360 stitching
Also known as: stitching, spherical stitching
Merging the images from the two fisheye lenses of a 360 camera into one seamless spherical video, done in the camera, the phone app or desktop software.
Updated
What it means
A 360 camera records two circular fisheye images, one from each side. To get a single sphere, software has to warp both images, find where they overlap at the edges, and blend them together. That process is stitching, and the seam where the two halves meet is the stitch line.
Good stitching is invisible: the world wraps around without a visible join. Poor stitching is easy to spot once you know it: it shows as doubled edges, broken lines or ghosted objects where the two lenses saw the scene from slightly different positions. Distance matters, because objects close to the camera create more parallax between the lenses.
How it works in practice
Most 360 cameras offer different stitching modes. Optical flow stitching analyzes motion and gives cleaner joins for moving subjects, while faster modes simply blend the overlap. Stitching usually happens when you export from the phone app or Insta360 Studio, often combined with FlowState stabilization and reframing.
Placement helps more than settings. Keep important subjects facing a lens rather than the sides, mount the camera so the stitch line runs through empty sky or ground, and keep people at least an arm length away when possible. Shooting in good light also helps, because noise makes it harder for the software to match details across the seam.
What to watch out for
Thin objects near the camera, such as ski poles, railings or the edge of a board, are the hardest to stitch and often break or duplicate. The invisible selfie stick effect also relies on the pole sitting exactly in the blind zone between lenses, so a bent or offset mount ruins it.
Mismatched exposure between the two lenses, for example one facing the sun and the other in shade, leaves a visible brightness step along the seam. Turning slightly or choosing a stitching mode with exposure blending helps, and scratches or water drops on one lens show up only on one half of the sphere.
How RawClip handles it
RawClip does not stitch or read 360 files. Stitch and reframe your clips to a flat MP4 or MOV in the Insta360 app or Insta360 Studio first, then upload those exports for your highlight.