in a spherical viewer. If you’re
not a fan of the tiny planet group shot, you can always publish
a group photo as an interactive 360 to see the entire image
from a more ‘normal’ perspective. I find both viewing
methods equally fascinating- some photos look better as 360s
and some look better as tiny planets. You decide!
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Table shots are something you also may want to try. They’re
technically similar to the group shot, however we now have
extra details in the center of the image that we want to include.
For best results with table shots, make sure the camera is
elevated at least a foot above table level (so it’s able to see
everything – the plates, cups, napkins, etc). There’s no need for
a tripod; balancing your 360 camera on a water jug or
something else on the table is less intrusive to your dinner
party, and you can take the photo remotely under the table via
your smartphone app to avoid your arm covering the tabletop.
Holding your camera out on a selfie stick will also work.
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In the final edit, I chose to zoom out to incorporate the

interesting architecture, however it also would have worked
as a tighter shot. These are the creative decisions you make in
the edit – always go with your gut!
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Step away from the camera!

Up to this point, taking handheld photos with your 360 camera

has been undoubtedly fast and easy. However you’ll most likely
find that the best, most creative tiny planets you ever shoot will
be taken when you’re not physically holding the camera.
With the handheld examples so far, you’ll notice my face has
always been in the dead centre of the planet. However what if
you wanted to stand on the edge?
As simple as this
adjustment is, the
effect will
completely
transform your
images. We’re no
longer looking at
someone taking a
selfie, rather we’re
now looking at a
miniature person
inhabiting a
miniature planet.
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The little prince

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Do it solo.. or grab your friends and let gravity take effect!
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Now let’s do it: Using the wireless connection between your

camera and your camera’s smartphone app, we’re going to
use the phone as our remote control. Activating the self
timer (if your camera has one) will also buy you 3 seconds to
put your phone away before the shutter clicks. To stand on
the very ‘edge’ of the planet, the camera must be on, or near
ground level. The higher the camera is from the ground, the
further you will move toward the centre of the planet.
Stand anywhere from three to ten feet from the camera – any
further, and you’ll become too small. The interesting features
of this scene, like the buildings, the flags and the shrine will
make excellent ‘edges’ of the planet later, so i’m going to
stand on the empty side so i don’t compete with them. Now
let’s take the photo- 3..2..1..
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Success! This
adds even greater
mystery to how
the photo was
taken, and will
quite possibly
make you the
David
Copperfield of
photography.
If your camera is on a hard surface, it’s a good idea to use a mini

tripod. Trust me, a ten dollar tabletop tripod is much cheaper
than a new 360 camera after your camera blows over and
scratches the lens (as I discovered five seconds after taking this
photo.. facepalm).
Something else worth noting is that I intentionally lined up the
‘head’ of my shadow with the camera. This put the sun directly
behind my real head, resulting in a cool silhouette effect. Doing
this achieves two things: firstly it stopped the harsh sun hitting
the camera directly and causing nasty exposure issues, and
secondly it covered the shadow of the camera.
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Tiny planets make the most boring locations look interesting!
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Always look out for unconventional places to put your camera
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Looking through windows

Every now and then we come across a high up view that takes
our breath away. Here I am staying at a cosy Airbnb with city
views during a freezing cold Vancouver winter.
Think about how

many ‘normal’
photos you might
need to capture
these two
environments in
full from this spot.
Perhaps six?
My
camera
setup
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Not only did my 360 camera capture the entire skyline

outside, but it also captured a detailed interior of the
apartment, including glimpses into the other rooms. I like
this shot for its contrast between the cold, unforgiving
exterior and the warm, inviting interior of the apartment.
Now here’s another one from a hockey match...
Another kind of window, another cool window shot!
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Get high with a selfie stick

I know the idea of using a selfie stick is kinda cringeworthy,

but hear me out. A selfie stick allows us to create space
between ourselves and the camera, and is probably the best
accessory you can buy for your 360 camera. Getting your
camera just a few feet higher will make it look like you’re
shooting from a drone!
Your selfie stick will need a 1/4 inch tripod thread at the far
end, there are now a number of ‘invisible’ selfie sticks that are
made just for 360 cameras. All 360 cameras have a blind spot
directly underneath, which means the selfie stick (if perfectly
straight) will magically disappear!
This is my current selfie stick of choice: https://bit.ly/
2VnxpWu
This is a professional monopod & selfie stick combination
and while it’s not cheap, it’s extremely good quality and will
last a long time. For something more budget friendly, there
are many cheap options such as this one: https://amzn.to/
2ThMkRf
Again any selfie stick is better than no selfie stick, so go with
what you can afford.
59
The most common selfie stick mistake i see is this:
Catch it? If not, look a little closer..
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The selfie stick is in the middle of the shot! This is due to the
camera being tilted up, giving the front facing lens a clear
view of the stick. The selfie stick is meant to be invisible;
avoid it being the main feature of shot by keeping your
camera perfectly in line with the selfie stick at all times.
No matter which 360 camera you own, the blind spot is
always at the bottom, which will make any straight selfie stick
completely disappear underneath it.
Congratulations- you’ve covered up your tracks! Your
audience will now be drawn to your awesome planet as
opposed to being drawn to how you took the photo.
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WRONG
RIGHT
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To get even MORE elevation than a standard selfie stick,

look for an ‘extended’ (extra long) selfie stick. I bought one
for thirty dollars on Amazon (https://amzn.to/2OiOAWD),
and it allowed me to get my camera six feet above head
height to take this photo of Sydney Harbour (I stood where
the empty seats are and erased myself out later).
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Painting with light

