360-degree images of church interiors being added to archdiocesan website
By Natalie Hoefer
To increase the sense of community among the parishes of the Church in central and southern Indiana, The Criterion is beginning to add 360-degree images of the interior of archdiocesan churches to the archdiocesan website.
The images can be viewed from either a computer or a smart phone.
On a computer, viewers can use their mouse to scroll up, down, right and left for a 360-degree look around a church’s sanctuary.
When accessed via mobile phone, viewers can use their finger to swipe from side-to-side, tilt their phone up or down, or hold the phone steady and pivot slowly in place to view a church’s interior. No special application (app) is required to view the images.
To access the available images by computer or smart phone, log on to www.archindy.org/360, or go to a particular parish under the Parish Listing at www.archindy.org/parishes and look for a link to the 360-degree view.
Images are currently available for the following churches:
- All Saints Parish, Dearborn County
- American Martyrs, Scottsburg
- Christ the King, Indianapolis
- Mary, Queen of Peace, Danville
- Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Jeffersonville
- Our Lady of Lourdes, Indianapolis
- Our Lady of Perpetual Help, New Albany
- St. Agnes, Nashville
- St. Ambrose, Seymour
- St. Andrew, Indianapolis
- St. Anne, New Castle
- St. Anthony of Padua, Clarksville
- St. Anthony of Padua, Morris
- St. Augustine, Jeffersonville
- St. Bartholomew, Columbus
- St. Benedict, Terre Haute
- St. Charles Borromeo, Milan
- St. Christopher Parish, Indianapolis
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Richmond
- St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Cambridge City
- SS. Francis and Clare, Greenwood
- St. John Paul II Parish, Clark County
- St. John the Evangelist, Indianapolis
- St. Joseph, Shelbyville
- St. Lawrence, Lawrenceburg
- St. Louis, Batesville
- St. Malachy, Brownsburg
- St. Mark, Tell City
- St. Mark the Evangelist, Indianapolis
- St. Mary, Aurora
- St. Mary, Greensburg
- St. Mary, New Albany
- St. Michael, Greenville
- St. Nicholas, Sunman
- SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Indianapolis
- St. Paul, Bloomington
- St. Rita, Indianapolis
- St. Rose of Lima, Knightstown (chapel for St. Anne Parish, New Castle)
- St. Thomas Aquinas, Indianapolis
- St. Vincent de Paul, Shelby County
The images, taken by iPhone or iPad, are being added gradually as reporters are on-site at a church covering an event.
With 39 counties and 133 parishes, some with multiple churches, the archdiocese is a broad area to cover. To make sure that all archdiocesan churches in central and southern Indiana are represented, we invite parishioners and parish staff to take their own 360-degree image of their church’s interior and send them in.
While we welcome images made from any 360-degree photo application, The Criterion staff has been using the iPhone-compatible Bubbli app, which can be downloaded for free from the iPhone App Store (note: as of yet, we have not been able to find such an app for Android phones). Information on size and compatibility requirements can be found when downloading the app.
Once downloaded, a help guide is available with instructions on how to take 360-degree images and tips for excellent outcomes.
Our experience has led us to develop some tips of our own. For instance, make sure that no people are in the shot, and change to variable exposure for churches with numerous or large windows. Also, be sure that the microphone setting is set to “off.”
We also welcome better exposed and aligned retakes of existing images.
Send images to online editor Brandon A. Evans at webmaster@archindy.org.
Keep visiting the archdiocesan website to see if any new images of Catholic church sanctuaries in central and southern Indiana are available for taking a virtual tour.
(Please note that neither The Criterion nor the Archdiocese of Indianapolis endorse or provide support for phone applications or the viewing of these images.) †
