Any Ice Hockey Photogs out there?

[Mom2EandD]

Hi All...I'm a hockey mom...hobbyist photographer...been muddling around in the photog world for some time but just recently got serious about the science of it all...been trying to get my 7 year old on the ice...I have a Canon EOS Rebel XT (hoping to upgrade to the 7D sometime in the next year or so)...I'm up between 800 and 1600 ISO with a 70-300mm 4.8 lens (too slow, I know)..so I recently rented the 70-200mm 2.8 lens and got some better shots..but would appreciate any other hints/input re hockey photography...do you pan? do you focus on the player's face, his hands, the puck?? Where do you like to position yourself in the rink? At the ends or mid-ice?? I've gotten some nice shots..but because my camera is old..many of them are a bit more "noisy" then I'd like...not sure if that can be fixed without the newer camera...hints, advice, shortcuts..anything would be helpful...Thanks. S

[kevinh803]

I've been struggling with indoor natural light photography for a couple years now, and have learned a few things. First, I'm not there yet by any means. Getting good light in the lens indoors will never be easy, but here goes:

I moved up to a Nikon D90 2 yrs. ago, and it has some ability to shoot at higher ISO's. Not knowing exactly what you know, I'll explain that for you or anyone else reading that isn't familiar. ISO is the rating of how "sensitive" the cameras sensor can be made. The more sensitive (the higher ISO) the more noise, which is basically just garbage pixels in the picture. Every DSLR has a limit at which point the noise becomes unusable. My D90 can take halfway decent pictures up to 1200 ISO, but these are just barely acceptable. I'm saving right now for a D700, which I understand can shoot pretty cleanly to 6400 ISO or above.

The 70-200 2.8 was a good start. This is a professional lens, considered fast glass. Your non-fixed aperture lenses are probably not going to do the job for indoor photography.

It has become my opinion that if I am going to take indoor sports photographs of the quality that I desire (I'm not often happy with my picures, if that gives you a clue), I am going to have to drop $2500 on a Nikon D700, considered a professional camera. I have a 70-200 2.8 that cost me $2000, and a 28-70 2.8 that was $1500 used.

So there you have it. The bottom line is, I guess, that committing to shooting indoor sports may be a greater commitment than you thought. I remember going to my nieces volleyball game and asking if flash photography was allowed. It wasn't. I then struggled for two hours to get a decent picture while the flashes from the crowd behind me went off. So maybe you should just get a bigger flash

[retro_pony]

Ok, here goes - I will offer some different points/views from Kevin. First off, I am a player, as well as a photography dreamer, so my thinking might be different. The lighting in our home rink has always been TERRIBLE, more yellow than anything. However, they recently changed out all the lighting and repainted the rink - that must have something to do with it as I tried a couple test shots a few weeks back and got some good results. I was amazed myself.

Looking to address some questions... where do you focus? Depends what you are capturing - maybe the expression on the player's face, maybe the windup of a slapshot, maybe the extended arm of a glove save. No right answer there. As to where to shoot from, if it's me, I'd be behind the glass, on an end. I am not a fan of the "broadcast booth" angle pics (high, center ice), plus being at ice level gives a better feeling of the speed of the game - in addition, no heads to dodge, no netting to shoot through (above the glass on the ends of the rink). However, from the bench can be interesting as you get to add a little of the fans in the stands as a backdrop to add some excitement, but it can be dangerous shooting from there too - whether your players are big or small!

Shooting with a T1i - I got some promising results from my first test run. First, snap off a few pics to get the color adjusted, (adjust for fluorescent most likely and possibly adjust white balance due to the ice rink normally so bright, like a day in the snow) I included one sample pic... here I was focused on the goalie, waiting for a save, you can see the shooter in the distance and the puck on the way. Nothing spectacular, but something to reference.
Shot at 55 of a 55-250 lens
f4.0
1/250 sec
1600 ISO

You can start to see the grain, so I might back that down and adjust for it if at all possible.

[Mirandaguat12]

ISO 1600, F/8.0, 1/160sec, No flash


ISO 1600, F/10.0, 1/160sec, No flash

A couple of months ago I purchased my first DSLR, a NIkon D5000. Here are some of the shots I snapped at a recent game.

[OsmosisStudios]

MiranDaguat: Those are great shots, but I have to say the white balance is off and the images are underexposed.