iPhone Spatial Photos (HEIC) in StereoPhoto Maker
Recent iPhones shoot “spatial photos” — stereo pairs stored in HEIC. StereoPhoto Maker can open them: since v6.40 the program ships with a DLL, spphotolib, that lets it read Apple’s spatial photos (HEIC), and v6.41 extended what it can pull from them. Here is the exact setup and what you can do with the files afterwards.
The one requirement: keep the DLL beside the EXE
SPM is portable: the ZIP contains the executable and the spphotolib DLL, and they must stay in the same folder. If HEIC files refuse to open, a separated DLL is the first thing to check — see HEIC won’t open for the full checklist. Nothing needs installing and no plugin downloads are involved; older advice about downloading separate format plugins is out of date for v6.40+.
Open and work with a spatial photo
- Copy the .heic file from the iPhone (original quality — some transfer routes convert to JPEG and destroy the stereo data).
- Open it in SPM; the pair loads as left and right views.
- Align and set the window as usual (beginner walkthrough).
- Save your working master as side-by-side, and export viewing copies for your devices (Vision Pro, Quest).
Depth maps from portrait HEICs
v6.41 can also extract the depth map from HEIC portrait photos that contain depth information — the starting point for Facebook 3D photos and depth-based effects. The details are in the depth-map guide.
Transfer method matters: routes that “optimise storage” or convert to JPEG can strip the stereo pair or depth data. Move the original .heic file itself.