Experiment:
 Create 360° stills for Facebook from 360° video.
Objective:  I wanted to extract a few frames from a video taken with a KeyMission and share them on facebook as 360° content
Dune: threesixty

12/16/19 | 0 hrs

Work:

Then I found the solution which turned out to be very simple. I stretched the frame out in photoshop. The Key Mission records in a 16:9 format, but Facebook is looking for equirectangular projections which are 2:1. 

Here are the steps:

1. Export a single frame from Premiere (that process strips any relevant metadata, which may have been in the .MP4)* 

2. Open the frame in photoshop and select Image>Image Size

3. Make sure the aspect ratio link is set to "unconstrained." That's the little link next to width and height.

4. Set the width to 112.5% of its original value. That will turn your 16:9 image into an 18:9 image (or 2:1)

5. Save as a jpeg and upload to Facebook, no need to mess with the EXIF data at all.

6. You can tell that Facebook has recognized the image as a panoramic still by looking for the sphere symbol in the lower right-hand corner.

 

7. Click Post and you're good.


Next Steps

• Get more folks to test this workflow 

• Provide instructions for A-Frame.io embeds

Feedback

12/16/19 | 0 hrs

Work:

But what about stills from video?

This weekend I went out on a whim, to shoot the #NoBan #NoWall protest at the White House. Unfortunately, the battery in the KeyMission was very low and I didn't get as much video as I had hoped. I figured I could at least share some of the frames as stills, though. 

I'd just need to figure out how to spoof the EXIF data. I tried to follow Facebook's instructions. After a few failed attempts using things like "photoshop's file info," a command line tool called ExifTool, and the easy-to-use and cross-platform app EXIF Fixer I was ready to give up. 


Screenshot from EXIF Fixer


Next Steps

Keep Trying

Feedback

  • Didn't Work Booo!

12/16/19 | 0 hrs

Work:

Idea for the Experiment:

Last week I had a discussion with Caitlyn Stroh about sharing 360° stills on Facebook after shooting them with the Nikon Key Mission. I did some research and read that Facebook uses EXIF data to determine whether a still photo should be displayed normally or using their panoramic photo "player." That means sharing stills from the KeyMission is easy. The KeyMission already writes the appropriate EXIF data into each .jpg. So the process is super simple, shoot and share, no muss, no fuss no additional work. 

Here's a screen shot of a sample photo from Caitlyn, along with the EXIF Data. 


Next Steps

  • What if you didn't shoot stills though?
  • These are incredibly high res images, and we should think about using them more.

Feedback

  • None Yet

Discussion: