Thanks Jack. The web conversion makes the issue less visible, if anything. And you are right on that first file - I still underestimate the D800E's DR. Bracketing has been my way of life since I started shooting digital!The artifacting in the single file is a concern. I DL'd your first file and it looks fine in LR and C1, so I suspect your issue is in your HDR merge or conversion to web jpeg. How are you doing the final jpeg output for web, specifically how are you handling color?
Sidebar question is why are you doing an HDR when the first frame you show would render an almost perfect single file to work with? I'd work with a single file until you get your workflow sorted and can produce a jpeg with no banding…
My end solution is probably to work from the zero-exposure raw file and layer in parts of differently exposed images if needed. That should get rid of most of the issue.
Looks like the issue is in the HDR merge to 32 bit then - still odd though... Never seen it before.
PS: Thanks for that - got it.