3DAround for iOS Lets You Photograph Food in 3D

Next dimension of food photography: Snap your grub in 3D with 3DAround

By Felix Esser October 27, 2014

next dimension food photography snap grub 3d 3daround — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Food photos on the Internet are as old as social media, and they’ve never been easier to capture and share online, thanks to ubiquitous smartphones and tablets. The general style of food photography, however, hasn’t changed much – two-dimensional representations of delicious dishes – mostly due to the fact that camera technology ultimately still is very much the same as years ago. And, you can only get the shot in one angle, unless you shoot multiple photos.

Wouldn’t it be much more convenient if it were possible to photograph from all directions at once, without having to worry about which view to show to our friends? That’s what the makers of 3DAround – Swiss-based Dacuda AG – were thinking, and so they set out to create a photo app that is specifically aimed at taking food photos, but no ordinary food photos, mind you.

What 3DAround (for iOS 8, h/t Gizmodo) lets you do is to sweep around your dish in a single movement, and have the app generate a 3D model of, say, a chicken salad or a chocolate cake. The resulting image can than be spun around and viewed from different perspectives, and thanks to your phone’s gyroscopes the app can even change the perspective based on the way you hold your phone – similar to what the HTC One M8 is capable of thanks to its dual cameras.

There are a couple of catches, though. For one, the app only works with iOS 8 devices, as only iOS 8 provides access to the camera API in a way that makes the app possible. Secondly, it is still in its beta phase, so you can’t download it on iTunes yet. And finally, the image format that 3DAround uses can only be viewed in the app or in browsers that support WebGL.

Still, the possibility to take 3D pictures with a phone that only sports a conventional 2D camera is enticing – and the possible uses of 3DAround go far beyond food photography, naturally. Stay up to date about the app’s development or help beta test it by heading over to its website.

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