How can I edit equirectangular 360 photos without creating a seam at the left/right edge?

Question

I shoot 360 panoramas with a dual-lens 360 camera, and the camera software stitches them cleanly into equirectangular images. I no longer have the original fisheye source files.

For post-processing and color correction, I use RawTherapee. The issue is that adjustments with a local radius or neighborhood effect—such as Shadows/Highlights or Local Contrast—create a visible discontinuity at the left/right boundary of the panorama, even though the file has the correct 360 projection EXIF metadata.

My current workaround is to extend the image in GIMP by copying connected image content from the opposite edges, then process it, but that is slow.

Is there a more efficient workflow or software that can handle wrapped equirectangular 360 images properly and avoid seam artifacts during editing?

user27440 · Answer

To me, this looks a lot like RawTherapee is introducing the issue. I've never had any "seam" like this editing equirectangulars in Photoshop or Lightroom. I suspect using the Gimp to do your image adjustments might also avoid the seam.

I don't think it's a matter of doing local/radius edits throwing off the matching, because the seam is thin and uniform and across the entire image.

Maybe don't use RawTherapee. I just took your original panorama, processed it to be neon-bright-saturated in darktable with a Curves adjustment and some color shifting, exported it, created a QTVR file out of it, and it did not exhibit the edge seam you show.

How can I edit equirectangular 360 photos without creating a seam at the left/right edge?

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