How to Upload 360 Flat Photo to Facebook

How do we know what is a 360 Photo? - Metadata

Facebook recognizes and processes 360 photos by looking for camera-specific metadata establish in photos taken using 360-fix cameras. This data is embedded in photo's Exif (Exchangeable epitome file format) metadata tags, and if you're sharing 360 photos straight from camera, Facebook should automatically process and present them as interactive 360 photos.

Nevertheless, when metadata has been stripped from pictures or never existed in the first place, Facebook might not be able to tell that your photo is a 360 photo. Sometimes, metadata is stripped during prototype editing, but other workflows tin besides strip metadata from pictures. Here are some common reasons metadata might be missing:

• Emailed, embedded photos (vs emailing every bit file attachments)
• Exported photos from certain paradigm editors
• Uploaded/re-downloaded photos on hosting or sharing services
• Panoramas created manually (eastward.one thousand., art, in-game captures, scanned historic photos)

In these cases, the correct metadata must exist injected into your photos before they can be shared equally 360 photos.

At that place are two sets of metadata tags Facebook looks for to determine whether a photo is in 360:

1. Photo Sphere XMP Metadata
   Most 360 cameras and panorama-generation tools include Photo Sphere metadata in saved photos.
   1. Nosotros interpret the following parameters, in add-on to our own parameters documented hither: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/reference/photo/ - see spherical_metadata (tap arrow to expand JSON params and see the documentation on the sub-parameters like ProjectionType). Annotation that this is not exactly the same as the full spec linked to a higher place.
2. For Panoramas: Camera Make and Model - we use this only to interpret panoramas captured from mobile phones every bit 360 photos, and support many but non all popular devices.

Injecting Metadata

To inject metadata, you lot'll need to edit the XMP tags in the Exif information. Here are options for doing so:

• Using a Web-based Exif Editor - An excellent and gratuitous spider web-based tool for viewing and editing Exif is the eXif.er, which is used in the examples higher up. The eXif.er allows you to upload; view, edit, and save metadata; and download your modified prototype.
• Using a Standalone Exif Editor - There are many standalone Exif editors for Windows and OS X. Windows users tin can employ ExifToolGUI, which is free and fully-featured. Mac users tin search for "exif editor" in the Mac App Shop, where at that place are a few options for purchase.
• Using exiftool (Technical) - The most powerful and flexible Exif editor, peculiarly for batch processing of images, is the command-line tool, exiftool.

What do you lot demand to inject for proper detection as 360?

Total, spherical 360 photos:

These use "equirectangular" projection. 360 Photos must fulfill the following requirements for Facebook to process them properly:

• The photo must have a 2:1 attribute ratio
• The Exif XMP tag, "ProjectionType=equirectangular"
• They are below the maximum resolution and file size (listed beneath)

Most lensman-targeted Exif editors do allow the editing of the Exif XMP tag "ProjectionType," but if you're technical, you tin can use the popular command-line tool, exiftool.

• exiftool -ProjectionType="equirectangular" photograph.jpg
  # 'photo.jpg' is the photo y'all want to tag

When you're done editing metadata, admission Facebook in a desktop web browser to do your upload.

Panoramas (Advanced):

When uploading directly from a mobile device, Facebook commencement looks for spherical metadata. If that is absent, we consider the "make" and "model" of the device that took the photo to understand how to correctly interpret the panorama (that is, we need to know how far a given amount of pixels wraps around our viewport cylinder).  If, for some reason y'all have edited or otherwise lost metadata, you accept the following options:

• Edit the Exif brand and model tags

• exiftool -Make="camera_make" -Model="camera_model" photograph.jpg
  # supercede 'camera_make' and 'camera_model' with the advisable values
  # 'photo.jpg' is the photo you desire to tag

• Can copy/paste your panorama on peak of a panorama that has the correct metadata and "Save As" a new file
• Use one of the photoshop templates below that roughly matches the panorama size

Photoshop Templates: Creating your ain 360 graphics without metadata injection

If you lot desire to create an epitome that has the correct metadata to exist interpreted as 360, we offering the following templates to help you lot get started.

