Stitched Pano: how to make sky exposure consistent?

[tomd]

Let's say I take 12 pictures of a cityscape and later stitch them together to form a panoramic scene.

My problem is that the sky is lighter in some shots and darker in others. This is natural since the closer I get to the direction of the sun, the more light is exposed into the shots.

I'd like to make my pano have a consistant color sky and foreground features.

How is this best achieved?

[chrishunt]

Shoot your panoramic photos in manual so the exposure is consistent between all the shots.

If there's a large difference between the light and dark areas in your scene and you're worried that dark areas will be underexposed or light areas overexposed, then shoot a bracketed exposure for each frame and merge them as an HDR.

[FlyingPhotog]

Not only manual shutter and f/stop but manual WB as well...

[LeuceDeuce]

Not only manual shutter and f/stop but manual WB as well...

I got burned on this one a couple of times. This is asolutely key to keeping the colours uniform throughout the image.

[tomd]

I got burned on this one a couple of times. This is asolutely key to keeping the colours uniform throughout the image.

thanks, I certainly have been using auto WB.

[tim]

If you shot RAW change the WB later. You can always replace the sky using the gradient tool.

[LeuceDeuce]

If you shot RAW change the WB later. You can always replace the sky using the gradient tool.

Right, but you'd still need to adjust each image in the series a different amount in order to match the WB across the board. What a pita.

[PhotosGuy]

Shoot your panoramic photos in manual so the exposure is consistent between all the shots. Manual focus, too, and don't use a CP filter.

[petsnpeeps]

Right, but you'd still need to adjust each image in the series a different amount in order to match the WB across the board. What a pita.
Why not wait and PP the stitched image? That's what I do....

[LeuceDeuce]

Why not wait and PP the stitched image? That's what I do....

But the problem is the WB across the stitched image would be different, which would then make it a nightmare to balance. The trick is to make sure the colours from frame to frame are all being interpreted the same way before you stitch them. If you're shooting a mountain you may not have much problem, but if you're shooting cityscapes at dusk you can really run into wonky colours from one frame to the next if you're not using a manual WB. The ambient lights in the city change drastically from one view to the next.

[Bill Boehme]

Not only manual shutter and f/stop but manual WB as well...

That's unnecessary as it has no effect on RAW images. Just use auto or one of the manual presets, if you prefer. When post processing the RAW images pick one of the images as the best candidate for making the WB adjustment. When you have it to your liking, batch process all of the others to the exact same WB. I also do the same thing for the tone adjustments because tone setting differences can be just as problematic as different exposure levels.

Concerning the question about stitching first and then post processing: adjustments to the RAW images will give much better results than adjusting the stitched file, especially if it is an 8-bit JPG, but even if it is a 16-bit TIFF, there will be monumental problems in slowness due to massive file size. How about resizing to something smaller and then post processing? Aackkk! The worst of all!