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?

What is a nadir cover?

• 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