How I got the SHOT | Photoshoot in the woods using the Sony A9 

Alisha Ricki, just keep your iso as low as possible like always, that never changes. Then your gonna need a shutter speed fast enough that is not gonna show any movement., if that's what your going for. I'd say atleast anything faster then 1/500th of a second if they are running. If I have enough light to play with and I can use a faster shutter speed I'll push it as far as I can and still stay within range. So even 1/1000th if your light is good. And from there it's all about finding that happy medium for your aperture.. But that is gonna depend on how much you want your backround blurred. So he probably shot close to 2.8 if that's what lens he used. I'm sure he was wide open. Good luck .

Hey Thanks for the reply. well I do want the blur so I keep the apeture at 1.8, however, based on what you've said - it seems that I can't shoot walking shots during golden hour then as I would need a lot more light ? Am I right about that ?

Oh yeah absolutely you can. Always start with your aperture first. I always shoot wide open unless I'm doing group of landscape. So always set to 1.8 especially in low light conditions to get the most light to hit your sensor. And this is my order to assure i always set my shot up correctly, but it really is up to you which order, none are wrong as long as you get the right settings before the shot. So after aperture I will always set my iso to as low as i can go so 50 iso. Then set your shutter speed. For moving subjects its gonna depend on the lens and camera im sure there are a lot of factors from sony to cannon, yata yata. So here you want to play with your shutter speed until you get a still non blurry subject, only backround blur. So rule of thumb is never shoot lower then your focal length to achieve a non blurry shot from hand shake because it makes your shutter open and close faster. So if your shooting with a 50mm don't go below 1/50th of a second shutter speed. So saying that I always shoot double my focal length. I generally don't shoot anyhting less then 1/100th of a second for still objects because I'm not the most still handed person. So for moving subjects with my setup I always go as fast as I can go. If my iso is still really low and I can go faster I will. So it really depends on what your working with for light. But you should be okay in the ballpark of 1/250th of a second up to as high as it will go. Now you will only be able to go ao high before you start gaining iso and then noise. Your only objective when setting up yoir settings is to gain as little noise as possible from high iso limits and to get your shutter correct. What camera are you using? And remember there is no one method to setting up yoir shot. It's a triangle effect. When you adjust one it will wither balance or throw off the other. The more you do it the easier it will get. If you shoot manual for a full week you will catch on super quick. Just remember the faster the shutter speed the higher your iso will need to be. The higher the aperture, the higher your iso will be. So I always try and keep both down as low as possible to keep my iso down super low. You'll get it.

Sorry I'm not the best teacher at explaining things. Someone could have summed all that up in probably 5 words I'm sure. That's just things I wish someone would have told me. Maybe In a few less words, but you get my point. Feel free to ask me anything. I'm no Manny Ortiz, lol, but I'll help with what I can.

lol no worries ! I definitely understood what you said and it makes a lot of sense. I do shoot manual on my Sony A6500, and mainly use the 85mm 1.8 lens. So now that you've explained it to me I think I know exactly what I've been doing wrong. I always keep my iso as wide open as possible (so usually 1.8) and then I also try to keep my iso 600 or lower so i don't end up getting noise.. so my shutter speed is usually between 80 - 100 - so I think that's where I've been going wrong, the shutter speed wasn't fast enough. Thank you so much for taking the time out to explain. I'm going to shoot again on Sunday so I'm definitely going to try it out at higher shutter speeds n see how it works out. Thanks again !