Embodiments herein describe a framework for classifying images. In some embodiments, it is determined whether an image includes synthetic image content. If it does, characteristics of the image are analyzed to determine if the image includes characteristics particular to panoramic images (e.g., possess a threshold equivalency of pixel values among the top and/or bottom boundaries of the image, or a difference between summed pixel values of the pixels comprising the right vertical boundary of the image and summed pixel values of the pixels comprising the left vertical boundary of the image being less than or equal to a threshold value). If the image includes characteristics particular to panoramic images, the image is classified as a synthetic panoramic image. If the image is determined to not include synthetic image content, a neural network is applied to the image and the image is classified as one of non-synthetic panoramic or non-synthetic non-panoramic.