(DIFFICULTY LEVEL: EXPERT)
Okay, so you’re
ready to try
something advanced
with your 360
camera! You may be
familiar with light
painting, a style of
long exposure DSLR
photography where
lights and torches
are used to create
cool drawings in the
sky.
Well the exact same technique works with tiny planet
photography, and now that a number of 360 cameras have the
ability to shoot long exposures, light painting is just as
achievable in 360.
NOTE: Check your camera’s specs to see if it’s capable of manual
exposure- an essential component of light painting. Most recent
cameras will have this feature.
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To achieve this effect, manually set your exposure to at least

six seconds (or however long you think it will take to finish
your painting – in this example it took me twenty seconds).
Next, press the shutter button and wave your flashlight in the
direction of the camera, flicking it on and off to make sure the
letters aren’t connected if you’re writing words.
You can use any kind of light source (including your
smartphone), however the brightness of a flashlight will make
the lines especially bright and sharp. Just remember to aim
the light beam as close to the lens as possible. Hitting the lens
every now and then looks great too. The darker the area
you’re in, the longer the exposure will need to be, meaning
the more time you’ll have to ‘paint’ your masterpiece.
Don’t expect to get it right the first time; often light painting
takes several attempts of trying different exposure lengths and
perfecting your flashlight ‘painting’ skills.
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The sky is your canvas!
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6
Inverted planets
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Inverted planets
There are two main tiny planet editing styles. So far, we’ve
explored the ‘conventional’ tiny planet, which you’ll find is the
best way to go in most situations. The second way to edit your
360s are as ‘inverted’ tiny planets.
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Inverted planets
Instead of the ‘planet’ being in the centre and the sky being
on the outside, inverting your planet FLIPS this equation
to create a wormhole, a rabbit hole, a vortex, a tunnel, or
whichever silly name you choose to give it.
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Inverted planets
Inverted planet in Winnipeg, Canada
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Inverted planets
Inverted planet in Leake Street Tunnel, London.

(my favourite planet to date!)
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Inverted planets
Flip your world inside out

The previous four images didn’t work for me personally as tiny
planets. They had too much detail above the horizon line that
would have been either cut off or massively distorted when
edited the normal way. Conventional tiny planets work best
with a clear sky or solid roof above to act as the negative space
around the planet, and these didn’t have that.
To make an inverted planet, we’ll use the same shooting
technique from earlier where we placed the camera on the
ground and activated the shot with our phone. The only thing
that changes is the way we edit our images. Here’s a new
equirectangular image shot in Picadilly Circus, London:
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Inverted planets
After
importing to
Theta+, let’s
reposition the
image the
opposite way
this time, so
the ground
now becomes
the border.
Awesome!
Be sure to keep your phone handy and download as you

shoot to make sure you’re happy with the relationship
between you and the environment. Keep trying until you
get the ‘money shot’- this could very well become your
most popular photo ever!
Note: when shooting specifically for inverted planets, It’s
important to keep the camera as close to the ground as
possible. This will help create a sharp, clear horizon line,
which will later act as your circular border.
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Inverted planets
Here the camera was placed on the ground smack bang in-
between the two foreground objects.
Question: How did the golf club and ball escape the inner
circle of this inverted planet?
Answer: Because they’re below the camera’s lenses. Remember,
everything located above the lens will have sky as its
background, and everything below the lens will have ground
as its background. This applies to all methods of tiny planet
photography whenever your camera is placed vertically!
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Inverted planets
Surround yourself
Whenever I step into a busy fruit market or toy store, I’m

excited like a kid on Christmas. Not because I intend on buying
anything, but because I may end up walking out with an
awesome shot. Inverted planets really shine when you have a
large amount of small objects, such as fruit, vegetables, toys, or
any small objects for that matter.
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Inverted planets
As you can see, the objects now sit where the sky used to be,
surrounding the person in the middle with thousands of
juicy, eye catching details. Take any of the following photos
and think about what a conventional photo of these items
would look like. Boring! Having them in a loop around you
gives the situation a fun new context, and puts the viewer in
the perspective of one of the objects.
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Inverted planets
Inverted planet with Pool balls
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Inverted planets
Inverted planet with Lego heads
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Inverted planets
To achieve this effect, you’ll want to position the camera

as close to the objects as possible, while still having a
clean view of them. Locate the dead center (for symmetry
purposes) and get your camera ready. The smaller the
objects, the closer your camera should be; the bigger the
further away. Remember that the front lens needs a clean
view of every single object!
On the other side of the camera (your side), how far you
position your face from the camera will make a huge
difference later on. If the camera is arm’s length away
from you, you’ll barely be in shot. If you want to be
visible, your face will need to be 2-5 inches away. I know
that seems uncomfortably close, but it’ll make sense when
you see the end result.
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Inverted planets
Now import to your editing app, invert the image, and Voila!
Notice the difference in where my face ended up?
Face 3 inches away Face at arm’s length
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Inverted planets
It’s important that the objects you’re using aren’t too big or too
small. From hundreds of tests, I can tell you that anything
bigger than the size of a tennis ball is too big, and anything
smaller than a pea is too small. Too far to either extreme is
when you start losing detail, and your image becomes less
interesting to look at.
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Inverted planets
Putting the camera in small spaces

Another unique perspective is sending your camera into

places no DSLR has ventured before.. aka small confined
spaces. If you come across a confined space with
something interesting inside, try your best to (safely) poke
your 360 camera inside and see what happens!
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Inverted planets
When you let your child-like curiosity take over, it may result
in an unexpected masterpiece! This popcorn photo involved
me sticking my 360 camera inside the popcorn bag I was
eating from, in a moment of pure silliness. I never expected
the photo to turn out, but guess what? It did. I tagged
@kernelspopcorn in the image on Instagram and they quickly
shared it with their 2,000+ followers, which was a great
promotion for my account. More on marketing later, but the
lesson is to be silly with your photography as often as possible!
Welcome to my gym locker.
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Inverted planets
In a situation like this, place the camera as far back as you

can, to make sure the side walls are fully visible. Only one of
the two lenses will matter in this kind of scenario (since the
back lens will be facing the back wall), so show the front lens
as much detail as possible.
Inside a wooden crate
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Inverted planets
The ‘mouth shot’

