Navigating the Preview

Section 01

Navigating the Perspective View

The 360 Preview panel presents your equirectangular panorama as an undistorted perspective view. Navigating this panel allows you to orbit through the full sphere, reframe composition angles, and verify visual balance prior to exporting perspective documents or making edits.

Unlike static crops or flat canvas scaling, preview navigation computes true rectilinear ray projections. When you pan or zoom in the preview, the camera moves around the optical center of the spherical capture.

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360 Preview viewport showing perspective view and directional navigation controls.

Section 02

Navigation Controls & Continuous Motion

The 360 Preview panel incorporates dedicated directional navigation controls designed for both subtle incremental framing adjustments and continuous spherical panning.

Directional Navigation Pad

The panel provides directional controls for Heading and Pitch adjustments:

Left / Right Controls: Orbit azimuth (Heading) horizontally around the 360° horizon.
Up / Down Controls: Tilt elevation (Pitch) toward the zenith or nadir.
Click-to-Step: Single clicks adjust the camera angle by precise incremental units for delicate fine-tuning.

Directional increments maintain exact mathematical bounds.

Hold-to-Move Continuous Action

Where supported by the navigation controls, pressing and holding a directional control initiates continuous, smooth camera rotation:

Continuous Orbit: Hold directional buttons to sweep across wide azimuth angles without repeated clicking.
Continuous Release: Releasing the button immediately stops rotation at the exact current orientation.
Smooth Rendering: The perspective projection updates responsively during continuous movement.

Avoids repetitive clicks when searching for framing targets.

Section 03

Heading, Pitch & FOV Parameters

The 360 Preview panel provides direct camera control through three core parameters. These values govern the camera position in spherical 3D space:

Horizontal Rotation-180° to +180°

Heading

Controls the horizontal viewing azimuth around the full 360° panorama. A value of 0° faces the center origin of the equirectangular projection, while negative and positive values orbit counter-clockwise and clockwise.

Vertical Tilt-90° to +90°

Pitch

Controls vertical camera elevation. A pitch of 0° levels with the natural spherical horizon, +90° tilts directly upward toward the zenith pole, and -90° points directly down toward the nadir floor.

Perspective Zoom30° to 100°

Field of View (FOV)

Determines the angular scope captured by the perspective lens. Supported preview range spans 30° (tight telephoto perspective) to 100° (wide natural perspective). Default reset state centers at 75°.

Camera Reset Behavior: Activating the reset action restores the camera to standard default orientation: Heading: 0°, Pitch: 0°, and FOV: 75°. This reset operates uniformly across both panels.

For deep technical details on spherical coordinates and projection geometry, consult the dedicated reference article: .

Section 04

Synchronized Camera Navigation

PanoView Editor links camera orientation in real time between the main editor panel and the 360 Preview panel. Adjusting navigation parameters in either panel updates the shared camera state instantaneously.

Real-Time Camera State Synchronization

Main PanoView Editor

Interactive spherical canvas or sliders adjust camera azimuth, pitch elevation, and field of view.

Input / Orbit

Bidirectional Sync

Heading: -180° to +180°

Pitch: -90° to +90°

FOV: 30° to 100°

360 Preview Panel

Perspective viewport and directional pad update camera angle and recalculate perspective projection.

Input / Viewport

Panels operate concurrently in Photoshop. Moving the camera in Preview updates the primary editor view, ensuring perfect alignment when you transition to editing or perspective export.

Section 05

Practical Inspection Workflow

To achieve reliable results when reviewing panoramas and framing perspective compositions, follow this structured inspection flow:

Navigate

Use directional buttons or hold-to-move to orbit toward the subject or horizon line of interest.

Frame

Center primary landmarks or balance foreground and sky elements in the perspective viewport.

Inspect

Examine stitching seams, pole zenith details, or horizon pitch leveling across the scene.

Adjust FOV

Zoom between 30° and 100° to evaluate natural perspective distortion and framing depth.

Finalize Framing

Select an aspect ratio preset and toggle composition guidelines to prepare for perspective export.