UNCW Hockey

divmedic4

Some shots from this weekends games. I have tried to incorporate previous advice in to these but always open to constructive criticism that will help me improve. Thanks for looking.

1)

20121027-158 by Divmedic4, on Flickr

2)

20121027-146 by Divmedic4, on Flickr

3)

20121027-136 by Divmedic4, on Flickr

4)

20121027-116 by Divmedic4, on Flickr

5)

20121027-157 by Divmedic4, on Flickr

6)

20121027-149 by Divmedic4, on Flickr

ian408

There's something wrong with the post on these. Color and WB?

Bryce Wilson

Were some of these shot through the glass? There looks to be kind of a haze about a couple?

divmedic4

Bryce - Yes all of these were shot through the glass. To me, it seems like the haze is more obvious in the distant shots than the closer ones.

Ian - I definitely see what you are saying about the variations in color. For the WB, I took an out of focus shot of the ice after warm-ups but before they resurfaced the ice. I didn't shoot with that as the custom white balance but synced that as the WB for all shots in LR3. As for the color, I think I may have introduced some of the problems with that when trying to get a little more pop/contrast in them. The method I used for that was the levels sliders in PS5. If you have any suggestions for a more efficient and "correct" way to go about that, I would be very grateful to hear them.

Tom

lifeinfocus

Ice hockey is probably one of the most difficult sports to shoot. I did a few times and posted some comments in another dgrin post and more expert ice hockey photogs posted their comments. See: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=224822&highlight=hockey

I haven't had a chance yet to learn from the comments of other photographers from that posting yet but look forward to it.

Phil

jhefti

I might suggest putting a steeper curve on the quarter-tones. It will add richness to the color and some needed contrast. I don't think the WB is totally off, but keep in mind that using the ice for the reference may get you colors in balance spectrally, but not how your eye actually saw it. (Remember that your eye compensates for color bias, but the camera doesn't.) I've had much better luck with WB just using my eye; or sometimes I will target off a white reference (like the ice) and then fine tune. Rarely have I achieved natural looking WB just using a reference--even a calibrated one like a card.

divmedic4

Thank you Jhefti. I want back and looked at my ice shot that I used for reference and do notice some color casts in it. If I set the shutter speed to 1/60 for that, would that help remove the color cast and be more consistant across the other images? I will also give a try to increasing the curve in that area.

ian408

I hope you don't mind. This is a very quick fix including WB, exposure and saturation. I cropped it as well.
Please keep in mind, it's pretty tiny to begin with so you might notice some jpg artifacts.

ian408

Careful with lower shutter speed. You'll end up with motion blur.

To address the white balance question. My suggestion is to use a white coffee filter over the lens (manual focus), shoot toward the predominate light source and use that image for your white balance.

There's a lot more to it. But this will help with WB. Motion blur and post processing needs be worked on too.

ian408

Careful with lower shutter speed. You'll end up with motion blur.

To address the white balance question. My suggestion is to use a white coffee filter over the lens (manual focus), shoot toward the predominate light source and use that image for your white balance.

There's a lot more to it. But this will help with WB. Motion blur and post processing needs be worked on too.

aktse

Is your monitor calibrated? The WB looks okay on an my uncalibrated monitor at work, but it really stands out on my calibrated setup at home.

I took an eyedropper to two of your images and the RBGs values are a bit off to me with the way I process ice hockey. You're coming in as (251-249-232) and (250-249-239) and you're in what I call the "yellow snow" range. I tend to aim for around (250-250-250)and am willing to blow out a bit of detail on the ice for details in the jerseys if they're clean and washed. I don't always hit it depending on the quality of light in the rink that I'm in, but it's what I strive for. You seem to be in AMAZING light if you're hitting shutter speeds over over 1/1000!!!!

In general, wb, black point and saturation need to be tweaked a bit.

divmedic4

Ian - I don't mind at all and thank you for touching up. Also, I was talking about the slower shutter speed just for the ice shot to set WB from. The thinking was that it would eliminate the color cast from the lights cycling.

Aktse - Unfortunately monitor is not calibrated. Right now, I am doing everything from my laptop. I appreciate the numbers you provided and the advice about not worrying about blowing the ice out a bit to get crisper sweaters. Is there an inexpensive option out there that would work with a laptop LCD to calibrate? I freely admit I am not where I should be post wise and if that is going to help it will be worth the investment. I am really looking forward to the game next week to try some suggestions I have received.

ian408

I don't believe a slower shutter is going to help-I could be wrong. I do think it's better not to pick the ice as your WB point.

I suggested the coffee filter method of setting WB because it doesn't depend on any one thing (sweater, ice, etc.). And because it's even
light across the sensor. You could do it with Expodisc too.

A ColorChecker might help setting the blacks and whites although it's often easier as you get better at post.

jhefti

I'm not big on using calibration standards, but an 18% gray card might do the trick. I agree that the ice may not be the best WB standard.