This is a tutorial of how to take pictures for Funes modeling.
If you have photos ready to submit, jump to the end or click here!

# How To Take Pictures for Funes Taking pictures for Funes is super easy and can be summed up in one sentence: **walk around, take as many pictures as possible from different angles,** and that’s it! The more pictures you take, and the more the surface of the building is covered, the better the model will be. The following steps are what we have tried and practiced repeatedly, and found to be the most workable and efficient. ## Take pictures with a smartphone or a camera ### Step 1: Walk around Stand in front of a building. Take out your phone or camera. Make sure the building covers most of the frame. Take a picture. | ![Fig. 1](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig1_78b92d542d.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 1 | Then take a step to the left or right. Reframe the picture. Make sure the building still fills most of the frame and that it overlaps at least 3/4 of the previous picture. Take a picture. | ![Fig. 2](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig2_67fb668856.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 2 | Then take another step to the left or right. Reframe. Take a picture…. Repeat the above steps, until you reach your original position. | ![Fig. 3](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig3_796b098b59.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 3 | Now we have enough data to build a basic model of the building—as easy as it looks! If you want to make the model look more real and detailed, follow the next step. > **How many pictures do I need to take?** > A helpful way to think about this is to think of yourself as the hour hand on a clock. You’ll want to take at least one picture every “hour,” i.e. every 30°. This means you’ll end up with 12 pictures at the end of the cycle. > For best results, we recommend taking an image every “half hour” or even “quarter hour,” i.e. every 15° or every 7.5°. Remember, the more images you take, the better the results you’ll get. ### Step 2: Look up and down Now that we have completed a full cycle of the building. We have managed to create a basic model! But we’re not content to stop here. We want to capture more intricate details of the building that may have been missed in the initial model. An important part of this is the roof and the eave at the top of the building, and the foundation blocks, which form the bases of the building. Start by walking two steps closer to the building. Then, raise the camera high and aim it upwards towards the roof. Focus on the top and take a picture. (Don’t worry if your frame doesn’t capture the entire building—that’s fine, because you have already taken a complete cycle of shot before!) | ![Fig. 4](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig4_80f9e66f58.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 4 | Just follow the same pattern as in Step 1: gradually moving to the left or right around the building, until you return to your starting point. In the same way, you can tilt your camera down to capture the baseboards and foundation of the house, focusing on its lower part. Likewise, gradually circle around the entire building until you come back to the starting point. | ![Fig. 5](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig5_c051816403.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 5 | ## Take pictures with a drone Photographing the building on the ground with a phone or camera in hand is almost enough for our algorithms to do a basic reconstruction of the structure, but sometimes the upper part of the structure is missing or obscured with only ground imagery. In this case, using a drone is incredibly helpful. It helps the algorithms better understand what the building looks like from above. In general, the larger, taller, more voluminous the building, or the more complex and intricate the structure, the more effective drone imagery is for modeling. You don’t have to buy expensive drones; a cheap one can be useful. **Don’t forget to get a license (if required) and check local regulations before flying your drone.** ### Step 1 Try to get the drone as high as it can fly. Point the camera directly at the building. Make sure the image captures the entire outline of the structure you want to model. You can take different pictures pointing down at different heights as you raise (“ascend”) and lower (“descend”) your drone. This step not only helps the algorithms know what the roof or top of the building looks like, but also allows you to better observe the building and its surroundings before taking any further steps. Note any tall buildings, trees, or utility poles in the area that could be obstacles, and avoid them while flying. | ![Fig. 6](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig6_6a5b4de962.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 6 | ### Step 2 Lower the height slightly until it is just above the building. Move back until you can see the entire building from the view. Take a picture. Maintain your height and distance from the building and move around the building in a specific direction — either clockwise or counterclockwise — and keep moving, taking pictures continuously, until you have circled the building and returned to your starting point. You can use the “interval photography” feature to have the drone take a picture every 2 or 3 seconds. | ![Fig. 7](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig7_292c1373bf.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 7 | Optionally, after completing the above circle, you can lower the altitude further so that it is at the same height of the center of the building. Move backwards to make sure the building is completely in your field of view. Again, maintain your altitude, keep your distance from the building, and circle around the building until you return to your starting point. | ![Fig. 8](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig8_1bc80dffdb.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 8 | > **Orbit shot** > Flying your drone in a circular path around a building while maintaining a constant altitude and distance from the object is often called an "orbit" or "circle" shot. Certain drone models may also refer to this technique as a "Point of Interest" (POI) flight mode. This complex maneuver can be performed by consistently moving the drone to the right while rotating the drone's direction counterclockwise (or vice versa, moving to the left and rotating clockwise.) This move requires good control of the drone's remote controller, which can be difficult and takes a lot of practice. You can also watch video tutorials online to help you master this maneuver. | ![Fig. 9](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig9_92c1580112.