One afternoon I was in the zone sending a mountain of

business emails, when a raging toothache stopped me in my
tracks. Something painful was happening inside my mouth,
and I had no idea what. I went to the bathroom mirror to
investigate, only to have my view obscured by my teeth.
A dentist’s mirror is what i needed, but I had neither the time
nor patience that day to embark on a dentistry degree. Then
it dawned on me: the Theta was small enough to fit inside my
mouth, and it does see everything after all...
So, in a moment of pure idiocy, I got out my camera, opened
wide and stuck it inside. Click! I knew it would probably end
up dark and blurry, but why not try anyway?
I downloaded the image to discover…
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Inverted planets
The Theta captured everything inside my mouth with clear

detail! I even found the exact tooth a popcorn kernel had
wedged itself under, causing the toothache. Just imagine
what the 360 version looked like… you could see my tonsils
and everything. This ended up being simultaneously the
dumbest and smartest thing I’d ever done! I wouldn’t try this
with the Gear 360 though, unless you’re a pelican.
86
7
Recycling
images
87
Recycling images
Sometimes it can be difficult to choose between two different

edits of the same 360 photo. Like these:
They both look great, and I’d be more than happy to put my
name to both versions. In this case the inverted planet got
posted on Instagram, as I judged it as a 9/10 due to its
symmetry, whereas the tiny planet version was an 8/10. One
point makes the world of difference!
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Recycling images
Sometimes we have long stretches where we’re not able to get

out of our house/neighbourhood/city and take new photos,
resulting in our social media feeds drying up and friends +
family members forgetting we exist! When you hit a dry
spell, it’s perfectly fine to recycle a previously used 360 image
and post a second version, as I did on the previous page.
Only do this with your best images; if you think the re-edit
looks mediocre at best, then your followers will think the
same. It’s like re-using a pair of underwear; you’re only going
to flip them inside out and wear them a second time if they
smell of roses on the other side. Not that I’ve ever done that,
except that one time when I was seven years old…
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Recycling images
Changing the color pallet can help disguise re-used images, and
give the new version it’s own distinct feel. The first one we see
here has a ‘Superman’ feel, while the second one is more like ‘Sin
City’. Captioning your work differently also helps; with the first
image, I tagged my location and added a funny caption. To give
the re-edit a new context months later, I skipped the location tag
and used one of my favorite motivational quotes as the caption.
This is why I always try every edit possible, since there are
literally hundreds of planets possible for each 360 image. It’s
good to know there’s potential for a second image if you’re
ever desperate in the future.
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Recycling images
Cold, lifeless and colorless turns into warm, vibrant and colorful with a few simple tweaks.
91
8
Animating 360
photos
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Animating 360 photos
You’ve snapped a 360 photo only to discover later you’ve hit

the jackpot – it looks great edited several different ways!
Instead of creating lots of versions of the same photo, this
time we’ll combine several different perspectives into one
‘animated’ photo.
Animating photos sounds complex, but it’s really not – it just
means we’re choosing two or more different viewpoints from
our 360 image and creating a ‘camera move’ between them.
It’s like having your own personal cameraman doing whatever
kind of camera movement you like within the image.
Again we’re going to use the Theta+ app to achieve this. To
learn the computer method (which also has it’s advantages),
watch my reframing tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw6BB-UjZkg
The simpler workflow is editing on mobile, so grab your
phone and let’s begin!
93
Opening up the Theta+ app, let’s start with selecting an

equirectangular image (i’m going to use the one from earlier
with me and the Pokeballs). Once you’ve chosen your image,
tap “Animation” in the lower right corner of the screen.
94
While the included preset movements are great (do try

them!), you can customise the movement to suit your
specific photo better by doing it manually. So let’s choose
“Customize”
95
Let’s start off in ‘little planet’ mode, and from here we’ll choose
our first viewpoint. I’m going to start this animation zoomed in
really close on my face:
When you’re happy with the first viewpoint, press the blue ‘crosshair’
button on the bottom right of screen. That saves this perspective. For
the second perspective I want an inverted planet, as you see in the
middle picture. Again hit the ‘crosshair’ to save this viewpoint.
Finally, with the same process we’ll add a third perspective. We can
now preview our animation by tapping the play button.
96
Now let’s add

custom
transitions. These
will give us
several different
animation styles
to choose from
between the three
viewpoints. To
customise a
transition, tap the
black and white
arrow between
the viewpoints.
This brings up a new menu, and the first option we see is

‘direction’- we can choose to take the longest or shortest path
possible between the two viewpoints. In this case i want it to go
the long way, so let’s tap ‘long way’. In addition to direction, we
can adjust the speed, easing (a fancy word for slowing to a
stop), and stop (how long the animation will pause on each
individual frame). These settings make for some really cool
custom transitions, so be sure to play with everything to see
which combinations you like most.
97
When you’re happy with

the transitions, press
‘done’ and you’ll notice in
the middle of frame we
now have a thin blue line.
This line represents the
path of our transitions
over the course of the
entire animation. To
change any individual
factor, go back to the
timeline at the bottom,
simply tap on the thing
you want to change, and
change it.
Finally, press the ‘Finish’ button in the top right corner.

Before saving your animation, you’ll have the chance to
customise your filters and aspect ratio, just like before.
When you’re happy, tap ‘save’ up the top right, and bam!
Your 360 photo animation is done.
98
Here it is (press play!):
Just like when choosing between a tiny planet or inverted

planet, an animation can be the best choice in certain situations.
Animations are best suited to when you have something you
want to reveal in your scene. Start your first viewpoint either
very close to something or at a very wide angle, then move the
image in a way that reveals a previously hidden area.
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9
Tiny planet
videos
100
Tiny planet videos
Congratulations! You’ve mastered the art of tiny planet

photography.
Which means.. it’s time to try your first tiny planet video!
The good news is that every creative principle you’ve
learned so far is just as relevant with videos as it is photos,
so we won’t need to start from scratch.
It’s important to keep in mind that with practically every
360 camera ever made, the photo resolution has been
greater than the video resolution. So regardless of which
camera you own, your 360 videos will inevitably be lower
quality than the photos. However, since we’ll be reframing
our 360 videos as tiny planets and other viewpoints,
resolution issues won’t be as noticeable when displayed
within the walls of an Instagram square or a YouTube video.
The two best (free) apps for tiny planet videos are:
Theta+ (Mobile)
Insta360 Studio (Desktop)
You can find download links to both after a quick Google.
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Tiny planet videos
Theta + is good for basic tiny planet videos, where you

only need one shot to stay in one position the whole time.
The editing process is exactly the same as we discussed in
an earlier chapter with photos.
Insta360 Studio however, is the better option if you want
to add multiple viewpoints to the same video. It gives you
more options for manipulating your 360 videos, which is
why it’s my go-to tiny planet video editor. You can watch
my video tutorial for Insta360 Studio here: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw6BB-UjZkg&t=27s
Now let’s learn some cool tiny planet video techniques!
The first thing to note is that 360 video files have the
same equirectangular (2:1) aspect ratio as 360 photos, as
seen below:
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Tiny planet videos
Video Style 1: Holding the camera

