Kurt, good luck with your panoramas and triptychs. As Hans has indicated, you will probably find it easier to join your shots together if you avoid using a wide angle lens, although that won't be so much of a problem for triptychs.
I believe that the alignment, and angle of coverage, does change slightly when the focus is altered. For that reason, I have always relied on depth of field around the hyperfocal distance, at a small aperture, to include relatively close objects in a panorama. Try to avoid having a close object overlapping shots to be joined.
The most critical factor is to keep the frame as level as you can.
I am constructing a website to display some of my photographs, and I have included a few panoramas. You can see them at
and I'm sure you will be able to spot room for improvement!
The shot of Mount Robson is made from three frames with a P50 f1.4, and the Grey Corries image is from seven shots with a Hoya 200 f4, from the era of glue and a sharp knife.
For printing a panorama, I combine several onto a single file, with an aspect ratio which matches the formats available at the online printing outfits.
Enjoy yourself, and I hope you'll be searching for a source of long narrow picture frames.
John Keery, United Kingdom