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GOOD LUCK on ur race tomorrow! i don’t get y any1 would do xc & all that RUNNNINGGG!!! freek. jkjk

What sort of questions do you have? I don’t know how to give tips to a beginner, except keep shooting! That’s the best way to get better at anything, that is it do it everyday!
-m

On shutter speed: 1/250 of second or 250 is faster than 1/60 or 60. If you want to stop motion try to stay “faster” than 1/125. If it’s a pretty bright day outside, you will want a slower shutter speed because you don’t want to let too much light in the frame. When it’s darker you have to leave the shutter open longer (slower shutter speed) to get enough light. It’s pretty impossible to get something crisp at slower than 1/30 without a tripod. The best trick to know how slow you can go with your lens is to take the invers. a 50mm lens, cannot be handheld slower than 1/50 of a second.

On aperature: The smaller the number the more shallow the space in focus. If you are shooting at f5.6 then for example only 2 inches of stuff could be in focus, whereas if you are shooting at f16, most everything will be in focus. Just think the smaller the number, the shallower the depth of field. This is one of those explanations that can go really in-depth, but hopefully that should help.

When putting these two things together remember….

If you want to let more light in, either use a slower shutter speed, or use a more shallow depth of field. They are inversely related. If say you are at 1/125 of a second at f5.6 and you wanted to get more depth of field, when you go to f8 (one stop) you have to change the time to 1/60 of a second (one stop the other direction).

I hope this is all helpful, I’m trying to cram a whole quarter of begining photography into one comment. Leave me your email, or send me more questions at michelle@michellemoorephoto.com

The BEST thing to do is use your camera on Av (aperature priority) that way you can decide how to use your aperature, and the camera will tell you the shutter speed. Pay attention to how the speed changes when you change aperature and you will learn quickly!

As for people, shoot a lot and often and make them feel comfortable and soon they will forget you are there. If you want to ahead of time say “hey my name is _____ and I’m doing some photography for ______ keep doing what you’re doing and just pretend I’m not here” after a while they will forget and you can get some good “candid” images. Believe me, it took me a year working for the school newspaper to get comfortable taking pictures of strangers. I still don’t always feel 100% when doing something like an event, but I’ve heard that people never noticed me!

-Michelle

herro and run faster!! :D