Photo Merge using RAW files - does white balance matter?

Question

I'm using a Canon 5dII and create RAW files to be merged - both stitched and for HDR.  In other words, if I bracket 3 (0, +2, -2)  I'll do the bracket 3 times, once for the left, middle and right parts of the scene and will have 9 RAW images.  I'm asking the question because as I pan I may be moving from sun to shade.  If I use auto white balance, I'm concerned that the 3 stitched sections may have a different WB set (e.g. sun and shade).  If PS5 doesn't use the WB tag, then it is immaterial.  If it does use the WB tag would it use the same setting for all 3 parts of the stitched scene.  I could of course manually set the WB for each series of 9, but would prefer not to if it is not necessary and continue to use AWB as I now do.
THANKS!  I know my question is not specific to Macintosh - If this should be directed to another forum please let me know. 

Answer 1

If I am visuallizing what you are asking correctly, yes it does matter. In my
exspirence the way I have had the most success doing what you are doing is
to merge all your image that are -2 stop into a pano. Save
as a high-res TIFF 16-bit or higher. Repeat the process
for the following 2 stop and then merge your TIFFs to
and HDR. Something I always to before
Photomerging is  to use Camera Raw get the setting of exposure and what not exactl
y how you what them copy those setting and paste to all the following images that are included in
that photomerge, that helps to take care or variation
s that can happen with exposure doing panos, it more often then not has a
real nice outcome.