Nikon D3100 setting help for Flags (football game twirlers) IMEDIATE Help NEEDED?

I need help with the settings. Its supposed to be pretty sunny, then pretty cloudy, and I need help with the best specific settings to get pictures of the flag girls. Since the flags are obviously always moving, what would be the best way to get a great crisp clear shot due to the weather? I don't have a mono pod or tripod either.

Is 'stopping the motion' of those flags something you Really want to do?

Or, do you want to just allow them to have a very slight blur in order to express that movement and create an image with purpose?

In my mind shooting movement is part of telling that story. I would look to setting my body to 'Shutter Priority', and start around 1/30th of a second looking at your results from there +/- 1 stop in speed. At 1/30th the people will largely remain sharp, and the flags will have a slight movement. THAT'S an image of a flag twirling. If everything is frozen, it just looks like people holding static sticks.

Set the shutter speed to 1/500th second in the shutter priority. As the light changes, the camera will automatically adjust the lens aperture. I necssary (after some tests) you find that you need to raise the shutter speed to 1/1000th second, then you can raise the cameras ISO setting to 400.

That should do it

If you shoot in RAW, you will be able to later take care of the changes in white balance from full sun to overcast when processing in Adobe Lightroom