Processing struggle - sunset pano

[armando_m]

An amazing sunset, which also lasted quite a while and gave me the opportunity to do a pano

I exposed for the highlights on the left  , and shot towards the darker area on the right

The resulting image without processing looks underexposed

I'm thinking I need to do some luminosity masks to make this brighter, but since i just shot this yesterday maybe it is a better idea to let rest for a bit

Maybe this thread should have gone into processing rather than on critique ?

Looking for input

Thanks in advance

Attaching original and processed panos

[Akira]

The mother nature surely does her wonder here!  Spectacular and amazing!  Well captured, Armando, in the first place!

The processed pano looks better, but I observe a very faint vertical white line that divides the frame into around 3:1 (left-right).  I wonder what caused that?  Did you use Photomerge in CC?

[beryllium10]

Dramatic image! I prefer the processed version to the darker original, and don't see anything about the colour or contrast of the processed version that I dislike. Originally I didn't notice the merging artifact that Akira mentions, but now I see it. Spectacular!

[armando_m]

Thanks Akira, I do see it as well

I stitched converted TIFs from CNX2 using MS ICE, the resulting stitched image is 17044 x 8606 , I do not understand how did it got to 8606 on the vertical dimension  since it is a single row of portrait oriented images  and the longer dimension on the D800 is 7360 pixels

Anyway removing the bright line should be fairly simple

[Akira]

Armando, MS ICE is a pretty basic and rather crude software which simply stitch the rectangular frames side by side, and the alignments between the frames are not very efficient.  The increased vertical pixels may be the result of the stretching of the frames to align with each other.

On the other hand, Photomerge in CC is much more sophisticated and stitches the frames with the complicated jagged seams so that they are not perceivable.  Phtomerge doesn't struggle with stitching even the frames of skies with clouds with soft edges.

Maybe the slight difference of the exposure or the lack of the clear "hooks" for alignments between the frames next to each other caused the white flare-like seam.

[armando_m]

Dramatic image! I prefer the processed version to the darker original, and don't see anything about the colour or contrast of the processed version that I dislike. Originally I didn't notice the merging artifact that Akira mentions, but now I see it. Spectacular!

beryllium, thanks for commenting

[CS]

Dramatic image! I prefer the processed version to the darker original, and don't see anything about the colour or contrast of the processed version that I dislike. Originally I didn't notice the merging artifact that Akira mentions, but now I see it. Spectacular!

I agree, and like you I didn't see the artifact until Akira pointed it out. It still wasn't all that obvious even when I set the image to fill my entire 27" calibrated display.

[armando_m]

Here is another edit, this time stitching done with ps

[Nasos Kosmas]

This I amazing!
I really would like to see more of the city -vertical- in this nice orange color
Nice Armando

[Akira]

The last edit looks flawless.

[chris dees]

The last edit looks flawless.

My opinion as well; beautiful!

[Lars Hansen]

The last version has a good balance to my eye. Fantastic scenery - I'm especially drawn to the curves in the upper/center clouds.     

[Jakov Minić]

Armando, this is spectacular.
Print large!

[PeterN]

It is indeed a spectacular orchestration of colours, shapes and lines. Excellent

[golunvolo]

The last version has a good balance to my eye. Fantastic scenery - I'm especially drawn to the curves in the upper/center clouds.   

  Same here. 
  Spectacular in general. The curve of the clouds mid-image is gorgeous.

 Thanks for sharing!