Turning clumsy into sporty

Ted Szukalski

Shot during ice hockey development day. This is my son Sebastian:

aktse

This is a wonderful shot! And I loved your other hockey portrait as well.

Since I'm on the DL right now, I'm starting to take hockey pictures. I have seen some of your shots before, and they're beautiful. Any advice? Where are you standing? Are shots taken through the glass?

20D
Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L USM Lens

Ted Szukalski

Hi,
I am standing at the center of the rink right on the wall. We do not have plexi glass walls - only netting. Since these are junior games I am allowed to shoot without the netting. If you have glass in your way you will need polarizing filter to remove any glare of it.

I shoot all manual, however I do have a simple trick where light is pretty even: before the game browse the whole rink with the lens and find the darkest point. This point I set for -1EV. So shots there will be underexposed a bit, but everywhere else will be spot on. This way I do not have to fiddle during the game. I shoot hand held with good success ratio, usually ISO 1250 or 1600. I accept there will be some noise. I shoot wide open (F2.8) and only seldom I'll step down. I hope this helps.

PS: I spoke to a colegue here at work, who migrated from USA, he said many USA rinks have holes in the plexiglass walls for the photographers, so I guess you need to seek access to these if you can.

aktse wrote:

This is a wonderful shot! And I loved your other hockey portrait as well.

Since I'm on the DL right now, I'm starting to take hockey pictures. I have seen some of your shots before, and they're beautiful. Any advice? Where are you standing? Are shots taken through the glass?

20D
Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L USM Lens