Indeed, a BIG +1 on everything Xeo mentions. Perfect advice and not much left to say.
Tensioning from the top of the lock leaves you an enormous amount of room to attack the pins from below.
And, whenever the lock allows for it, use the warding or bottom of the keyway to your advantage by levering
your pick off them. The result is a very precise and contolled lift. A free-floating pick, as you mentioned,
makes it far to easy to overset pins. You end up with more of a snapping effect rather than a gradual nudge.
Peterson's prybars or the Technical Entry tools are about the best options for TOK (top of keyway).
If you decide to use some homebrews, but have trouble with them falling out, you could also experiment with this...
A pair of side-cutters can be used to obtain a sort of serrated/dimple effect that provides a nice grip on the keyway.
(
this idea is not original to me, and I'm not really certain who FIRST did this... but I REALLY like it!)
In regards to disturbing front pins, or not being able to set the back one - I like SouthOrd picks, but their standard
shorthook is far to bulky to be effective on many locks. You might consider modifying it. I always do
this