Understanding the Workflow
A conceptual overview of the complete PanoView Editor editing cycle: from opening your equirectangular panorama to extracting perspective views and projecting your finished edits back onto the sphere.
The 360° Editing Challenge
Equirectangular panoramas pack a complete 360° by 180° spherical sphere into a flat 2:1 rectangular bitmap. While convenient for storage and VR distribution, this projection introduces severe spherical distortion: straight architectural lines curve unnaturally, and the poles (zenith and nadir) are stretched across the entire width of the top and bottom borders.
Attempting to paint, clone, or use Photoshop retouching tools directly on curved equirectangular pixels produces warped results. When viewed in VR or an interactive 360° player, straight paint strokes bow into arcs, and seam artifacts become immediately apparent.
The PanoView Editor Solution
PanoView Editor bridges planar editing and spherical space. You point the interactive camera at any area of interest, extract a distortion-free rectilinear perspective into Photoshop, apply your creative edits using standard brushes and tools, and then let PanoView Editor warp and commit only the modified pixels back into the master panorama.
A real Photoshop workspace showing the source panorama, PanoView Editor, and a perspective edit document communicating the round-trip workflow.
The 9-Stage Editing Cycle
Every editing task in PanoView Editor follows a predictable, non-destructive lifecycle:
Open Panorama in Photoshop
Open any standard 2:1 equirectangular image in 8-bit or 16-bit RGB mode. PanoView Editor automatically validates geometry and loads the interactive 360° sphere.
Navigate the 360° View
Click and drag in the viewport to orbit smoothly around the panorama. Use the mouse wheel or FOV slider to zoom into the subject area.
Frame the Area to Edit
Center the target defect, tripod, or object within the frame. Ensure adequate context surrounds the area so retouching can blend naturally.
Choose Edit This View
Click the primary button in the panel. PanoView Editor freezes the camera angle, computes a rectilinear projection, and opens a dedicated PSB edit document in Photoshop.
Retouch in Photoshop
Work on the 360 Edit layer using standard Photoshop tools such as Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, brushes, or Generative Fill. The Background/Reference layer remains locked as an untouched baseline.
Choose Apply View Edits
Switch back to the panel and click Apply View Edits. PanoView Editor differential-analyzes your work against the reference and computes the reverse spherical transformation.
Automated Reprojection to Panorama
The warped pixels are deposited onto a dedicated projection layer in your master panorama. The perspective edit document closes and saves automatically.
Inspect the Spherical Result
The interactive viewport updates instantly to display the applied projection. You can orbit around the seam to verify seamless blending.
Repeat for Additional Views
Rotate to another angle, such as the zenith ceiling or nadir ground, and initiate another view session without disturbing previous edits.
Document & Layer Roles
Understanding which document is active and how layers interact ensures smooth, error-free editing:
The master 2:1 equirectangular file you opened initially.
- •Base Layer: Contains the original panorama pixels, permanently preserved.
- •360 Edit Source - View N: Hidden Smart Object containing the perspective workfile.
- •360 Projection - View N: Visible transparent layer hosting the warped, applied edits.
The rectilinear working document opened by Edit This View.
- •Background/Reference: Locked layer representing the exact extracted perspective. Never modify this layer.
- •360 Edit: Active canvas for retouching. All new brush strokes and generative fills belong here.
Sequential Multi-View Editing
Most panoramas require retouching in multiple distinct directions, such as patching the tripod at the nadir (Pitch -90°), removing overhead lights at the zenith (Pitch +90°), and cleaning up window reflections along the horizon.
PanoView Editor supports sequential multi-view editing. Each applied view generates its own independent projection layer in the master panorama. The 360 Edit Sessions panel tracks all active and completed views, letting you jump back into any prior view session with its original camera angles preserved.