This is the video equivalent to where we first began, except

this time we’re moving. First, switch your camera to video
mode and hold it in front of you (or better yet use a selfie
stick). Press record and walk forward. Once you’ve covered at
least twenty steps, button off when you’re ready.
That was easy! As usual, download the video file to your

smartphone or computer, import to the editing app you’re
using and manipulate it into a tiny planet.
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Tiny planet videos
When you’re happy, export the video. Here’s mine- It looks

like I’m walking down a giant snowball!
This is the most basic tiny planet video style, and as simple as
it is, it can still be the best choice when you’re walking
through an environment and want to show everything.
This effect can also be reversed; instead of walking from top to
bottom, rotate the video 180 degrees to create the illusion of
walking from bottom to top. Most of the time, however, your
video will be more interesting if you’re walking top to bottom,
as it gives your audience a better sense of orientation.
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Tiny planet videos
Now that we’ve gone from top to bottom, what if we

wanted to travel from left to right instead? Surely it’s as
simple as turning your body 90 degrees in real life and
walking that way, right? Wrong. Adjusting your direction
in real life shifts where top and bottom are, and will give
you the same result.
The best way to travel across the horizontal axis of your
planet is with your camera to the side of you. With your
camera in video mode, position it to either your right or
left side, and press record.
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Tiny planet videos
When you’re done, button off and download your footage.

The edited video will look something like this:
It looks like I’m travelling sideways in a spaceship! The

palm trees move across the bottom of the planet like
dancing jellyfish tentacles.
Be inventive. Holding your camera out to the side as you
walk or ride a bike will create a similarly cool effect.
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Tiny planet videos
Video Style 2: Static camera, moving subject

This is a simple way to create the effect of inhabitants moving

around the edge of your planet. Feel free to refer back to the
‘Step away from the camera!’ chapter to get an idea of how to set
up your shot, but once again you’ll get the best results from
placing the camera on the ground in order for you to appear on
the edge of the planet later.
Switch your camera into video mode, press record, then move
around your surroundings like a maniac (or a normal person if
you absolutely must).
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Tiny planet videos
Remember to stay 3-10

feet away so you remain
prominent; in both
examples here I was
roughly 3 feet from the
camera.
You can walk in any

direction you choose,
which will make your
planet seem like it has
‘gravity’ when you’re
upside down and not
falling into orbit!
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Tiny planet videos
After you’ve played with this effect and have sufficiently

embarrassed yourself dancing in public like I did, you
might want to consider capturing some more ‘natural’
situations in this style. Below, I placed the camera on the
green as I putted my ball towards the hole – in the final
video, it looks like I’m putting my ball from one side of
the planet to the other.
The difference
now is it doesn’t
look like I’m
performing for
the camera,
rather that the
audience is
observing life
on this little golf
planet!
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Tiny planet videos
Video Style 3: Static camera, moving planet

Some of my most popular tiny planet videos have been ones

where I’ve ‘taken a walk around the planet’. To give them more
exciting names, let’s call them the tiny planet treadmill and the
hamster wheel. The tiny planet treadmill is when you position
yourself at the top and have the planet rotate underneath you as
you walk:
To do this, place your camera on ground level and press

record. Walk around the camera in a roughly 3-foot radius,
and do a couple of revolutions.
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Tiny planet videos
Now we’re going to add keyframes to the video inside

Insta360 Studio. Follow the video tutorial to see exactly
how it’s done- here it is again: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Qw6BB-UjZkg&t=27s
The key is to rotate the planet constantly, so you always
remain on top. Use as many, or as few keyframes as you
need to make this effect work smoothly.
Next let’s try a ‘hamster wheel’. A hamster wheel is the
silly name i gave to the treadmill, but inverted. The
workflow for creating a hamster wheel is exactly the same
as with the treadmill, the only difference being the
inversion now places us at the bottom just like a hamster!
As with inverted
planet photos, the
‘hamster wheel’ effect
looks extra cool when
you have details in the
sky, like buildings and
trees, as they move
around the ‘wheel’ in
sync with you
walking.
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Tiny planet videos
Video Style 4: Advanced 360 animations

So you’ve mastered everything up to this point and now you

just want to show off. So you should!
Creating an advanced 360 animation involves adding several

viewpoints between points A and B. This is commonly referred
to as ‘freecapture’ or ‘overcapture’ or ‘reframing’.
There are absolutely no rules to reframed videos, so I
encourage you to play with any and every viewpoint. After all,
you’ve reached tiny planet god level now; you can create and
destroy planets with the touch of your fingertips!
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Tiny planet videos
You may decide your

video needs a subtle zoom
between points A and B:
I timed the movement
here to zoom out in sync
with the people being
lifted from the boat.
You might use a

custom rotation to
simulate a vehicle
driving in different
directions around
the planet.
Whenever you can make your video loop smoothly, it’s a

big win – this means the final video isn’t jarring when
Instagram replays it, which in turn makes viewers more
likely to watch it over and over.
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Tiny planet videos
Like with our photo

animations, you might
choose to start in close and
reveal the surroundings.
You might even choose to
dance terribly while you’re
at it. Once you understand
the rules, there are no rules!
Sometimes a situation is better for photos, and sometimes

it’s better for video. If you have time, try both to double
your chances of scoring a great piece of content.
A reframed 360 video featuring yours truly

