How to Edit 360° Photos in PhotoDirector

PhotoDirector's 360° Photo Editor corrects a 360° photo and creates new views from it. Level a tilted horizon, cover the tripod or car at the bottom of the shot, and fix the color. Then make a little planet or a flat panorama. Use it when you want to post or print a spherical shot as a regular image.

Start here when the photo needs cleaning up. These fixes carry into the views you create from it.

With your 360° photo open on the Guided & GenAI tab, click Edit in the icon rail and scroll down to the 360° Photo Editor group. Select Straighten. The other four tools open the same 360° Photo Editor window. Or press Ctrl+Shift+E to open it.

On the Fix and Align tab, expand Straighten. Use Horizontal, Vertical, and Tilt together to bring the horizon level. Or drag the photo itself. Horizontal and Vertical move it in straight lines only, so small fixes stay on one axis. A level horizon keeps the street from leaning when you turn the view.

The buttons at the top right of the preview help you check the result. Show grid lines lays a grid over the photo, as in this example. Show split view shows four directions at once, and Show one returns to a single view. To see the whole photo flat, click and hold the button at the top left of the preview, beside the undo arrows.

A 360° camera sees whatever holds it, so a tripod or a car often shows up at the top or bottom of the sphere. Expand Tripod Removal, then turn on Enable tripod removal. This example was shot through a car sunroof, so the car plays the part of the tripod.

To look around the sphere, drag the preview or click the arrows at its top left. The button in the middle of the arrows resets the view, and your mouse wheel zooms in and out.

Under Select the tripod position, choose North pole or South pole. This example uses South pole because the car sits at the bottom of the photo. PhotoDirector places the cover at the pole of the photo as it was shot, before any straightening.

Under Select the tripod cover, choose Reflective bubble or Blur. The bubble drops a little mirrored sphere of the scene over the spot, which suits a playful shot.

Blur smears the surrounding pixels over the spot, for a quieter patch than the bubble. Drag Size until the cover hides what you want gone, then set Strength. This example uses a Size of 39. The bubble only uses Size, so Strength stays grayed out with that cover.

Expand Adjust to work on the color of the whole sphere, with White Balance, Tone, and more further down the panel. This example warms the street with a Temperature of 33 and brightens it with an Exposure of 0.85. For what each control does, see the Adjust Color and Tone tutorial.

When you finish, click Done at the bottom of the window to apply your fixes. Or click Cancel beside it to leave without them. To save the fixed 360° photo now, go to the Export step at the end of this article.

A 360° photo is hard to read as a flat file. These two tools turn it into images that make sense in a post or on a page.

In the 360° Photo Editor group, select Little Planet or 360°-to-Panorama. Or, if the window is already open, click the Create tab. This example starts with Little Planet.

Open the Aspect ratio list and pick a shape from the Landscape or Portrait ratios. To set your own, select Enter Custom and type the ratio in the fields that appear. This example keeps 1:1.

Under Select a planet view mode, choose how the sphere folds. Ground side as planet curls the road into a small globe with the sky around it. Sky side as planet does the reverse, with the sky in the middle and the road wrapped around the edge.

Drag Rotate to spin the planet, or drag the photo itself. Zoom - focal point pulls the view in, and Move focal point becomes available once you raise it. Field of view changes how much of the scene fits around the planet. This example uses a Rotate value of 201 and a Zoom value of 28.

Click Save as under the sliders, then name the file and save it. The file goes straight to your folder, so you stay in the window for the next view.

Expand 360°-to-Panorama and pick a mode under Select a projection mode: Mercator, Cylinder, or Equirectangular. Mercator uses the familiar map projection, and Cylinder wraps the view around the photo's center line. Equirectangular spaces the scene evenly from top to bottom. Each one bends the sky and the ground differently, so compare the preview.

Drag the edges of the crop area, or move the whole area, to keep the part of the scene you want. Here the crop drops most of the car and keeps the road and sky. Drag Customize field of view left or right to shift what appears where across the panorama. Display reference lines shows vertical guides over the photo to help you place things.

Click Save as to save the panorama as an image file. Then click Done at the bottom of the window to return to the main view. If you click Done first, PhotoDirector asks you to save the file.

The main view shows your fixed 360° photo. Click Export at the top of the window, then name the file in the Save As dialog and save it. Your little planet and panorama are the files you made with Save as.

We tested these steps in PhotoDirector 365 version 18.0.10 on Windows.