Originally Posted by Tom S. 
In order to do a panorama with good results, you should do a few things when shooting. Use a level tripod so each picture is shot with the same basis point. Use the tripod to turn the camera at equal angles. Don't try to skimp on photos by shooting each picture 90 degrees (or whatever) from the last, but remember, the more pictures you have to stitch together, the larger the file will be unless you lower the resolution of the shots. If you have a newer computer with a lot of memory, this won't be an issue, but the out put file will still be huge, and you may have to 'downsize' it in post processing. Using a level (key word!) tripod and shooting at smaller angles will make the stitching much easier and seamless.
Lighting can also be a problem. Indoors, you stand a better chance of controlling it than outdoors (unless you are a supreme being and can control the sun
). Try shooting two sequences - one with the camera on auto and one with the lens setting locked on the best overall combination of shutter speed and F stop.
Hope this helps for any future shots.
Actually you want to shoot in manual mode with manual focus. You don't want anything changing. By shooting small slices you reduce (not eliminate though) parallax. Each photo you bring into Photoshop comes in on its own layer and after aligning it you'll be deleting the major portion anyway.
NAPP has a pretty good tutorial but it's only available to members.