Photoshop templates:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/70mwlh8k0y4rg0g/AACVNV7hvRZtjEKj4DoJMhCba?dl=0

These can be used to create 360 photos and panoramas without injecting metadata, as it is built into the template. Cylindrical panorama templates are described by horizontal field of view (FOV) and vertical FOV, and there is also a full spherical (equirectangular) template bachelor.

Choose the template that near matches your intended field of view, adapt your picture into the template'south image dimensions, and use Photoshop'southward "Save As..." to save a JPG. See a video example of using one of the panorama templates.

Editing 360 Photos

You can open up and edit 360 photos in mutual editors.

Pro tip: Adobe Photoshop's "Save Equally" characteristic preserves photographic camera metadata, where as "Export As" and "Salve for Web" do non.

A way to featherbed all of this metadata word is to merely utilise "Save As" in Photoshop.

Image Resolution, Size, and Format Recommendations:

If creating your ain 360 Photograph, using special hardware or cameras, or uploading from 3rd political party software, the post-obit resolution, format, and size guidelines apply.

Project types: We accept equirectangular, cubestrip projection, or cylindrical (for panoramas only) example of our cubestrip format: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qyidmid631t7d0y/cubestrip%281%29.jpg?dl=0

File resolution and size limitations:

Photos should be less than thirty,000 pixels in whatsoever dimension, and less than 135,000,000 pixels in total size. File sizes could exist as big as 45 MB (JPEG) or sixty MB (PNG). We recommend using JPEG for 360 photos and keeping the file size less than 20-30 MB.

Note: These limits are the maximum values and apply to web uploads and straight Graph API uploads.

Mobile uploads have additional limitations applied during upload. If you want to be closer to the maximum value nosotros recommend you upload from web.

Due to bandwidth considerations the maximum resolution for mobile might be closer to 6k-8k for long edge; therefore, you could select a larger image on mobile, but it might be resized to this maximum size during upload to Facebook.

Injecting metadata for panoramas (Advanced)

If you lot'd prefer to employ exiftool to inject cylindrical panorama metadata, you can use the following commands:

• # 120º h_fov, 86º v_fov
• exiftool -FullPanoWidthPixels=18000 -FullPanoHeightPixels=9000 -CroppedAreaLeftPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaTopPixels=2350 -CroppedAreaImageWidthPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaImageHeightPixels=4300 -ProjectionType=cylindrical file.jpg
• # 150º h_fov, 86º v_fov
• exiftool -FullPanoWidthPixels=14400 -FullPanoHeightPixels=7200 -CroppedAreaLeftPixels=4200 -CroppedAreaTopPixels=1880 -CroppedAreaImageWidthPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaImageHeightPixels=3440 -ProjectionType=cylindrical file.jpg
• # 180º h_fov, 86º v_fov
• exiftool -FullPanoWidthPixels=12000 -FullPanoHeightPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaLeftPixels=3000 -CroppedAreaTopPixels=1567 -CroppedAreaImageWidthPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaImageHeightPixels=2867 -ProjectionType=cylindrical file.jpg
• # 240º h_fov, 86º v_fov
• exiftool -FullPanoWidthPixels=9000 -FullPanoHeightPixels=4500 -CroppedAreaLeftPixels=1500 -CroppedAreaTopPixels=1175 -CroppedAreaImageWidthPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaImageHeightPixels=2150 -ProjectionType=cylindrical file.jpg
• # 300º h_fov, 86º v_fov
• exiftool -FullPanoWidthPixels=7200 -FullPanoHeightPixels=3600 -CroppedAreaLeftPixels=600 -CroppedAreaTopPixels=940 -CroppedAreaImageWidthPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaImageHeightPixels=1720 -ProjectionType=cylindrical file.jpg
• # 360º h_fov, 86º v_fov
• exiftool -FullPanoWidthPixels=6000 -FullPanoHeightPixels=3000 -CroppedAreaLeftPixels=0 -CroppedAreaTopPixels=783 -CroppedAreaImageWidthPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaImageHeightPixels=1433 -ProjectionType=cylindrical file.jpg
• # 360º h_fov, 65º v_fov
• exiftool -FullPanoWidthPixels=6000 -FullPanoHeightPixels=3000 -CroppedAreaLeftPixels=0 -CroppedAreaTopPixels=958 -CroppedAreaImageWidthPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaImageHeightPixels=1083 -ProjectionType=cylindrical file.jpg

