Need help with Cross Country

[depack]

We had our first "fun run" today and was disappointed in the quality of my pictures. I have a Nikon D50, I set the camera at 200 ISO, 9.5 and 750 and really didn't like my shots. Am I all off on my settings? This meet was in the morning but most meets are at 4:00. Thanks, I put together a slideshow for the runners and this is the first time with a good camera so I want to take pictures accordingly.

[depack]

I also just noticed that I chopped most of the kids feet off when I was trying to shoot pictures. It is probably because I used my 80-200mm lens..Which lens should I use, I have the kit lens18-55mm 3.5-5.6 or 50mm 1.8. I guess I better shot some pictures at practice before our next meet this Thursday

[Corey Jenkins]

Well I'm currently running xc, we had our first race today too haha. But It depends where your taking pictures from, the light, how far away the runners are, and what type of shot your looking for. If your shooting in the woods, the 50mm 1.8 might work good, Its fast, the 18-55mm might be good if you want to get there whole body in. If the runners are out in the open you could use the 18-55mm becuase you could zoom in and out to get the best picture and you would have good light for the 3.5 fstop. The next thing is your settings, Your settings will change depending on how much light you have, for moving people you want to use a faster shutter speed, set it to around 1/500 or faster if you can, then use your cameras light meter to set up the f stop. 200 iso should be fine if you have good light, if you need more light turn the iso up. Normally any thing over 1/200 should freeze action good. A cool thing you might want to try is to pan the runner, follow him/her with camera. Slow up the shutter speed to get a cool blurred background to show speed.
I hope some of this helps, let me know if this helps. If you need any thing explained farther let me know I wrote this pretty quick.

[JSPhoto]

depack,

The best thing to do is post some so we can see exactly what they look like, and be better able to help you out. I know it may seem embarassing to post photos you don't like but thats the best way to learn, then you can go back next year and see how much you improved too.
I'm sure JETA would agree with that advice.


JS