114
10
Color correction
115
Color correction
COLOR CHANGES EVERYTHING

So you’ve shot and edited your tiny planet masterpiece, but still
feel like it’s missing something. Unless you were photographing
inside Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, there’s a strong chance
your image is in need of color correction!
The image below seems ready to publish, right?
Not quite. Before we go anywhere, let’s fix the colors.
116
Color correction
Here’s what i got after just 60 seconds of color correction!
117
Color correction
Using some kind of color correction tool is essential for any

photographer who wants to present their work
professionally. Photography is all about having control of
your image from start to finish by presenting a specific series
of creative choices to your viewer, which manifests itself in
the final photo. Skipping color correction would be like Da
Vinci leaving the face off of the Mona Lisa because the
painting was already 90% done and the other 10% didn’t
really matter. Color correction can give your images a whole
new life as well as bring bad images back from the dead!
So, which are the best mobile color correction apps?
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Color correction
Snapseed: This is the best free color correction app

available for both iPhone and Android. The manual
control it gives is far superior to anything else i’ve
used, including Instagram’s own color editor. It also
help you achieve complex tasks, like painting out
unwanted details and isolating individual areas to
work on independently. Snapseed is my go-to app of
choice!
Lightroom: Adobe buffs, your favourite color
correction software is also on mobile. It has most of
the same abilities as Snapseed, and it does some
things better. However- you’ll need an Adobe CC
subscription to unlock features that make this your
go-to app, but well worth it if you can afford it!
Instagram: At the very least, you should use the
manual color sliders in the Instagram editor to fine-
tune your work. The pre-made filters only achieve
50% of what your photo needs, often leaving you
with too much vignette, too little saturation,
brightness, etc. I only use the this after I’ve used
Snapseed, to make last minute adjustments like
boosting saturation another 10%, straightening,
adjusting colour temperature, and so on.
119
Color correction
Color vs. Black & White
This image works well both as color and black and white. I
published the black and white version because it was totally
unique compared to the other photos I’d posted on Instagram
around that time, most of which had blue backgrounds. I also
liked the ‘graffiti’ style of it – it’s like an artwork within an
artwork. Color vs. Black & White is a consideration you should
make with every new photo you take, just be careful not to
overdo Black & Whites as color is usually the best option.
120
Color correction
Removing the tripod/tripod shadow
Another reason to take your planet into a color app, is

that the 360 camera will almost always capture the tripod,
as well as the camera’s shadow. If you prefer to fix it the
longer way, send it to your computer and Photoshop it
out. However one of the cool things about tiny planet
photography is you can now do literally everything that
once required a computer on your smartphone.
121
Color correction
To edit out the tripod or camera shadow, import your

planet into Snapseed, then select the ‘healing’ function.
Zoom in (get in close so you can target the shadow
without erasing other important details), then paint over it
with your finger. Voila!
You’ve just covered up your tracks- this will add further

mystery as to how you took the photo!
122
Color correction
There are three things in this photo that are detracting from it and
should be painted out. Can you spot them?
123
Color correction
If you said: The massive sun spot, the tripod, and the little red lens
flare, you are correct!
124
Color correction
Vignette is another great tool for adding depth to your planets.

Planets are usually in the center of the frame, so adding a mild
vignette will help direct the viewer’s eye towards the middle of
the image, while giving the image more contrast if the colors are
a bit flat.
Good (subtle) - Bad (Too much)
Don’t over-do it. A small amount of vignette can be much more

effective than cranking the slider as far as it goes.
125
11
Marketing your
work
126
Marketing your work
Growing your audience

(DIFFICULTY LEVEL: YOUR CHOICE!)
Congratulations, you’re now a master of tiny planet

photography & video! Your friends and family will marvel at
your amazing 360 masterpieces. But what if you wanted to
attract a much larger audience to your work? Should you
hand out your business cards to anyone that will take them?
Should you save the small change from your daily espresso
until one day you can afford that 4.5 million dollar, 30 second
Superbowl halftime commercial? You can.. but after that
doesn’t work, the better option will be learning some basic
social media marketing!
The following things if done properly, will help you get
instantly higher exposure, engagement, likes and followers on
Instagram. And getting lots of likes is not the goal- getting a
high ‘reach’ where as many people from your target audience
as possible are seeing your work, is. Likes mean nothing if
they’re the wrong kind of likes; your goal is to get a high level
of interaction from the accounts that are most relevant to you.
While we’ll focus mostly on Instagram in this section, the
same principles largely apply to all other social media
platforms too.
127
Marketing your work
Your Instagram grid
As a photographer, your Instagram profile is your business

card to the world. It needs to display nicely overall as a whole,
not just individual photo by photo. I’ve screenshot two random
points from my own Instagram grid, over a year apart. What
do the two grids have in common?
128
Marketing your work
Contrast. Every image

stands out from the ones
around it. No image is next
to, above, or below a photo
with similar edits or
colours. Each photo
contrasts the others really
nicely. If your images
blend into one another,
none will stand out
individually, and they will
be overlooked. You must
consider your Instagram
grid when making creative
choices with each shot,
especially regarding colour.
Mix it up: planets, inverted planets, colour, black & white,

photo, video, holding and not holding the camera, and so
on. Variety is the spice of life! Most people will only see your
last nine images, so show as wide of a spectrum of your
work as possible, all the time.
129
Marketing your work
Only post the best

