Guide for publishing 360 virtual tour in Google My Business and Google+

[Behrooz]

Hello,

I am a Google Trusted Photographer, I am looking for step-by-step instruction guide document or website for publishing my client's 360 virtual tour in their "Google My Business" and "Google+" ...

Please let me know if you know any document, book, or website.

Thx 🙂

[LucioV]

Hi @Behrooz first of all maybe there is a misunderstanding: publishing a VT it's not done through Google My Business nor Google+.

Actually, a Virtual tour is published on Google Maps, on the place you want to represent; this is done through an app, called Street View App.

Here is my detailed workflow for creating and connecting tours using DSLR for shooting panos and other tools for publishing.

I will share with you my personal workflow for businesses loading 

1) Take DSLR shoots: i use a Nikon D500 with a Sigma 8mm fisheye, mounted on a Nodal Ninja R10 panoramic head (mounted on a Manfrotto ball head just for leveling)
2) I shoot at least 4 shoots, each at 90° (for HDR, in previous SV|T program we were required to take 12 shoots, +2, 0, -2 each position
3) I shoot in Raw
4) I use Adobe Lightroom to get the best from my shoots (opening shadows, reduce highlights, increase sharpness)
5) I use PTGUI to stitch the photos and obtain an equirectangular panoramic photo (i use standard parameters for PTGUI, only increase sharpness and, sometimes, adjust the exposure controls); sometimes, depending on the structure of the business, i need to add some control points to stitch
6) I use PTGUI to extract the six faces (left, right, rear, bottom, up, front) and i use Photoshop to edit nadir on bottom face (remove tripod, eventually add logo)
7) I use PTGUI to project the bottom face to the panorama equirectangular projection, the same size of the original pano
😎 I use Photoshop to add the projected bottom to the uncorrected equirectangular, i merge levels, the pano is ready
9) I repeat for all the panos of the business
10) I load all the panos to Street View editor in prestitched mode, as i'm an old SV|T photographer, otherwise i load the prestitched photos to Google Photos, in a new folder i call PANO|_prestitched
11) I wait for the panos to be loaded
12) I open the SV app, i choose the yellow button on the right bottom corner, and i choose the Import sphericals photos option, then i choose the Google Photos source and i search for the uploaded photos
13) I open each single pano, and i long click on it to add blur for privacy reasons (faces, plates, personal details)
14) I choose a Google Map location for each pano (you can easily add the location to all the loaded panos), then i choose Publish to maps
15) After the images have been published, you can long click on a single image to add a link to another image

You are done 🙂

[ShafiulB]

@Behrooz Hi. 

Here is the complete Virtual tour expert @LucioV.  Just follow his solution

Happy Guiding!