Hey Rich,

First thing, take a few test shots on full auto and then by viewing them decide the full manual setting you wanna shot at and stick with them thru out your shoot.
3 and 4 images shouldn't be a problem (when I do 15 or 17 it gets a bit challenging and some times frustrating).
Software is a really big thing, Photoshop actually does a really shoddy job unless you're doing it manually, which will take alot of time.
Shoot in RAW and don't edit anything until after you've stitched the shots together. Hence why yu need to get the exposure right.
Unless you are shooting a 180 deg pano with the sun totally behind you, you will get a little sky burn out. But this adds to the feel of the shot.

When stitching even thou the software adds control points add at least 5 of your own, I find adding on the corners of intersecting objets is the best, and make sure at least one point is at the top, bottom and centre of the left/right sides af the respective images.

Was there anything more specific you wanted to know?

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