This is key. For every fifteen photos I take, I post one. The
other fourteen images were a 7.9/10 or below, and not
representative of the standard of work I hold myself to.
Learning marketing is extremely important, but if you don’t
have quality work to back it up, people won’t look to you as
someone who consistently posts impressive work.
Nike, for example, has it’s customer satisfaction at a level so
high that they don’t even need to run ads anymore, because
the gear sells itself. When you wear a brand new pair of
Nikes, it’s usually a 9/10 or 10/10 experience, which keeps
you coming back for more. The same is true for what your
audience expect from you: the best. Get rid of the rest! Your
followers will love you for it and your reputation will grow
very fast.
Even if a tiny planet is a 7.99/10 and I have nothing else to
post, I won’t post it because I don’t settle for inferior work.
This is why I manipulate my photos into every possible
combination of edits – I need to be 100% certain I got the
score as high as possible before posting.
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Marketing your work
Consistency
We all have that one friend who we don’t hear from for
several months, then out of the blue they decide to bombard
us with a 200-photo-deep Facebook album from their recent
trip to Thailand. Even if we like the person, how many photos
are we realistically going to look at? Perhaps two or three?
This is not a smart marketing strategy, and will result in your
audience seeing just 2% of your work.
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Marketing your work
Posting one photo per day for two hundred days in a row is
a smarter approach, and will result in your audience caring
more deeply about each individual photo. It allows them to
absorb the story of each post fully without feeling like they
need to rush through a massive album in order to not miss
their bus, leaving in five minutes. The most successful
accounts on social media, especially the visual ones like
Instagram and Facebook, post no more than 1-3 images per
day. They also post every day.
Popping up in someone’s news feed on a daily basis will keep
you fresh in their minds, and will help them follow your
story. You’ll give them enough time between posts for them
to miss you, but not enough to forget you. If you can post
every single day, great! Otherwise, try every 2-3 days at the
very least if you aspire to significantly increase your
following. If you go on vacation, build up your ‘archive’ as
deeply as possible so you have several weeks of content to
post when you get home.
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Marketing your work
#Hashtags
For accounts under 1000 followers, hashtags are one of the best
tools in your Instagram arsenal. If you don’t hashtag, you need
to start #asap.
Firstly, you need to decide who your audience is. ‘Everyone’ is
the wrong answer, as the objective of social media marketing is
to find your specific niche, then dominate that niche. Working
hard to get the attention of any random instagrammer is a
waste of time; instead you should focus only on people who
will truly appreciate your work and become your diehard fans.
Someone who likes tiny planets will appreciate your work a
hundred times more than someone who is only on Instagram
for food pics.
Here’s an example of the wrong kind of hashtags to use:
#beautiful #pretty #photo #instagood #follow4follow #nofilter
Why are they bad? Because everybody uses them. They each
have several million results when searched for, and perhaps one
in a million will be a tiny planet photo. Using them may result
in a few likes, but they’ll be the wrong kind of likes – mostly
bots named ‘instgramfollowers_4free’ and so on, who aren’t
exactly going to appreciate the complexities of your work.
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Marketing your work
Currently, Instagram allows for 30 hashtags per post, so the goal

is to use them all and make them as specific as possible to each
photo in order to maximise your reach. I’m constantly browsing
hashtags and updating my list. Here are a few hashtags that are
effective in the 360 niche for accounts under 1000 followers
(pick and choose as you please):
#lifein360 #tinyplanet #littleplanet #theta #tinyplanetbuff
#360camera #littleplanet #stereographic #tinyplanets
#photosphere #360panorama #panorama360 #smallplanet
#360cam #360photography #360photo #360video #360selfie
#panorama #theta360official#thetaplus #tinyplanetexplorer
#360vr #insta360 #misphere
Obviously some of these reference cameras and apps, so adjust
them according to whatever your setup is. These hashtags are
niche enough that usually 75-100% of the posts using them are
360 or tiny planet images, as opposed to the 0.0001% from the
first list.
These hashtags are also great because they generally have
anywhere from 2,000 to 100,000 posts under each tag, which is
the perfect amount because there’s enough results for people to
justify searching for it, but not too many that your work gets lost
in millions of other photos.
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Marketing your work
Whenever you’re visiting somewhere new or doing something

interesting, consider using hashtags that are location and
activity-specific. For example:
#nadi #fiji #parasailing #snorkelling #reef
In this case, these tags are less specific, but they’re just specific
enough to be discoverable by people researching their next
holiday. If your post is related to a niche hobby (let’s say golf),
brainstorm everything you can think of to do with golf, and
turn those words into hashtags:
#golf #golfcart #golfbuggy #6iron #bunker #puttinggreen
#putting
This is sure to get the attention of a few golf-related accounts.
Obviously, they’re not your ideal audience, but it will certainly
lead to individuals and businesses noticing your work, which
may even lead to opportunities or reposts of your work to their
followers.
135
Marketing your work
Tagging businesses
One of the greatest honors on Instagram is to have your work
shared by a big, established account to their army of followers.
This is essentially free advertising, and will drive a ton of traffic
your way. The more you use 360 related hashtags, the more likely
you are to attract the attention of big 360 accounts like
@theta360official, @lifein360, @insta360 and a few others who
consistently share tiny planet photographers’ work with their
tens of thousands of followers. The first step to having them
discover your work is @ tagging them in either the caption, the
comments, or the actual photo.
136
Marketing your work
Aside from 360 accounts, usually every business or company

with an Instagram profile wants the best user-generated photos
possible to represent their brand. They may have a designated
photographer working with their marketing team, or they may
rely entirely on sharing work from the public. There’s no better
endorsement for a business than a picture of someone
interacting with and enjoying their place or product. So if you
happen to take a tiny planet photo of lego for example, tag
@lego in the picture. If it’s a tiny planet where the Sydney
Opera House is in shot, tag @sydneyoperahouse.
137
Marketing your work
Their respective marketing departments will be notified, and if

your work is good enough, they may just decide to share it
with the world. This is an incredible exposure opportunity, and
if shared, it only takes one of their followers liking the photo
enough that they may want to get in touch with you and work
together further. If a company does request to share your work,
make sure they tag your account in the description so people
know how to contact you.
Hey @sydneyoperahouse - check this out!
138
Marketing your work
Enter contests
Often businesses will hold promotional photo competitions
through Instagram to encourage the public to show off their
products on social media. Keep an eye out for these – since
tiny planet photography is so unique, you stand a strong
chance of being noticed over the other entrants.
Recently, my gym held a photo competition where contestants
had to take a photo at the gym’s premises and tag the gym’s
hashtag. That’s it. It ended up with about ten entrants total
(most of which were poorly taken phone selfies)...
On the very last day of the competition, I was shooting hoops

with a friend on the gym’s rooftop basketball court and
remembered the competition was ending that day. I got out my
360 camera, snapped a quick shot, then got back to the game.
Later that day I edited the photo, uploaded to Instagram, used
the gym’s hashtag, and forgot about it quickly thereafter.
139
Marketing your work
Two days later I received an Instagram notification:

