Ice Hockey

fanofthegame · September 28, 2006

I dont know if I have the right section of the forum. I'm a hockey fan and recently upgraded to a newer camera. Not as nice as Yours I'm sure

Cannon 6mp S3IS. I'm a bit lost on the settings and have some hockey games I'd like to take photos at this weekend. Any advice for an amature? I have done well editing in photoshop but the new cam has so man settings I feel lost! Any advice would be appreciated.

Steve Cavigliano · September 28, 2006

fanofthegame wrote:

I dont know if I have the right section of the forum. I'm a hockey fan and recently upgraded to a newer camera. Not as nice as Yours I'm sure Cannon 6mp S3IS. I'm a bit lost on the settings and have some hockey games I'd like to take photos at this weekend. Any advice for an amature? I have done well editing in photoshop but the new cam has so man settings I feel lost! Any advice would be appreciated.

First, welcome to Dgrin

Second, what sort of lighting are we talking about? A small poorly lit rink (the norm). Or, a better lit Pro or College level rink?

If the rink is poorly lit, you will have a difficult time getting a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action. My advice would be to crank the ISO to it's max setting and open the aperture all the way (using M mode or A mode). Whatever speed you get will be the fastest your camera is capable of, given the lighting. It may only be 1/100 or 1/125

Too slow to freeze action. But even with some motion blur, at least you will come home with some shots. You may also want to do a Manual/Custom white balance (you can use the ice to set this :-) If your camera allows you to shoot RAW, that would also help. You can do some stuff with RAW that you cannot do with a jpg.

If the lighting is good, you may not need to set your ISO at its maximum. But, most of the rest of my comments stand.

Even though your camera isn't the right tool for this job, don't get discouraged. With patience and a bit of dedication you can get some decent results even using slower shutter speeds

Good luck and post what you capture over in the Sports Forum

Steve

aktse · September 28, 2006

Welcome! Ice Hockey isn't the easiest, but it can be done, and can be done well. Are you attending pro/colleges games or just games are the local rink for the kids/adult leagues. SInce you meniton "games" this weekend, I'm assuming that you'll be around the local rink.

For most places, lightening is going to very questionable, and you might have to deal with the plexi glass. My suggestion: take test shots are various settings -- ISO, speed, etc. and post a couple in the sports section. If possible stand and above the glass. Some rinks even have a cut of hole in the glass for people to shoot from; it will makes things a bit easier.

I play and shoot at the local rinks and I'm always still learning. I tend now to shoot in aperture priority, the fastest I can get with my lens, using an ISO 400-1600 depedning on the rink, and a shutter speed around 1/500. I'm still trying to figure out white balance. Good luck.

fanofthegame · September 29, 2006

Thankyou all so much for your help. We actually have pretty good lighting. I'm a whl hockey fan and we have a team here in Everett, Washington. For those of you who dont know anything about the whl or our team we have a few players drafted this year. Two went in the first round. Peter Mueller (Pheonix) and Irving (Flames). I work on a scrapbook for a player each year and have managed to get some pretty good shots so far. I sit in row 13 so I dont have to worry about the glass.

Thats nice because the times I have sat on the glass the glare from peoples clothing seemed to be a problem. Last year I used my 4mp olympus and when I went to upgrade I hoped to buy another olympus but couldnt find any in town so I purchased the cannon. It has so many more features that I'm a bit confused on which is which but I'm going over the book tonight before this weekend. I did set the ISO to 800 from what I can tell thats the highest it will go. These are shots I took last year and edited in photoshop (with my old 4mp cam). Gives you an idea of what the rink is like. Thanks for the welcome. I really love photography and wish I could purchase a top of the line cam but guess it doesnt make much sense to buy one yet since I really dont know what I'm doing lol.

Ice Hockey

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