Basic advice:
- Manual exposure settings, so you don't get varying exposures between shots.
- Manual focus, so your focus point doesn't shift between shots.
- Manual (non-auto) white balance setting, so you don't get color shift between shots. (Shooting RAW can also be helpful)
- Check your dynamic range, and consider bracketing for HDR.
- Err on the side of too much coverage vs. too little (i.e., shoot extra rows, and extra shots to cover more than you think you need). If your horizon's off, you'll need to rotate and crop--the more you cover, the more room you'll have to maneuver. Try to overlap at least a third of the frame between shots. Shooting multiple rows is good; shooting in portrait mode can help you get more vertical coverage if you're shooting a single row.
- Don't forget that you still have to compose the shot, even if it's a pano (check out Max Lyon's website)
You can probably shoot the panorama handheld without any problems, especially if there's nothing in the near foreground.
I'm also one of the
Hugin proponents, and if you end up needing to do exposure blending as well as pano-stitching, Hugin can handle both simultaneously. Because you're covering a much wider view, it's easier to get the sun into the shot, and your dynamic range can get a lot bigger.