360 Photo Stitcher
Turn several overlapping photos, taken turning in a circle, into one 360-degree panorama photo.
How Many Photos Do You Need?
| Camera / Lens | Photos Needed |
|---|---|
| Fisheye (8-15mm) | 4 to 6 photos |
| Very wide (16mm) | 6 to 8 photos |
| Wide (24mm) | 8 photos |
| Phone camera | 8 photos, held upright |
| Normal (35mm) | 12 to 16 photos |
A wider lens sees more of the scene in each shot, so it needs fewer photos to cover the same circle. A normal lens sees less per shot, so it needs more photos — and even then, without extra shots pointed up and down, you'll still end up with a band rather than a complete sphere.
What Actually Happens When Photos Are Stitched
The tool looks for matching detail — corners, edges, textures — shared between neighboring photos, and uses those matches to work out how the photos overlap and how the camera was pointed for each one. It then remaps every photo onto a curved, spherical projection and blends the overlapping edges together so the seams disappear.
The output is an equirectangular image: a flat rectangle, always exactly twice as wide as it is tall, that maps the full sphere around the camera the same way a world map maps the globe. That's the standard format for 360 photo viewers, VR headsets, and platforms like Google Street View.
If your photos only cover a horizontal ring around you — which is normal with a standard lens and a modest number of shots — the top and bottom of that rectangle (the sky and the ground) are padded in black rather than stretched or guessed at, so the part you did capture stays sharp and undistorted.
Tips for a Clean Stitch
- • Avoid moving subjects (people, cars, pets) — they can appear duplicated or cut off where two photos meet
- • Keep exposure and white balance consistent — turn off auto-exposure lock changes between shots if you can
- • Pivot from the camera's lens, not your body — a tripod with a panning head gives the most consistent results
- • More overlap is safer than less — 30% is a good minimum, especially with a normal lens
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did I only get a band, not a full sphere?
A full 360 sphere needs photos pointed up and down as well as around. With a normal lens and only a handful of photos aimed at the horizon, the tool has no detail to fill in the sky and ground, so those areas are padded in black instead of being stretched or invented.
Do the photos need to be in order?
Yes. Upload them in the order you took them going around, and use the reorder handles if anything ends up out of place. The stitcher matches each photo against its neighbors, so a scrambled order makes it much harder to find the overlaps.
What if it says it could not find matching detail?
That means neighboring photos did not overlap enough, or the scene was too plain (a blank wall or sky) for the tool to find shared detail. Retake the set with roughly 30% overlap between each photo and more visual detail in frame.
How long does stitching take?
Usually thirty seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on how many photos you upload and how much detail each one has. Keep the tab open while it works.
What format do I get back?
A single JPEG photo in equirectangular format, always exactly twice as wide as it is tall. That is the standard format accepted by 360 photo viewers and most VR and panorama apps.
Are my photos stored anywhere?
Photos are uploaded over HTTPS, stitched on the server in a temporary folder, and that folder is deleted immediately after your panorama is returned to you.
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