How to upload a 360 photo to Facebook

If you ever tried to upload a 360 photo that you edited on your PC to Facebook, you may have run into a problem. Facebook will jut not recognize the photos not take by dedicated 360 cameras they support as 360 photos. So it will be just shown as normal photo, in it’s flattened state.

Instead, you want it to be a nice 360 photo in which you can look around, like here:


But the solution here is quite simple. So here is what you need to do:

What to do?

1. Prepare you image
The image has to be in the 2:1 aspect ratio for it to work. If you created a proper 360 photo, it should already be in it :)
Bratislava - Under SNP bridge 360
2. Open it in an exif editor
You can use any editor of your choice, but for this I will use the online service https://www.thexifer.net and just do it through their website. So load the image and choose eXif.me button.

How to upload a 360 photo to Facebook
How to upload a 360 photo to Facebook

3. Change the make and model
Here you have to update the make and model information for something that Facebook supports (here is a list of supported cameras). Let’s use Ricoh as the make field and Ricoh THETA S as the model. This combination worked great for me. Once done, scroll down and choose Go.eXifing. This will return you back to the previous page, where you can download the image with the changes.

How to upload a 360 photo to Facebook
How to upload a 360 photo to Facebook

4. Upload to Facebook
Now when you try to upload this photo to facebook, you will notice the small globe in the corner of the photo, and also the text will mention 360 photo instead of just photo. You still have to choose the default view, so hover your mouse over the photo and click the paintbrush icon, change the view for what you want, and click save (make sure the Display as a 360 photo is checked). Now you can share your post.

How to upload a 360 photo to Facebook
How to upload a 360 photo to Facebook

And that’t how you get your 360 photo on Facebook.

Lyon, France

I have posted a Top photography spots list in Paris long ago, but how about another one, from a second french city. So here, you can find my favorite photo spots in the city of Lyon.

You will notice that most of the photos here are night or blue hour ones. The reasons is I took them all in the middle of the summer, and during the day was just crazy hot and sunny to get anything nice.

Don’t forget to check out other available lists:

Passerelle Saint Georges

Let’s start with probably the most well know view from this city. The Passerelle Saint Georges is a pedestrian bridge right next to the center. It’s bright red, so it stands out quite a lot from the surrounding. You will get a great view with the Église Saint Georges church right behind it.

It looks great at night, but be ready to deal with very strong white lights on and under the bridge.

Top Photography Spots - Lyon, France
Top Photography Spots - Lyon, France

La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière

You will see this basilica from far away, as it’s on the hill above the city. I wold not suggest walking up to it. I did, it’s not a short walk. Instead you can take an underground cable car, which is a part of the metro there.

The Basilica looks really great, and you can take some wonderful photos around it. The view to the city is not that great, as there are quite a lot of three in front of it. But still you can get some photos there.

Top Photography Spots - Lyon, France

On top of the La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière

When you already get to the basilica, don’t forget to take the guided tour. The entrance is to the right side of the basilica. You will be taken to some interesting sites in the basilica, but don’t be surprised if the guide speaks only french. But that not why you took the tour.

The goal is the last spot on the tour, the top of one of the towers of the basilica. From there you will get the best view of the city, with this beautiful statue in the foreground. No tripods allowed though.

Top Photography Spots - Lyon, France

Passerelle du Palais de Justice

Another pedestrian bridge. This one is quite busy, so if you would like a people free photo, go there in the morning. It has this nice bend in the middle so if you set you camera low, you can nicely create a lead in to the Palace right behind it. There is also something like a “fountain” next to it and you could try a reflection in there. I got none, as there was not much water when I was there.

Top Photography Spots - Lyon, France



Passerelle du Collège

And one more pedestrian bridge. The river crosses the city a lot, so there are many beautiful bridge there. For this one, you can walk down under it, and get a view of it in its fullest. There are not many ships going up and down the river, so you will also get a great reflection there.

Top Photography Spots - Lyon, France

Place des Jacobins

I just love how beautiful this fountain is and I think you will too. It’s just a short walk from the city center, and it’s not as busy of an area as the main square.

Euronews

This is maybe not the typical spot I would recommend, but the architecture is just too unique to pass on. The Euronew building (the green one) and the Lizeo Online Media Group building close to it (the orange one) booth look crazy like something from a scifi movie. Worth a look :)

They are both a bit further away from the center, in a more port area. To get here, I would suggest going to the Hôtel de Région – Montrochet tram stop or Musée des Confluences stop and walk from either one.

Top Photography Spots - Lyon, France
Top Photography Spots - Lyon, France

Statue Flower Tree

This is a really cool tree looking flower statue right in the center. It’s a bit hard to use in composition as there is a fence around it, but if you have a wide enough lens, you can go close and get over the fence with your camera.

Top Photography Spots - Lyon, France

That’s all for this list from Lyon. I hope you enjoy your visit to this wonderful city, and get many nice photos there.

Don’t forget to check out other available lists:

Destination Budapest

I have been home for a week or two, so it’s time to travel again. For the next week I will be running around Budapet and then later Austira. And looking how hot it was last weeks, this will be a sweaty week :)

Growing white pillars

How about another Plotagraph :) This one is of the white pillars in the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. As there are this flowers on every pillar, I thougth, it would be cool to have them look like they were growing. So I animated it that way.

It took a bit of masking, as I wanted also animate the reflections to fit the overall look. But I think it came out quite nicely. What do you think? I’m also including a screenshot to the side, so you can see how it was done in Plotagraph Pro.

(if you are on a mobile or use an older web browser, you may only see a static image)

Plotagraph Pro

I have not uploaded an animated photo from Plotagraph Pro in a while, so I thought I share one with you. And since my favorite recent photo is this on of the Eiffel tower, I chosen this one.

And to show that this animation was not that easy, I’m including a screenshot of Plotagraph Pro, to show you how many points it took to animate this.

If you want to know more about how to create animated photos like this, check out my tutorial on how to do it here.

The beacon of light over Paris – Plotagraph

And here is the result. It is not completely perfect, as some areas don’t behave exactly as I would like them to, but it’s close :)

I’m sorry that the video is a bit big, but my current blog style stretches it to full width. I will have to tweak it a bit.

(if you are on a mobile or use an older web browser, you may only see a static image)

Vienna Photo Walk by Trey Ratcliff

Yesterday, as I mentioned before, I joined the Vienna Photo Walk by Trey Ratcliff, in Viena of course :). It was quite fun and interesting evening, and I had the opportunity to meet some great people (and have a look at a lot of photography gear :)).

For those who would still like to join a photowalk like this, there are still two more in the next month, and you can find the info about them here: 80stays.treyratcliff.com

A lot of random photos :)

And here is a big bunch of photos I took yesterday. As you may clearly see, this are not photos of Vienna, but are of the photo walk and the people in the photo-walk. As I can go to Vienna anytime (it’s really close for me), i decided not to focus on the city at all. There are also a lot of photos of Trey, but that a given as he was the center of the photo walk :)

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