Hockey Photo

[goober_357]

Newbie looking for some help shooting at the rink. This shot was taken from the penalty box, in a newer well light arena. I adjusted the brightness, contrast and WB and also cropped.

Usually the lighting is not as good as this and I normally have to shoot through the glass (trying to avoid the puck scuffs!). Any tips for shooting in this environment would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24981506@N07/2359360389/" title="Defence by goober_357, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2117/2359360389_b9e92da9e2.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Defence" /></a>

Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/320
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 1600
Lens 55.0 - 200.0 mm
Focal Length 88.0 mm
Image Size 3456x2304
Image Quality RAW
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Servo AF


Ciao,
Goober

[Major_Small]

I've never shot in a place like this myself, but first two things that come to mind are:

white balance - there's a whole lot of white on an ice rink - a great place to set a custom white balance
Focal Length - If you can get close to the 'glass' and focus way past it, the scuffs on it should be less apparent.

[wpgreer]

I haven't shto still photos in a hockey arena, but I HAVE shot video (I work in TV) there.

White balance off the ice, UNLESS the ice is a wierd color (sometimes happens) or the lights are different at the ice than they are above it. Again, sometimes this happens with different light bulbs. Ice rinks usually love tungsten, but sometimes they'll light the stands with halogen. Makes for some strange coloring. But usally, you can WB off the ice and be just fine.

As far as flash goes...you're pretty much out of luck. A flash is going to scatter the facemask across the face.

You may want to try switching to shutter priority mode and firing off a few frames that way. It'll freeze the action more, but it'll also adjust your aperture.

But the main thing to do (if you're ok with shooting mostly manual) is to ignore the ice. We do this a lot in TV when things are very bright. Try exposing t=for the face and body and leave the ice alone. Of course, you shouldn't settle for shots where the ice is absolutely glowing, but if you stop up a bit for the face, the ice will remain white. It'll just be a little brighter.

I think your camera's trying to expose for the texture of the ice as well as the ice itself and your subject. If you can tell it to ignore the ice and only expose the subject, you should get some better light.

Hope that helps!

[mrodgers]

I think this is a fantastic shot. I just came back from a work trip in Detroit where we went to the hockey game. I took over 200 photos from way up high with my non-dSLR. I wish I could have come home with good shots, but they all turned out mediocre. It was quite difficult to shoot with that little light. But, I'm not using a dSLR either.

A coworker did print one out of a wide angle view at 11x14 (Snapfish). He thought it was fantastic and brought it to work today. I have a bit tighter tolerances for quality since it was my shot and wasn't as thrilled as he was with how it looks. It certainly wasn't bad though, for a $200 camera.

[goober_357]

Thanks for the input everyone.

wpgreer, you said:

Try exposing t=for the face and body and leave the ice alone. Of course, you shouldn't settle for shots where the ice is absolutely glowing, but if you stop up a bit for the face, the ice will remain white.

As I stated, I'm really new to all of this. Could you please dumb-down your suggestion for me a bit? What do you mean by exposing for the face and body? How is this done? Also, what exactly is meant by "stop up a bit"? I've heard this phrase on this site before, but I never really understood what people meant by this.

Thanks again,

Goober

[jdepould]

It still seems dark, bumping the exposure in post will probably fix it without introducing too much noise.

As far as the image itself, it just isn't that exciting to me. It's just a person skating with a stick. The puck isn't in the shot, and nothing is really happening.

[goober_357]

It's just a person skating with a stick. The puck isn't in the shot, and nothing is really happening.

Actually, she playing "D" and its a one-on-one situation. The girl in the red has the puck. Yes, maybe its not the best composition, especially if you don't know the player. :o (I also played defense so I can relate to what is going through the girl's mind at that moment. I guess I'm a little sentimental :)) I have other shots that have a more interesting composition, but they have other things that are not so hot such as camera shake, poor focus, worse exposure, etc.

[airbrushjohn]

not bad with the lighting, a 320 shutter, i see you used f5 ap, do you have any faster lenses? and really not bad at 1600 iso. of course she wasn't skating by and you caught her a good angle. nice job. since you didn't say what camera you were using, can you bump the iso to 3200. i have been using a 10d lately, and if you run it through noise ninja it cleans up pretty well. also for these types of indoor sports the best thing is to expose on the players faces, and you have done a great job here. overall you did a nice job! try to get, and i know its hard, both players facing you fighting for the puck.

[goober_357]

I tried your suggestions and I think there is a great improvement in the shots I took today. I figured out how to custom white balance, and balanced off the ice. Also switched to shutter priority. I tried some shots with an ISO 800, but went back to ISO1600 (the highest my camera has.)

Below is one of the shots I took today. Except for a slight crop, it's straight from the camera. Not the best shot of the day, however I don't like to post shots that clearly show the player's faces without first having their parents permission. (The girl with the puck is my daughter).

Thanks again for the tips everyone.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24981506@N07/2374966819/" title="Kayla by goober_357, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2316/2374966819_10a7e52eb4.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Kayla" /></a>

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 65 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Orientation: Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution: 72 dpi
Y-Resolution: 72 dpi
Date and Time: 2008:03:30 20:02:08
YCbCr Positioning: Centered
Date and Time (Original): 2008:03:30 11:43:56
Date and Time (Digitized): 2008:03:30 11:43:56
Shutter Speed: 479850/65536
Color Space: sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution: 3954.233 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution: 3958.763 dpi
White Balance: Manual
Compression: JPEG

Used Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT with EF55-200mm 1:4.5-5.6 USM kit lens

[HockeyFan]

I sit on the front row at games, and typically use ISO 1600, lense wide open and a shutter speed of 1/160th and sometimes a little slower. The results are reasonable and I still stop most action with no problem.

[goober_357]

I sit on the front row at games, and typically use ISO 1600, lense wide open and a shutter speed of 1/160th and sometimes a little slower. The results are reasonable and I still stop most action with no problem.

Can you post some of these shots? I'd love to see them

[HockeyFan]

http://picasaweb.google.com/les.stockton

I bought my Rebel XTi near the end of the season, so I didn't get a lot of photos at games, but did finally get the hang of it. I've included the link to my photos at google so you can see the various things that I've done, which do include some photos from hockey games, including a road trip (the one I finally broke down and bought the camera for) to St. Louis to see a game.

If you have any questions, just let me know.

http://picasaweb.google.com/les.stockton/20080321TulsaOilersVRockyMountainRage

http://picasaweb.google.com/les.stockton/20080318TulsaOilersVBossierShreveportMudbugs

[goober_357]

Nice shots. What lens are you using and what appeture setting do you use for the hockey pics? The glass sure is a lot cleaner when you get up to the bigger leagues! I always forget to bring some Windex and paper towels to the rink!

[HockeyFan]

Unfortunately, the majority of the crap on our glass is on the side the players are on. So I don't have access to clean it. However, I sit close enough that if I lean in, it diffuses pretty well.

The lense is a Canon EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6.

I typically shoot at ISO 1600, with a shutter speed of 1/160th or maybe slower, and with the lense wide open. If I were tied in to the synchronized flash (in the ceiling) that the pro uses at the games, I would be using the same settings, but a shutter speed of 1/200th.

The shutter speed definitely stops the action, and I'm still letting enough light in to get the shots I want. The first game I used the camera on, I was still getting used to the camera, and so I was shooting at 1/200th, which was a tad dark. You'll notice that my St. Louis road trip photos were a tad yellow (darkened). I'm disappointed in them, but looking forward to playoff road trip, plus next season when I can take more photos.
And there's the adult league games that I can go to this summer if I really jones for it.