It's hard to be specific without the benefit of a photo. Current practice with pines is to leave as much foliage on as is practical; if the tree was 20' tall and had a nice full branch one foot off the ground, I'd top it and go with the lowest branch as my tree. Remember that the branches you cut off have been feeding the tree. If your tree consists of a few spindly branches, keep them all.
I can tell you what I do with a newly collected pine; I try to save all the branches I can until I know the tree will survive (until it buds) While the tree is acclimating is the time I use to decide which branches, if any, will be pruned off. DON'T BE HASTY! Unstudied pruning is impossible to reverse
