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Adding a nadir cover to 360 imagery

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Capturing 360 imagery for Mapillary and want to cover your camera equipment? Use a nadir cover! In this article we'll run through what exactly a nadir cover is and how you can leverage the open source Python library nadir-patcher to add a nadir cover to your 360 imagery in bulk.

 

What is a nadir?

In the context of 360-degree imagery, the nadir refers to the lowest point or the bottom of a spherical image. It is the point directly below the camera's position, often showing the tripod, mount, or other equipment used to capture the image.
Nadir - Wikipedia

What is a nadir cover?

A nadir cover, also known as a nadir patch or nadir cap, is a circular graphical element used to conceal the nadir area in a 360-degree image. Its purpose is to:
  • Hide the tripod, mount, or other equipment that may be visible in the nadir area
  • Create a more visually appealing and professional-looking image
  • Provide a consistent branding or design element across multiple images

A capture of a pier in coastal Croatia with a nadir cover

 

Adding a nadir cover to your imagery

You'll need to add a nadir cover to your 360 imagery before uploading it to Mapillary. There are a number of paid tools out there that can do this, however, our team recommends that you use the free Python command line script nadir-patcher, developed by our friends at TrekView.

All you'll need to use nadir-patcher is a source folder of 360 images, a circular png, and a destination folder. You can specify the nadir size to fit your needs. Please see the full documentation on nadir-patcher to get started.

Below is an example of a nadir cover added using nadir-patcher:

 

An example of a nadir cover added using nadir-patcher

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