A community member recently asked about resizing images using Photoshop or other tools.
Problem
The original image looks like this in the THETA Desktop App.
The resized image looks like this
Why the Orientation Problem Occurs
The THETA camera stores camera orientation data as metadata. The THETA Desktop App reads in the metadata and orients the image properly. When you edit the app, you lose the metadata.
Solution
You can copy the metadata from the original image into the resized image.
Tools to Edit the Metadata
You need the following to edit the EXIF data.
Organize Original and Resized Images
The community member sent me these files.
Install ExifToolGUI and Configure with exiftool
Extract both archives.
Take the binary for exiftool(-k).exe and rename it to exiftool.exe. Copy the file and put it into the exiftoolgui folder
Process of using ExifToolGUI
Double-click on ExifToolGUI.exe
In ExifToolGUI, browse to the resized image.
With the resized image selected, under Modify select Remove metadata…
Select -remove all metadata. Click Execute.
With the same resized image selected, go to Export/Import → Copy metadata into JPG or TIF files…
Select the original image.
Copy everything.
Click Execute.
Test the resized file.
Drag the resized image from your folder onto the THETA Desktop App. The orientation now looks correct.
You’re done.
Other Tools
- pyExifToolGUI Mac, Windows, Linux and open source code
- ricoh-theta-autoit script to automate process and edit all THETA image files in a folder with a single command
Other Techniques
- You can use Hugin to reorient the image, not just the metadata. See this tutorial.
- export XMP data from official THETA desktop application and then use Photoshop