How to Convert a Photo to a Spatial Photo
Oct 11, 2026
Short answer: open the photo in Spatial Media Toolkit on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Vision Pro, set the output to Apple Spatial, and save it to Photos. The app estimates depth on your device and writes a real spatial photo, a HEIC file with a left-eye and right-eye image, that opens in 3D on Vision Pro.
What a spatial photo actually is
A spatial photo isn't a filter. It's a single HEIC file that holds two images, one for each eye, tagged as a stereo pair. Vision Pro shows each eye its own image, and your brain does the rest. That's why a spatial photo looks like a window into the scene and not a flat print.
Newer iPhones can shoot spatial photos directly. But most of the photos you care about were taken with one lens: older iPhones, DSLRs, scanned prints, screenshots. To turn one of those into a spatial photo, you need software that works out how far away each part of the picture is and then builds the second eye's view from that.
That's the job a spatial photo converter does. If you'd like the longer background on the format itself, read what spatial video is and how it works. Spatial photos use the same idea, one frame at a time.
How to make a photo spatial, step by step
These steps are the same on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro. The button names below are the ones you'll see in the app.
Add your photos. Tap Photos to pick from your library, Files to pick from a folder, or drag and drop them in. There's no limit on how many you pick at once.
Check the input format. For an ordinary picture, the input format is Normal 2D, and you'll see the AI Conversion badge. If the file is already 3D, such as a side-by-side image, choose that format instead and the app skips the AI step.
Set the output to Apple Spatial. This is the format Vision Pro's Photos app recognizes as spatial.
Adjust the depth. The Depth slider controls how strong the 3D effect is. The default works for most shots. Turn it down for faces up close, and up for landscapes with a lot of distance in them.
Preview it. On iPhone, iPad and Mac, the Preview menu shows the result as Cross eye, Wiggle, Side-by-side or a Depth map, so you can check it before saving. The preview mode doesn't change the file. On Vision Pro you see the result in 3D right away.
Save it. Tap Save to Photos. The app also adds it to an album called "Spatial Media Toolkit", so your conversions are easy to find.
Converting a whole album? Set up one photo the way you like it, tap Copy settings to all, then convert the queue in one go. There's a fuller walkthrough in our batch conversion guide.
Viewing your spatial photos on Vision Pro
If you converted on an iPhone, iPad or Mac and use iCloud Photos, the new spatial photo syncs to your Vision Pro like any other picture. Open Photos on the headset and it shows in 3D.
On Vision Pro itself, the app's Gallery tab can browse your albums and files and open 2D photos as spatial automatically, without saving anything first. It can also show a photo as a Spatial Scene on visionOS 26, which you can read more about in our post on spatial scenes in the Gallery.
Keeping the date and location
Turn on Copy metadata to result in Options before converting. The spatial version then keeps the original's date, camera details and location, so it sits right next to the original in your library and doesn't land at the end as "today".
Spatial photos for other headsets
Meta Quest and most other headsets don't read Apple's spatial format. For those, set the output to Side by side stereo and copy the file to the headset yourself. The app makes the file; it doesn't send it for you. If you don't have a headset at all, Anaglyph makes a red-cyan image for 3D glasses, and Wiggle turns a photo into a short looping 3D animation you can share anywhere.
Where the conversion happens
Depth estimation runs on your device, not on a server. Your photos aren't uploaded for conversion. On a Mac, AI conversion needs Apple silicon; Intel Macs can still convert between 3D formats that already have two views.
FAQ
Can I make a spatial photo from any picture?
Yes, any photo works, including old ones from a single-lens camera. Results are best when there's a clear subject and some distance behind it. Very flat scenes, like a document or a wall, don't have much depth to show.
Is it free?
Converting and previewing are free. You can save your first few converted photos for free; after that, saving needs Spatial Media Toolkit Pro. Saving any converted video always needs Pro.
Does it work with videos too?
Yes. The same steps turn a 2D video into a spatial video. See our 2D to 3D video converter post for the video side.
Can I convert spatial photos for my Meta Quest?
Yes. Choose Side by side stereo as the output and copy the file over. Our Quest guide walks through it.
Do I need a Vision Pro to make spatial photos?
No. You can convert on an iPhone, iPad or Mac. You need a Vision Pro, or another headset with a side-by-side file, to see them in 3D.
Try it
Spatial Media Toolkit runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro, and one Pro purchase covers all of them. Download it on the App Store and try it on a photo you already love.
