panorama - water causing troubles merging (cs2)

[slappy sam]

I tried this panorama today, but I have troubles with the water lining up (waves) etc, as well as some weird diagonal lines across my photos (which I have noticed with all panoramas I've tried to do using cs2). How do people do panoramas like this with water? Do they just wait for a really calm day where the water is like glass?

Any comments on the photo itself, or other help for keeping my shots lined up so I can stitch them easily would be nice.

I used the photomerge in cs2, with a blend of 7 vertical exposures. Level tripod, camera set on manual, shutter release etc. Shot with 50 1.4.

Edit: This shot was taken at about 2:00 PM - I'm hoping to get a shot of this location tommorrow morning when the sun should rise approx in the middle of this photo. I'd like it to be a clear day with dramatic colors, and hopefully I can get a clear panorama of it. I'd also like to try to bring the rule of thirds into this photo more as its pretty centered atm.

[Mac10]

Hi Sam,
I think that water should merge just fine if you had a good 30-50% overlap.
Don't use AWB. Try daylight color balance, manual focus and mirror lockup.
Keep the horizon straight and stitching will be easier.
If I can access the 7 photos I can try it in cs3 to see if it's just cs2 problems.
The shot is nice. I like the Sepia.
Mac

Here' a link to surf pano question... http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=380360&highlight=pano

[slappy sam]

Hi Sam,
I think that water should merge just fine if you had a good 30-50% overlap.
Don't use AWB. Try daylight color balance, manual focus and mirror lockup.
Keep the horizon straight and stitching will be easier.
If I can access the 7 photos I can try it in cs3 to see if it's just cs2 problems.
The shot is nice. I like the Sepia.
Mac

Here' a link to surf pano question... http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=380360&highlight=pano

Yeah, I probably should have more of an overlap - it is about 20-30% overlap atm. I'm pretty sure I did use daylight color balance, however I'm using auto focus (shouldn't really matter...?) and not using mirror lockup because I was shooting at 1/100 shutter speed. My horizon was pretty straight, but yes I have to make sure that it is perfect for stitching.

I think it is cs2 in part (the lines) because look at the photo below, which I got from using autostitch.

Also, I did more editing of the levels in selected parts on this one, and I really like how it came out. Do you think it looks overprocessed?

[rammy]

Photomerge in CS/CS2 is rubbish at stitching IMHO. Stick with Autostitch.

Images doesn't look overprocessed although I would do a little burning to get a little more contrast in the sky and water.