360 Preview Overview
An introduction to the dedicated 360 Preview panel: an interactive perspective viewing surface designed for visual inspection, framing evaluation, composition overlays, and full-resolution perspective document creation.
What Is 360 Preview?
The 360 Preview panel is a separate, dedicated panel inside PanoView Editor. While the main panel focuses on perspective extraction and round-trip editing, 360 Preview provides a clean perspective window into your active equirectangular panorama.
It allows you to inspect the spherical scene naturally, without curved equirectangular distortion. Preview serves as an inspection and composition surface rather than a second independent panorama state: it directly reflects your active Photoshop panorama document in real time.
Dual-Panel Workflow Advantage
Many photographers position the 360 Preview panel on a secondary display or dock it adjacent to the Photoshop canvas. This allows you to evaluate your spherical composition and applied seam blending continuously while keeping the main editing controls accessible.
Preview Panel Anatomy
The 360 Preview panel groups specialized controls for framing, visual aids, and document creation:
Perspective Viewport
The primary viewing area displaying your spherical panorama as a rectilinear perspective projection.
Camera Navigation Pad
Dedicated directional controls allowing you to step or hold to rotate the camera around the horizontal and vertical axes.
Field of View (FOV) Slider
Adjusts the perspective angle of view between 30° and 100° to control zoom framing and perspective expansion.
Aspect Ratio Presets
Framing presets including 1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 16:9, 9:16, 2.35:1, and Free to evaluate perspective crops.
Composition Guidelines
Overlay options including Gridlines, Center Point, Crosshair, and Diagonals to assist with balanced photographic framing.
New Doc Action
Creates a full-resolution perspective Photoshop document directly from the current Preview framing.
Full 360 Preview panel showing viewport, camera and navigation controls, aspect controls, guidelines, and New Doc.
Preview vs Edit Workflow
Understanding the distinction between the main editor workflow and the preview workflow keeps your project structured:
Round-Trip Retouching
- •Action: Edit This View → Apply View Edits.
- •Document: Creates an embedded Smart Object linked to a managed session.
- •Outcome: Projects modified pixels back into the source panorama layer stack.
Inspection & Perspective Export
- •Action: Frame Composition → New Doc.
- •Document: Generates a new, standalone perspective Photoshop document.
- •Outcome: Standalone file for cropping, exporting, social sharing, or marketing use.
Typical Uses & Workflows
Common scenarios where the 360 Preview panel streamlines photographic production:
Seam & Blend Quality Check
Examine retouched regions across the floor (nadir) or ceiling (zenith) to verify that lighting and straight lines blend seamlessly into the master panorama.
Compositional Framing Study
Cycle through aspect ratio presets such as 16:9, 4:3, or 1:1 to see how different rectangular crops look before producing client still exports.
Still Image Extraction
Use the New Doc feature to extract full-resolution architectural stills or wide landscape crops directly from the 360° source photo.
Composition Alignment
Toggle Rule of Thirds gridlines or Crosshairs to align architectural verticals and horizon levels accurately within the preview frame.