Miami Skyline at Night #2 by Robert Holmes

Nikon 300mm F4 (older pre-AFS ...

Gigapan Epic Pro

Miami Skyline at Night #2. Image Name "Miami Skyline at Night 3rd Image Adjusted_AS.PSB"
This Gigapan was photographed on December 16, 2011 at about 11:00 p.m. with a Nikon D3s and a Sigma 150-500mm lens set at 500mm. The camera was set to F16 at shutter speeds of 1/2, 1/4, and 1 second. It was a gorgeous night with almost no wind allowing for a nice reflection. However, this has been my most difficult Gigapan to date because of its huge dynamic range. This was shot as an HDR image (3 images with a 1 stop exposure diff.). However, when the image was processed as an HDR in Photomatix the image had excessive noise and the sky had many different exposure densities. I processed the HDR in more than a dozen ways and settings but none were satisfactory. Possibly it would have worked better if I had taken this Gigapan with a 9 image HDR (with 4 stops under and 4 stops over), however physical and timing difficulties prevented me from doing so. After agonizing with this panorama for more than two weeks I finally came up with a non-HDR approach which gave me an acceptable image, as follows:
First I selected all of the 3rd images in each of the HDR sequences. Then I imported these selected images into Lightroom 3. I made the following adjustments: Fill Light = +30, Black = 0, Sharpen = 77, Noise Reduction, Luminesense = 51, Lens Vignetting/Manual = +24, set the Profile to Camera Landscape. Then I SYNCED all the images, exported .JPG images and stitched with Gigapan Stitch Ver 1.4.0002 to produce the presented panorama.
I would greatly appreciate receiving information and suggestions from other photographers who have experience in HDR and Night Gigapans.