Smart Phone Panoramas:

We recognize panoramas from popular smart phones including the following:

• Apple iPhone 4S and higher up
• Apple iPad Pro and Mini 4 and above
• Almost recent Samsung phones
• Many recent LG phones

Troubleshooting:

I made my own 360 photograph and followed your instructions. Why does my 360 photograph expect and then strange?

Facebook honors some metadata tags that do things like specify field of view.

You lot can encounter a full listing of what we expect for here:https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/reference/photo/ - come across spherical_metadata (tap arrow to expand JSON params and see the documentation on the sub-parameters like ProjectionType)

Make sure that the FOV is consistent with what you want. Utilize 1 of the metadata editors discussed higher up to check these values.

Advanced Topics

Editing Equirectangular Projections

Using a standard image editor to edit equirectangular projections tin can be extremely challenging. You're editing pixels in a not-linear space that contains a lot of distortion. Here are a couple hints for successful editing.

Useful software and plugins

Two extremely useful Adobe Photoshop additions for editing 360 photos are Flexify ii for Panoramas (Photoshop plugin) and Domemaster Photoshop Deportment Pack.

Editing the height, bottom, or sides of an equirectangular projection (similar removing a tripod)

Editing equirectangular projections near whatsoever paradigm edge is difficult. The tiptop and bottom of an equirectangular image is very distorted, and the image actually wraps across the right and left border.

Let'due south use ane of the near common editing desires equally an example: tripod removal. At the very bottom of this 360 photograph taken at Facebook's Hacker Square is a tripod:

If this were a normal paradigm, it would exist easy to remove the tripod. But here's what the film looks like when opened using a traditional image editor:

The tripod is warped across the entire lesser of the image!

One solution is to rotate the 360 photograph so that the tripod is no longer at the bottom. Using a tool like Flexify 2 makes this easy. Rotating latitudinally by -90 degrees puts the tripod in the vertical middle of the epitome. In the middle of the image, it'due south piece of cake to remove the tripod using traditional tools like the Healing Brush.

Once you lot're happy with your edits, load Flexify 2 once more and practise a +90 latitudinal rotation to get the image dorsum to normal orientation. Export as a jpg, inject the appropriate metadata, and y'all're prepare to share to Facebook.

If you lot want to edit across the right / left seam, you lot tin rotate your image longitudinally to get access to that seam, over again, in the middle of your newly-transformed image. Here's a 180-degree longitudinal rotation of the same image:

Yous'll notice that the flick'southward orientation has been rotated exactly half way; the building with the Facebook display is now "backside" usa. This, incidentally, is likewise a way to force the initial viewing orientation. By default, Facebook sets the default view to be the heart of the equirectangular project. If you want the get-go view of a 360 photo to be something specific, transform your pic until your desired view is right in the eye.

Photoshop's built-in get-go tool ("Filter→Other→Offset") can also be used to rotate images longitudinally (sliding left and right, wrapping around). In theory, offsetting a picture using "Wrap Effectually" is a lossless action, so you can exercise this as often as you'd like when editing your motion picture.

Changing projections for editing

Other project types like cubemaps might be more suitable for conventional image editing. At that place are various tools out there that can catechumen from equirectangular to cubemap, but very few tin can convert from cubemaps back to equirectangular. One such tool is vrProjector, which can be used to convert back and forth betwixt the two.

A cubemap converted past vrProjector could be used for editing 360 photos

Final notes on editing in 360

In general, you tin utilize tools designed for panorama manipulation to transform equirectangular projections into other projections that might be more edit-friendly. When y'all do this, be enlightened that such transformation have the potential to be destructive to information, and yous could exist degrading the final quality of your 360 photo. Use care when doing such transforms!

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Source: https://facebook360.fb.com/editing-360-photos-injecting-metadata/