‘Congratulations to @benclaremont for winning first place in
our photo competition with this epic shot of out rooftop
court!’ It came with a very nice cash prize that I used to buy
myself a brand new gym wardrobe!
Compared to a lot
of other tiny planet
photos, this would
be considered
pretty average. But
compared to nine
grainy, poorly
taken smartphone
photos, there was
simply no
competition.
Keep an eye out for local photo competitions and be sure to

take advantage of the uniqueness of tiny planet photography.
But also don’t just aim small. This applies to your favourite
worldwide brands on Instagram, too – if they hold a contest,
often all you’ll need to do is use their hashtag on a relevant
image, and you’ll be in the running to win prizes. I’ve won a
number of vouchers and cash prizes by doing this.
140
Marketing your work
Interact with your community

The first part of social media is SOCIAL.. media. It’s easy to
post a photo, caption it, hashtag it, then sit back and wait for
the millions of fans to come to you. Don’t get me wrong, this
is part of the process, however you’ll hugely accelerate this
process by being social first. This will help gain your future
audience’s attention; with your face showing up in their
notifications on a regular basis, they'll soon become curious
about who you are and what you do. You can grab people’s
attention by doing the following things:
Follow people on Instagram who have a similar account to
yours. Having other 360 accounts in your feed will not only
be great inspiration for you (and great inspiration to beat
them), but those people will be much more likely to follow
you back if you follow them first. For some great 360
accounts to follow, head over to @theta360official,
@insta360, and @lifein360 and check out the work they
share. Those accounts only repost the very best tiny planet
photos, so it will give you an idea of who the top tiny planet
shooters are, and therefore who you should follow.
141
Marketing your work
Like other people’s posts. Liking posts (even if their image

isn’t exactly your cup of tea) will draw that person’s attention
to your account. Every time I get a like, I’ll glance at each
person’s username & profile picture, and if they look like a
360 related account, I might check out their work. I’ve
received hundreds of followers of my own by liking other
people’s tiny planet photos and showing up in their
notification feed for the first time. This is a great way to
target followers within your niche.
Search your favourite hashtags. Start with #tinyplanet,
#littleplanet, #lifein360 and whichever other tags you feel are
relevant to you, and interact with the people using them.
Comment on other people’s work. Instagram is full of
generic comments like ‘Beautiful’, ‘Wow’ or ‘This is a good
post’- yeah, thanks so much for that heartwarming
comment! Sarcasm aside, while these comments are fine, if
you want to build relationships, leave non-generic
comments. Tell them specifically what you liked about the
image or give them value in another way. This will make
your comment stand out from the rest, and may even draw
the attention of the hundreds of people viewing that image
who may be enticed enough to check out your profile.
142
Marketing your work
Respond to comments on your work. Even if you get generic

comments, acknowledging the commenter shows people you
actually care and that they’ll get a response if they ever reach
out to you. If they ask questions, give as detailed an answer as
possible; this will accelerate your relationship with your
followers greatly.
143
Marketing your work
Share your work as far as possible

What are your favorite social media platforms, and in which
order? For me, it goes: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter.
Think about which sites you spend the most time on and feel
most loyal to. If you’re committing to buying a 360 camera,
buying this book, learning how to master tiny planet
photography, trying and failing, trying and succeeding,
editing your best photo ever, color grading it, hashtagging
and marketing it properly – why not share it to at least one
more social network?
It’s one simple step that could double or triple your photo’s
overall reach. If you have a Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
YouTube, Tumblr, 500px or Flickr account consider sharing
your work to those platforms as well. It’s only a few extra
buttons to tap. For still photography there’s no doubt
Instagram and Facebook have the biggest audience for
photos, however, it definitely doesn’t hurt sharing to other
networks as well, even if only one person sees it. Who
knows, they could be the one person who changes your life
some day.
144
Marketing your work
The best time of day to post

There’s lots of conflicting information on this topic floating
around the Internet, and they’re all right. And all wrong. This
is because each person is different and has a slightly different
audience geographically. Social media’s most active times of
day are around 8am and 4-6pm, as people are on their way to
and from work. I live in Sydney, and my average post is at
9:30pm each evening. This is convenient for me since I’m too
busy during the day to create a good post. It’s a good time for
my Australian followers (as well as my Asian followers, who
live in a similar time zone), and it’s also roughly midday
Europe, where a lot of my followers are based. Early risers in
the Americas will also see my post when they wake up too.
That said, I’ve posted at 9am Sydney time and my posts have
received just as many likes and comments. So test the waters
and study your instagram analytics.
Ultimately, if the content you’re posting is good, it will be
received well regardless of when it’s posted. Simple as that. If
it’s the middle of the night and you want to post something,
do it! Your followers will see your photo the second they
wake up.
145
Marketing your work
Take hints from others

As the opening quote of the book says:
‘If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved
the results you want, copy what they do and you’ll achieve the
same results’ – Tony Robbins
This applies to marketing, too! Observe your favourite
Instagrammers as much as possible, and take as many hints
from their success as you can. Pay attention to the kind of
work they post, their captions, their hashtags, the time of day
they post, how they interact with their audience, and so on.
If someone is successful at something, they followed the path
A-B-C-D-E to get there. If you follow A-B-C-D-E exactly the
same way, you’ll get very similar if not the same results!
Success leaves clues.
As a photographer, you need to observe and learn from
photographers more successful than you. Don’t do things the
long way by making every mistake possible when you don’t
need to – even something as simple as reading this very book
is borrowing from the hundreds of mistakes and failures i’ve
made, only to learn hundreds of important lesson that I can
now share with you. Speed up the journey by seeking out
knowledge and trying those lessons for yourself straight away.
146
Marketing your work
To summarise, here’s the equation for success as a 360 &

tiny planet photographer:
A great body of
creative work
+
An excellent
marketing strategy
+
Posting consistently
=
People noticing you!
147
12
The future of
360
148
The future of 360
I hope this book has been of value. My goal for writing it was to
transform your knowledge of 360 and tiny planet photography
forever, and set you on your journey as a photographer and a
creative. The journey has taken us from thinking about buying a
360 camera, all the way through to releasing our finished tiny
planet masterpieces into the world and attracting an audience to
them.
From watching this technology grow and innovate so quickly
compared to other forms of photography, it’s clear that the 360
revolution is only just beginning. The stuff we can do with it now
is already mind-blowing, yet it’s nothing compared to what we will
be capable of one day. Can you just imagine what 360 technology
will be like ten years from now? Reality won’t be real anymore;
we’ll be taking virtual reality photos while in virtual reality!
I will find you.. and I will 360 you
149
The future of 360
Hey, thanks so much for sticking with me – it means a lot

