Shooting Panoramas? Camera Settings?

First off, let me apologize if this seems like a Photoshop question. Seems to be a touchy subject here. BUT...
Take a look at this panorama shot I'm trying to put together. I'm wondering what I did wrong. I know first off I wasn't using a tripod so that could have made it better, but I did shoot vertical, in manual mode, set the shutter, aperature, and then the focus (focused on the first shot and set it to manual focus). As you can see the frames don't seem very "seamless" at all. Color/levels seem to be off. I've tried adjusting each layer's levels but that doesn't seem to cut it. I'm wondering what else I could have done on the CAMERA settings end so that putting together this panorama would have been more effortless?
http://www.60hzproductions.com/Main/PanoHelp1.jpg
Any tips on what I can do in photoshop to save the image would be appreciated as well.:D

Was the white balance set on auto?

Um, now that I think about it, I believe it was set on auto (or at least I didn't change the setting).

Exactly what setting do I need to use to lock it so it stays consistent throughout the range of shots?

Do I just need to set it on "outdoor sunny" or "outdoor cloudy" white balance settings or use the custom white balance feature?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by azonicbruce

Um, now that I think about it, I believe it was set on auto (or at least I didn't change the setting).

Exactly what setting do I need to use to lock it so it stays consistent throughout the range of shots?

Do I just need to set it on "outdoor sunny" or "outdoor cloudy" white balance settings or use the custom white balance feature?

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Any other setting besides auto will lockit in. Daylight mightbe good, I would go with custom though.

That's what I saw - white balance. If you're going to all this trouble, I'd definately take the couple of seconds to shoot a custom WB.

Although I've only played around with this once or twice, I've done it from a tripod too. First, I leveled the legs (not the head). Then I leveled the head, and checked to see that everything was straight from one side of the pano to the other. I figured that leveling it this way was the only way to be sure.

Not sure if the shot can be saved at this point. Probably can be somehow, but would take tons of work. How about black and white? That will take care of most of the problem and the sky would be easy to clean up.

Thanks for the tips guys. Man I knew I was forgetting something. Oh well, maybe I'll try and shoot them again another day. I'll work on the above one later (I'll try that B/W thing). I spent a little more time trying to "save" this one. I really had to mess with levels on this one. Not too bad. Not too good either, but nonetheless...
http://www.60hzproductions.com/ELPNightPan.jpg