360 Camera Techniques

Seamless 360 photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop with Adobe Camera Raw 11.4!

Lightroom and Photoshop now have seamless 360 photo editing (plus other options)
Lightroom and Photoshop now have seamless 360 photo editing (plus other options)

Adobe has updated Camera Raw 11.4 to enable seamless 360 photo editing in Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, even when using adjustments to Clarity and Dehaze.

An edited 360 photo showing a visible seam
An edited 360 photo showing a visible seam

Previously, using adjustments such as Clarity, Dehaze, or even Highlights would result in a prominent seam between the left edge and right edge of the photo.  That is because unlike truly global adjustments such as Exposure or Contrast, some adjustments are “locally adaptive,” which means the result depends on the surrounding pixels.  When these adjustments are applied to the left edge and/or the right edge of the equirectangular image, there will be a difference in the effect, which becomes very noticeable when the left edge and right edge are brought together in a 360 view.

There are workarounds, such as the Seamless360 script by Ric Tan.  But overall, it is a tedious and bothersome chore to remove the seam.  Some photographers avoid locally adaptive adjustments altogether just to avoid having to remove the seam.

Now, with Adobe Camera Raw 11.4, you’ll be able to use any adjustments and there will be no seam.  Adobe calls it “Edge Aware 360 editing” and is now available.   Here is a sample XPhase photo with intentionally extreme adjustments in Lightroom (+100 Clarity and +100 Dehaze) and yet there is no seam (although the zenith does look pointed).

However, please note that this feature is not yet supported in the Camera Raw filter, which will still result in a seam (hopefully that will be added soon).

Meanwhile, here are other related techniques and products for removing the seam:

1. Seamless360 script for Photoshop (free by Ric Tan of My360Shop).

2. Use Google Photos to edit your photo.  Google Photos has had seamless 360-aware editing for many years, and it’s free.

3. Antiseam360 app for Android.  Edit an expanded version of your photo, then restore it to normal size.

4. Edit360 app for iOS and Android.  In the advanced settings of this app, you can export a photo as an orthogonal pair (one has a pitch of 90 degrees relative to the other).  If you edit both photos the same way, the edit360 app can recombine both images and there will be no seam.

5. Ricoh Theta Z1 Stitcher in Lightroom (free with Z1).  Edit the unstitched photo before stitching them.  Works only for Ricoh Theta Z1 and only on Adobe Lightroom Classic.

6. Theta Z1 Stitcher for Android ($14.99 on Google Play store).  Edit the unstitched photo before stitching them.  Works only for Ricoh Theta Z1.

7. Xiaomi Mi Sphere Converter.  Edit the unstitched photo before stitching them.  Works only for Xiaomi Mi Sphere.

8. XPhase Pro’s expansion mode mitigates seams.  Works only for XPhase Pro.

 

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Mic Ty

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    • Hi Brian. You may have to reboot or something. Someone told me there were seams, but on their second try, there were no seams.

      • The release notes for Adobe Camera Raw 11.4 say that Edge aware editing for 360 degree images is now supported, but so far I have found using PS and LR that have CR 11.4 embedded that I am still getting edge seams, where is the list of what adjustments and sliders are edge aware and what are not. Where is the Adobe reference on this, I cannot find it anywhere so far. Can anyone report what sliders they have found that are or are not 360 edge aware?

      • No re-booting is not the answer. The release notes for Adobe Camera Raw 11.4 say that Edge aware editing for 360 degree images is now supported, but so far I have found using PS and LR that have CR 11.4 embedded that I am still getting edge seams, where is the list of what adjustments and sliders are edge aware and what are not. Where is the Adobe reference on this, I cannot find it anywhere so far. Can anyone report what sliders they have found that are or are not 360 edge aware?

    • Hi Lior! For Affinity, just apply the filters while in equirectangular view. When you switch to equirectangular projection you’ll see there is no seam. This works with most filters like Clarity or Highlighths, but not Haze Removal.

  • FWIW, I’m still using CS6 and my current ‘seam avoidance’ solution is to use the polar coordinates distortion before doing any plugin filter based edits. I uploaded a workflow on YT a few weeks ago in case it helps anyone. This is the point in the video where I distort (Filter/Distort/Polar Coordinates/Rectangular to Polar): https://youtu.be/a2ABcx1jSKo?t=366
    I do Topaz filter edits then reverse the polar distortion and 99% of the time there is no evidence of any seam.
    If this helps even just 1 person out there then that’s a win!