that you not only gave this book a chance, but you read it
right to the end. Surprisingly, only a very small percentage of
people who buy a book will read it all the way through.
You’re clearly an over- achiever; I know this discipline will be
reflected in your photography.
Feel free to tag me in your tiny planet shots on Instagram
(@benclaremont) – I see every photo i’m tagged in and am
seriously impressed by the amazing tiny planets i see every
day!
Since releasing the first version of this ebook, I’ve had people
reach out to me literally every day telling me how much they
loved it and how how excited they are to have their passion
for 360 unleashed. This inspires me every single day to keep
doing what i love and share everything i’ve learned along the
way. And the good news is, our 360 journey doesn’t have to
end here. If you think this book over-delivered for the teeny
tiny amount paid, then i know you’re going to love my video
courses- they teach the topic of 360 in much more depth
than what you’ve just read, and can be watched in a single
afternoon! So if you’re ready to become an all-around 360
photo & video PRO, in a fraction of the time as everyone
else, then follow the link on the next page and enrol today.
150
A Beginner’s Guide To 360 Video
More from Ben Claremont
Get my video course ‘A Beginner’s Guide To 360 Video’ here:

https://360videosecrets.com
151
More from Ben Claremont
Learn more bulletproof marketing strategies in my video course ‘A

Beginner’s Guide To Building A Personal Brand’. Get a great deal
on it (with my 360 video course) here: https://360videosecrets.com
152
Here’s where you can follow me for your daily dose of 360:
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/benclaremont
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/benclaremont
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/benclaremont
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/benclaremont
153
13
BONUS
CHAPTER:
Inspirational
accounts to
follow
154
Bonus chapter: Inspirational account to follow
It’s important to stay inspired on a daily basis, and what

better way than leveraging social media to turn
procrastination into inspiration? Here are my personal
favourite 360-related accounts to follow:
Instagram
@theta360official
@philipbloom
@insta360
@rylo
@ricohthetauk
@ricohthetafrance
@lifein360
@alexmakesvr
@kuulapic
Facebook pages
360 Rumors
RICOH THETA
Insta360
IVRPA (International VR Photography Association)
AirPano
155
Until next time! Blast-off in 3.. 2.. 1..
156
About the author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hey I’m Ben Claremont! After ten years struggling to make
ends meet as a filmmaker and settling into corporate
videography, one day in early 2015 I found myself with a
brand new prospect: 360. After buying my first 360 camera
(the Theta m15) with the last $500 to my name, i fell in love
with this new medium and quickly set out to learn
everything I could.
Four years later with over 100k followers, 4 world tours, 2

video courses and a published book, the passion for 360 is
alive and well. But what i’m really most proud of is turning
this passion into my full time job. The ‘starving artist’
approach clearly wasn’t working, so i developed a more
entrepreneurial approach to my creativity- i treated content
creation like it was a business; with high quality work,
hustle, passion & self awareness. Also the qualities this book
was born from!
On the average day you’ll find me sipping a long black at

Sydney’s Circular Quay, before setting out to create the next
great piece of content (or at least something passable
enough for Instagram). My girlfriend Devon and budgie
Snowy give me the love and support behind the scenes for
me to keep doing what i love every day. Thanks guys!!!
157
About the author
My first ever tiny planet! 11/4/2015.
158

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1

Video Style 2: Static camera, moving subject 107

A similar opportunity is available to you today. The art of 360

Whether you will be one of them is entirely in your hands, and

Congratulations and enjoy your journey.

Your fellow traveler,

I remember when I saw my ﬁrst tiny planet photo. Mindlessly

Only when technology advances signiﬁcantly do we truly

Yours truly enjoying a cool beverage on sunny Waikiki beach!

Now, there’s nothing wrong with this photo (aside from my

Yes, I could have taken lots of photos on my phone, but I’d

This is where 360 photography saves the day. Instead of the

So what does a 360 camera see in the exact same scenario?

The full front and

The above and below

This is called an ‘equirectangular’ 360 image.

In a spherical viewer (most cameras have this feature as a

(press play) A 360 photo viewed in 360 mode.

Interactive 360s are a fantastic way of sharing such an

Here lies the problem- such a small percentage of viewers

Here is where ‘Tiny planet’ or ‘Little planet’ photography

Greetings from Waikiki planet!

The incredible thing about tiny planet photography is that

What a regular camera sees

What a 360 camera sees

Photography is at it’s most effective when it’s used to

Now think about how many photos are snapped in an

If you dedicated the rest of your life to scrolling through a

The game changer in creating unique photographic

Keep calm and ﬂoat

This is by far the most common question I get asked. Firstly

Prior to the invention of 360 cameras, tiny planet photos

A wide array of mobile apps exists for this task, and my

The most common mistake I’ve noticed on Instagram is

Just like in life, tiny planet photography is a matter of trying

For advanced photographers, using your camera’s smartphone

Holding the camera

In tiny planet photography, choosing the right camera

Hold the camera in front of you, press the shutter button..

Multitasking like a boss

So you’re at your shoot location, with 360 camera in hand.

Open up the app and

Looking at the image on

After choosing Little Planet and swiping the screen to my

Once you’re happy with the composition, at the very bottom

Firstly we have ﬁlters, which are kind of like Instagram

POV (Point Of View) Shots

Join the mile high club

You won’t get a better

With regular photography, a common issue when you’re

In the following group shot, everyone is about the same size,

With group shots, it’s important to position everyone an

In the ﬁnal edit, I chose to zoom out to incorporate the

Step away from the camera!

Up to this point, taking handheld photos with your 360 camera

The little prince

Do it solo.. or grab your friends and let gravity take effect!

Now let’s do it: Using the wireless connection between your

If your camera is on a hard surface, it’s a good idea to use a mini

Tiny planets make the most boring locations look interesting!

Always look out for unconventional places to put your camera

Looking through windows

Think about how