A 360º Image can be created by using a smartphone and a special app. It can also be created using a single camera with 2 or more lenses all working to capture and stitch together the images in one shot. Some are created by using a single DSLR Camera & different types of lenses. The type of lens will determine how many photos need to be taken and stitched together to create one spherical image.
We first capture 12 images, 3 on each of the four sides at different preset exposures.
(image copyrights to Oman360Views)
Then we merge images on each side to create high-definition/dynamic range images (HDR)
(image copyrights to Oman360Views)
Finally, we merge/stitch the 4 resultant images to form just one Equirectangular High Definition Image which when viewed with proper applications will display as a spherical image.
(image copyrights to Oman360Views)
So basically photos have to be taken and then stitched together to create a spherical image. Some cameras have in-built stitching applications, but in most cases, the capture application is different from the stitching application.
Of course today there are cameras that have lenses that can take only one photo (with single-lens) to capture the whole sphere (with the exception of the camera footprint). There are cameras that can also do this using 2, 3, 4, or more lenses, meaning the images are actually merged at the time of capturing, or some type of software is used in the camera to stitch/merge the images together to make a spherical image.
After a spherical panorama is created in the Equirectangular form as above, we then start editing it and enhancing the mage by removing shadows of tripod stands where possible, or security cameras, and blurring out faces and license plates, etc.