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 9 | ### Step 3 Photographing the building from different angles following above steps is already enough to get the general shape of the building, but to create a finer model, we need to get closer to the building and capture more angles and details. One way to do this is to imagine surrounding your drone around the building with an igloo-shaped grid, like catching a mouse with an upside-down bowl. Imagine that the grid looks like the foam mesh you find wrapped around an apple at the grocery store. | ![Fig. 10](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig10_0ae11f6e5b.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 10 | You want to go through each node of this grid. One way to do this is to imagine drawing the capital letters "Z" or "N" along the grid. | ![Fig. 10a](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig10a_6e4f291113.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 10a | A cute mouse caught within a transparent, upside-down bowl an apple held in foam mesh Ideally, there should be more than two-thirds, and preferably more than three-quarters, overlap between any pair of adjacent photos. | ![Fig. 11](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig11_937c6c7d06.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 11 | Remember, the more densely you shoot and the more overlap you have between each photo, the better your chances of getting a good model. ## Tips and tricks The following is a list of tips and tricks that we have found helpful in the modeling process; these are not hard and fast rules, but following them often yields better results. If you're a veteran, you can rely on your own personal way of handling the camera or maneuvering the drone, but if this is your first time modeling buildings using photography, you may find some of these tips helpful. ### Keep moving Our algorithms calculate the depth and size of objects based on the distance between different perspectives in different photos, much like our brains use the distance between our eyes to process the depth and size of our surroundings. Therefore, it is more effective to be mobile during the process than to stand still at a fixed point and only rotate, pan, or tilt your camera. It is recommended that you not only just your camera or drone constantly, but change your own position and standpoint continuously. | ![Fig. 12](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig12_caf008279e.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 12 | After each photo or video you take, try moving to a different location, either by stepping to the side, moving forward, or moving backward. This technique can add depth and dimension to the images you produce. ### Avoid flying directly backwards Unless your drone is one of the most expensive models with reliable and sensitive obstacle avoidance, it is strongly discouraged to fly directly backwards or to the left-rear or right-rear. Experience has taught us that most crashes due to collisions with obstacles, especially tree branches, wires, and tall buildings, are related to risky backward movements. While property damage from drone accidents may be relatively minimal, it is absolutely critical to prevent crashes that could result in personal injury. Ensuring personal safety is the first priority when operating a drone. In short, unless the drone is clearly in your field of view and you’re pretty sure it’s completely clear behind you, free of any obstacles, forget about the fact that the joystick can maneuver the drone backwards. The only way we recommend moving backwards is to rotate (“yawn”) a full 180° backwards before moving forward, move to the desired position and rotate 180° again to regain your view. | ![Fig. 12a](https://funes-production.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/fig12a_5385d6e251.jpg) | |:--:| | Fig. 12a | ### Don’t zoom If there’s one way to significantly improve modeling results, it’s to avoid zooming—**don’t zoom in or out**! Our algorithms rely on aligning adjacent photos to reconstruct space, and zooming can greatly affect the accuracy of the alignment. When taking photos with your smartphone or drone, stick to your standard camera and avoid zooming in or out during the entire process. If you are using a camera with a zoom lens mounted, it’s recommended that you always push the lens to the “wide” end, which is the end where your frame covers most of the scene and the end that’s not telephoto, and always hold the lens at this wide end. ### Combining drone and ground photos _About combing the ground and drone photos. (to be written)_ ### Take more pictures of key details Some architectural details are structurally intricate or artistically refined, such as a sculpture, decorative relief, or inscription. In particular, voluminous, slender, or skeletal structures, such as a cross, truss, flagpole, or wrought-iron fence, may be more difficult to reconstruct. In addition, some other details may have significant historical significance, such as the plaque that details the date of construction. Try to get as many shots of these elements as possible, from as many angles as possible. Fly the drone around them (or move yourself around them), back and forth, high and low. The more shots you take, the more accurate the modeling of these details will be. ### Around or along If a building has an irregular floor plan, there are theoretically several different paths you can take around it: you can draw a large outer circle around it, an ellipse around it, or even, if you have plenty of time, you can follow its outer contour more closely, staying equidistant from the building’s facade and completely encircling the building. In fact, all of these trajectories are recommended, as each has the potential to yield optimal results. Ideally, if you have enough time, you could try all three.

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This is a tutorial of how to take pictures for Funes modeling. If you have photos ready to submit, jump to the end or click here!

Once you have a batch of photos ready, click here ⬇️ to submit.

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This is a tutorial of how to take pictures for Funes modeling.
If you have photos ready to submit, jump to the end or click here!