In a 2018 report released by the US Institute of Building Documentation it was stated that 360° cameras were the second-most-used hardware to document construction progress. Despite lack of major updates to the statistics since then, we can see that photo documentation has been attracting more interest in recent months with the need to work remotely. In our previous blog, we compared DIY products to a full end-to-end solution, and in this guide, we’re looking at photo documentation best practices when working with a team of professionals.
Scheduling Shoots
It’s essential to set yourself up for success by choosing a toolset that enables you to manage photos by location and time before starting your job site documentation. During pre-construction, work closely with all team members to set up your project documentation schedule in a scalable way. By deciding on a schedule, you can stick to project milestones that have been agreed on and have estimated deadlines, or can choose to have your job site photographed every week or two.
Depending on the project stage or even the job in progress, you can adjust the frequency of shoots. For example, after major milestones of exterior work are complete, you don’t want to overload stakeholders with an excessive number of files, so moving from weekly shoots to biweekly can be considered.
Capturing 360 Photos
After arranging the schedule, professional photographers start capturing your entire job site’s comprehensive interior and exterior views with HDR-enabled 360° cameras. An important thing to note here is that photos are most effective when captured in the same location. Sometimes these pre-chosen locations can be hard to pinpoint because of changes in the surroundings with ongoing construction. That’s why experts prefer physically marking the camera’s location with a marker that can be on the floor or overhead. For reference, these locations are also marked on the floor plans.
Safety is always a top priority in construction, so while taking photos, it’s vital to capture job conditions as well to confirm compliance with health and safety regulations.
Mapping Photos to Plans
When it’s your internal team capturing construction photo documentation, the stumbling block is storing photos, keeping them in order, and managing access. It’s beneficial to leverage the platform allowing you to make job site photos available to the entire team via interactive floor plans or your preferred third-party integration, like PlanGrid, Autodesk, etc.
An added feature to look for, giving you even more flexibility, is the ability to pin your own photos and comments if you want to highlight a specific area or the place a work site accident took place, for example.
Leveraging Intelligence
Now that photos are taken according to the schedule and mapped to the corresponding locations, time to analyze the information they provide you with. Possible applications are bountiful, but most users enjoy photo documentation because it accelerates timelines, helps report to stakeholders and keep all project parties updated, saves budgets by speeding up payment processes, and more.
Located in 80+ global markets, Multivista can provide you with 360° Photo documentation services responding to all the requirements you have and following the best practices listed above. Check out this Brochure to learn more about 360 Photo or book a Demo to see it for yourself.