Advanced panorama techniques

For a greater level of control over your panorama-making process, I suggest the following camera and software processing tricks:

• Shoot in Manual Metering mode. Take a test shot in the approximate middle of the proposed scene and use that as your base exposure.
• Shoot with the Auto Focus turned Off. Manually focus on the scene and leave it off for the entire sequence.
• Use a leveled tripod.
• Some professionals even create a custom White Balance setting for the panorama because, in some situations, the light, and therefore the color, might change between section one and section five.
• If you think that you have forgotten to include one bit of the scene, it's fine to reshoot an area that you think you might have missed. The sequence isn't important. I have actually mixed verticals with angled and horizontal images in one panorama and it still finds the edges and stitches them together perfectly.
• If the Automatic function doesn...