2 panoramas - slightly visible bandings in the sky and brightness/contrast

[trollinator]

Hello, this is my first post here.
I have two panoramas that I have a little problems with.
I'm quite new to to photography and I have little experience with photoshop so I'm not sure what to do with these. Both were done with cs3 photomerge.

In the first one you can see bandings in the sky in two places (barely, though).

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/6...smallercy5.jpg

The bandings are about in the middle of the panorama. One above the large cloud-like vapor and the other one to the left from it. If you can't see them try scrolling the image left and right.
The panorama consists of three images. Unfortunately I don't have a tripod yet so I had to shoot it handheld.

The second panorama is a bit too dark. I know this is simple but I'm not sure how should I adjust brightness/contrast. It was cloudy and rainy and I'd like to preserve that mood.

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/553...noraamaqz4.jpg


Thanks in advance

[dkf10425]

I didn't address the first photo. Here is the second.
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e8...noraamaqz4.jpg
Go to Image-Adjustments-Shadow/Highlight.

[mistermonday]

I used a noise filter called Noiseware to get rid if the banding (or at least reduced it significantly) and applied a simple level adjustment.
Regards, Murray

[duwayne]

I didn't play with the first image but it looks like there is a significant color shift.

For the second image, I tried to enhance the contrast without loosing details in the shadows and highlights and keeping the same mood (although I'm not a mood expert). I did four things:

Start by duplicating the background layer three times.

1) Turn off the top two layers. On the lowest copy run Filter->Sharpen->Unsharp Mask with Amount=30, Radius=90 and Threshold=1 Blending Mode=Normal, Opacity=100% (This is called Local Contrast Enhancement)

2) Select the middle copy. Run Filter->Other->High Pass with a Radius of 3. Blending Mode=Overlay and Opacity=60% (High Pass filter sharpening)

3) Select the top copy. Blending Mode=Screen and Opacity=25%

4) Add Adjustment Layer on top of the stack and increase (lighten) the midtones (middle slider) by 10%

This is the same approach I use on Black& Whites. You can adjust the opacity of each layer to strengthen or reduce the effect.

[chillin]

I like the mood of the first one, great panorama.
Just a little selective level adjustment & like mistermonday did, Noiseware filter for the sky.

[trollinator]

Thanks for your replies, all.
I'd rather not make the first panorama bright like that but could you tell me what settings you used with noiseware?

[mistermonday]

The default settings (70 Luminanc and 80 Color) in Auto mode worked pretty well. A lot of fine tuning is also possible bit I did not play with the controls..
Regards, Murray

[Cassidy]

Did a levels adjustment, moving the midtones higher, using a mask excluded the sky and then did a final levels adjustment on the merged layers