Setting a fixed and consistent exposure level with merge to HDR Pro?

Question

I do panoramas with sets of bracketed HDR images.  From LR I select my stack and then merge to HDR pro in CC.  CC then produces a screen with a white point preview slider or the option to tone in ACR.  Since I want to tone in LR I have tried to set the white point consistently for each HDR output in the panorama set, but I cannot get consistent exposure levels.  I then try to adjust them all the same in LR, but sometimes differences result in undesirable effects in the panorama stitched output.
How can I get a 32bit HDR from PS CC back to LR and have each stack come back in with exactly the same exposure without me trying to guess with a slider?
I task all the images for the panorama with identical settings.  Same brackets, fstop , shutter speed, ISO, etc.  I should be able to get them all processed into 32bit HDRs and looking the same without manual adjustment guesses.
Thanks.

Answer 1

I'll tell you my workflow for panoramas such as this. Starting from bracketed stacks of images.
1. I select all images, go into Develop and turn on auto-sync. Turn on "Remove Chromatic Aberration". Do not turn on "Enable Profile Corrections". Set a custom white balance to make sure all images are WB'ed the same and optimize sharpening and noise reduction. Basically you want all images to be developed exactly the same and fairly conservative at that.
2. Export all images to 16-bit tiff in prophotoRGB or adobeRGB (depending on how colorful they are)
3. At this point one can add a logo to the nadir shot or do it at the end using the workflow I described above.
4. Load all images into hugin. Generate control points. Optimize positions - first just positions, then positions and view. Level the panorama in the GL preview and make sure the projection is set to equirectangular and the view to 360x180, then optimize view, barrel and positions and finally "everything without translation". During all these steps remove errant control points by going into the control point list and deleting the ones with the largest deviation, which are usually bad control points on clouds or other moving things. Also make sure the pano stays correctly leveled.
5. Mask the tripod out of the images that have it in them using the mask tools in hugin. Mask feet and stuff out of the nadir shot.
6. Do a photometric optimization with high dynamic range, fixed exposure.
7. Go to stitcher, set the optimum canvas size, uncheck "exposure corrected, low dynamic range", Check A. "exposure fused from any arrangement", B. "High dynamic range->tiff", or C. "blended layers of similar exposure, without exposure correction" depending on what you want to do.
8. Stitch
If you did A. You will get a tone mapped image that you can work up further in Lightroom or Photoshop. That image will be tone mapped respecting the wraparound on all sides so it won't have weird seams in a spherical projection. If you did B. you get a 32-bit tiff that will work great in Lightroom and as long as you don't use highlights, shadows, clarity and such will remain good. If you did C. you can load the multiple panorama layers you get into a HDR Pro in Photoshop, and load that into Lightroom.