Create panoramic images from photos AND videos with Luminar Neo

A few days ago, Skylum announced a new Panorama Stitching Extension to Luminar Neo, their flagship AI-powered photo editing software. Normally, I wouldn't create an entire video and blog post about an app's ability to stitch multiple photos together to create a panoramic image. After all, we've been using Lightroom's pano photo merge feature for years, so this wouldn't exactly be earth-shattering news.

However, those Luminar Neo devs have done something quite cool with their new Panorama Stitching Extension by exploring unique ways to leverage video files. I've got a thorough video walkthrough explaining this new addition, so be sure to check it out. I'll also list out the different use cases with supplemental images after the video. But first...

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Luminar Neo Panorama Stitching Extention Tutorial Video

Panorama Option 1: Stitch multiple images into one panoramic photo

The first option for using the Panorama Stitching Extension is the most obvious one. Basically, you can select a series of images with overlapping areas to be stitched together into a large panoramic photo.

In addition to single-row stitching, Luminar Neo can also stitch multi-row panos and HDR panos if you have the appropriate brackets. Here is the resulting stitched pano from the images in the screenshot above. Luminar Neo did a great job stitching the images together without any visible seams or artifacts.

Panorama Option 2: Create an action sequence photo from a static video file

One of the more unique—if not niche—applications of the Panorama Stitching Extension is to create an action sequence photo from a video that is stationary. Here is a clip of my Jeep Wrangler driving through a scene. Notice that the drone did not move at all, so the clip is stationary (aside from my Jeep).

By loading this video clip into the Panorama Stitching Extension, I'm able to select specific keyframes that Luminar Neo will then combine into a single image. Here's what the keyframe selection UI looks like:

And this is the final result. As you can see, it's a fun way to convey action or motion. But it is also a bit of a niche use case, so I recommend using it sparingly.

Panorama Option 3: Create an action sequence photo from a panning video file

Similar to the previous option, you can make multiple keyframe selections from a clip that is panning. Sometimes, this can produce very cool results, but my experience has been hit-or-miss. In some cases, Luminar Neo gives me great results. Other times, I'll get some odd ghosting artifacts in the stitched image or the process will error out completely. I know that Skylum is actively working to improve this feature, so be sure to try it out with your videos. In my example, I used this clip of a bicyclist riding through the frame as the camera pans with him.

I followed the same process of selecting keyframes of the subject but also limited the start and end frames using the bumpers on either side of the timeline.

While the end result is great, I did have to use the Erase tool to heal away a few ghosting artifacts. But that only took a few seconds. As I mentioned, this particular use case will require some trial and error.

Panorama Option 4: Create a panoramic photo from a panning video

Of all the options covered, this one is my favorite and will probably be most useful to photographers (aside from the basic pano stitching option). How often have you used your photo to take a quick video of a scene where you panned from left to right (or right to left)? I do it all the time, and now I can create wide panoramic photos from them. Take this video that I recorded with my iPhone 14 Pro Max from my backyard the other day to illustrate:

Normally, this would be the only way to share such a clip. However, with Luminar Neo, I can create a wide panoramic photo of this panning video. So, let's say you have a panning video clip of a beautiful location that you took with your phone or camera while on vacation. If you happened to forget to take a photo of that location, you can use this feature to automatically create that pano for you and it works quite well! Here's the pano image that Luminar Neo stitched together from the clip I shared above:

 Wrapping it up

Again, I probably wouldn't have created all this content if the only thing you could do with Luminar Neo's new Panorama Stitching Extension is to combine multiple photos together. However, I'm really excited about what Skylum has strived to achieve with this new feature. I love when developers think outside of the box to build new ways of approaching common tasks like panorama stitching and I'm excited to see what they come up with next.

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