Step 3: Injecting Photo Sphere XMP Metadata

Metadata is any data that helps describe the content or characteristics of a file.

Adobe’s Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) is a file labeling technology that lets you embed metadata into files.

ProjectionType is one of the XMP GPano Tags, which written by Google Photosphere.

This tutorial demonstrate the steps of:

1. Injecting Photo Sphere XMP Metadata into your photo

This is one of the requirments for Facebook to detect your photo is a spherical 360 photo.

Method 1: Web-based Exif Editor

• the eXif.er

Method 2: Exiftool

Linux

Install exiftool

# Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, ...
sudo apt-get -y install libimage-exiftool-perl

# CentOS, RadHat, Amazon Linux, ...
sudo yum install -y perl-Image-ExifTool

Add Exif XMP tag

exiftool -ProjectionType="equirectangular" IMG_0001.jpg

macOS

Install exiftool

• macOS Package: ExifTool-10.71.dmg
• or via brew: brew install exiftool

Add Exif XMP tag

exiftool -ProjectionType="equirectangular" IMG_0001.jpg

Windows

Install exiftool

• Download exiftool v10.71
• Unzip and copy the .exe file to C:\Windows\

Add Exif XMP tag

By command (Recommended)

exiftool -ProjectionType="equirectangular" IMG_0001.jpg

By GUI Exif Editor

• Download ExifToolGUI v5.16
• Unzip and open ExifToolGUI.exe

1. Select your photo
2. Click ExifTool direct
3. Enter -ProjectionType="equirectangular" into command box below, then hit Enter

Reference

• ExifTool by Phil Harvey: https://sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
• Editing 360 Photos & Injecting Metadata: https://facebook360.fb.com/editing-360-photos-injecting-metadata/
• Adobe XMP standard: https://www.adobe.com/products/xmp.html
• Google Photo Sphere XMP Metadata: https://developers.google.com/streetview/spherical-metadata