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Hacking Full-size Camera Panoramas to Work in Facebook: Page 4 of 5

PhotoJoseph's picture
July 16, 2016 - 6:00pm

What We Know so Far

This has been really interesting. Well, interesting for me… if you're actually reading these words I'm impressed ;-) But what we now know is that the camera make and model have to match certain criteria, and we know that “Apple” and “iPhone 6 Plus” will work. It would seem obvious that any iPhone model that shoots panoramas will work, or perhaps even just the word “iPhone” will do it (it won't; I tried). But both names do need to be changed. I'd guess that a variety of Android-related camera make and model names will work too, but I can't test those. If you want to… go for it and let us know in the comments. The rest of the EXIF data and the file name does not matter.

We also know that the ratio can not exceed 5.75:1, and that the file height has to be at (or under?) 3,082. That said, there could be other criteria… it could be a total pixel count. A wider but less tall image might work that doesn't exceed the current 17,722 × 3,082 (54,619,204 pixels) size. 

That's actually quite interesting… and what I'll try next.

I've created a new starting point that is the original file with just the camera make and model changed. I'll keep returning to this one for each ratio test.

15 Let's change the ratio but not the pixel count

I created a new table to calculate sizes and ratios, ensuring that I've maintained the same pixel count all the way through. I may not get past the first one… but this is what I have in mind. The first row is what we've already tested the works. From there, the height and aspect ratio are calculated from a fixed total pixel count and a manually entered width. The widest width here, 29,919 is the actual width of my test file. You can also see the ratios of each calculation. Finally, I'll always round down on the height to ensure I don't go over the total pixel count.

I'm also scaling these differently than before. I'll change the Image Size of the un-cropped image to the calculated height listed below, then crop the sides off using the Canvas Size tool to match the width.

These are the ratios I’ll try, starting with a known working size

17,772 RESULT: Worked, of course… this is what worked before. But I had to do it again as a control test.
18,000 RESULT: Well that was a short test… this didn't work!
19,000 RESULT: Oh I can't test this… when I drop the vertical resolution to 2,874, the width reduces to 18,766; less than the 19,000 I'm meant to test with. Maybe not important, but still…

Could that 5.75:1 ratio really be the limiting factor? Or…

16 Could it be file size?

Looking through my test files, every file that worked was 6.1MB or smaller. The last test file was 6,099,930 bytes. Could file size have something to do with it?

I'll take the last fail, so the 18,000 pixel wide 5.93:1 aspect ratio image which is currently weighing in at… hmm, still 6.1MB but 6,142,747 bytes — well what the heck let's test anyway. I'll compress as a smaller JPEG, to quality 6 instead of 7 (file size now 5.6 MB), and see what happens. 

RESULT: Nope… alright then. It's not file size.

And just to prove that, I'll go the other direction, taking the last known working file from 6.1 MB up to JPEG quality 9, making it 8.2 MB.

RESULT: Yes, that worked… affirmation that file size is not an issue (at least not to this degree).

I'm going to try one more aspect ratio test, not that I expect it but I must try. I'll take go for the max 29,919 width and crop that down to just 1,825 vertically.

RESULT: Ha! That just crashes facebook… so that'd be a big nope.

Level:
Advanced
App:
Adobe Lightroom Classic (pre-CC) Adobe Photoshop Exif Editor Facebook PhotoSync
Platform:
macOS iOS Android Windows
Author:
PhotoJoseph

Thanks for getting to the bottom of this. I recently uploaded a LR Panorama to Facebook and wondered why it didn’t display as a Panorama. Now I have the answer.

Incidentally, I read all the way through. On page 4 of 5 I thought I found a typo (“(it won’t; I tired)”. But maybe you really were “tired” at that point.

Thomas

haha, I probably was tired! But thanks; fixed now.

@PhotoJoseph
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Very thorough explanation. I did try your tip but seems cant to get it to panorama view in FB. I resize and image to 19205 x 3340 (5.75:1 ration right ?) . Edit the exif, add the Maker & model to Apple and iPhone 6 Plus. Is there anything else that i miss ? But what can is when I resize it to 6000x3000 (2:1 ratio). Maybe you can comment on this

Thanks.

You missed a step… file must have a height of 3,082 or less. Scale your file down and it'll probably work!

@PhotoJoseph
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Does this still work?

I have some panoramic photos taken in Antarctica that aren’t showing to their potential in Facebook. I’ve changed the metadata, changed the aspect ratio and height, uploaded to my iPhone 6. They show in photos under panoramas with the wide angle icon in the bottom right but they don’t all the tilting view that ones taken on the phone allow.

Anything I’m doing wrong?

I don't know… haven't tried in a while. I don't have a pano on my system to test with. Sounds like you hit all the major points, and if it's showing the icon in Facebook it sounds more like an app thing. Can you try another device? Or paste the link in here (be sure to make it a public post) and I'll try it.

@PhotoJoseph
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Here you go try this one, not adjusted yet but if you get it to work let me know and I can adjust the others

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158191072375500&set=a.10158190…

That's just showing up as a super wide photo. I'll try on myself and see what happens.

@PhotoJoseph
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Yep, mine worked. You can see it here. This one was so wide that Facebook thinks it's a full 360˚ panorama, funny!

If you want to send me the photo you're uploading via Dropbox or something, paste the link here and I'll look at the source to see if I can figure out what's missing.

@PhotoJoseph
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Heres one of the photo files via a dropbox link. Totally unedited, let me know how you get on.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f41dhlylce8y3wn/Landscape%2002.JPG?dl=0

 

Well, the EXIF data hasn't been edited. It still shows Sony ILCA-77M2

Your ratio should be fine; it's 8192 × 1856 which is a 4.41:1 aspect ratio.

Change the EXIF and it'll probably work. Go through the final checklist again; it explains how and what to change it to.

@PhotoJoseph
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Yeah it’s unedited but when I change the EXIF file with apple and iPhone 6 Plus or iPhone 6 it doesn’t work.

if you edit it does it work? 

This is amazing! Do you think it can be done even for other types of pictures, like illustrations or paintings, and not photos?  

I don't see why not… pixels are pixels!

@PhotoJoseph
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The Exif Editor app linked in the article doesn’t appear to be in the Mac App Store anymore. But I found one called Photos Exif Editor for $0.99 that did the job. 

Thomas

Im hoping it can be done to any 360 camera available in the market. Comparability is important.

Thanks for this work! I uploaded a pano photo from desktop (15525*2700  5,75:1), and works. Interesting, if I make a resized picture from it (6210*1080,  5,75:1), this isn’t recognized as pano.

And I have a problem. Quality my picture is very-very terrible on FB. Here are the exif data:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=197EKHn0lZ3LcJ8nJuQFL3GYfS60WsZMN

What is your opinion?

Gyula

I find the solution! The jpg format setting was Hoffman codes. I changed it progressive, and the quality of uploaded pano is excellent.

(The “JPG(old style)” became suspicious in exif data.)

Gyula

That is awesome! How did you change this?

@PhotoJoseph
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I use ACDSee, the details of conversion are optional.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sfau2vw3J_s30kZ9hUse6rI_hw1SpBcK

 

Gyula

Joseph, I have another problem. My photo 360 degree exactly, but not allowed the hole rotation on FB

I try change the aspect ratio, but did not succeed.  I show this problem on the attached photo:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XCCsYZdAKES16FYZQsI5YqavV0QntTCC

What’s your opinion?

 

Gyula

thanks for figuring this out. I have found a free EXIF fixing website that did the job

https://www.thexifer.net/#exif-general

Thank you so much for sharing this! I’ve been frustrated and trying to find a way to make this work for a while!

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