Hockey tips

BlueHoseJacket

Planning on attending a college "club" hockey game on Friday night. It will be held at an ice skating rink as opposed to an ice hockey arena so I am guessing that the lighting will be less than ideal. I have never shot hockey nad need a few tips as to camera settings. As a matter of fact, I have never shot snow and from what I have read these (snow & ice)are some very tough conditions for shooting. Thanks in advance for your help.

KMCC

BlueHoseJacket wrote:

Planning on attending a college "club" hockey game on Friday night. It will be held at an ice skating rink as opposed to an ice hockey arena so I am guessing that the lighting will be less than ideal. I have never shot hockey nad need a few tips as to camera settings. As a matter of fact, I have never shot snow and from what I have read these (snow & ice)are some very tough conditions for shooting. Thanks in advance for your help.

I shoot a lot of hockey in poorly lit rinks. My standard set up is:

If at all possible, shoot from over the glass
70-200mm lens @ f/2.8
ISO 3200
Auto White Balance (I've tried other settings, but AWB seems as good as any)
AIservo (to allow for continuous refocusing)
Burst mode (for continuous shooting when things heat up)

I have to run everything through Noiseware to clean up the noise because of the high ISO, but it works out okay. I then tweak the contrast and levels using Photoshop Elements.

I get acceptable (not outstanding) results.

Go to the Hockey gallery on my website if you want to see some examples.

UT Scott

I shot my first hockey game (College club team as well) last Friday. I was using a Nikon D2x with 70-200 2.8 and the lighting was surprisingly good. I was able to shoot at F/2.8, shutter 1/200, and ISO 640. I probably should have bumped up the ISO a bit because my pictures were a little underexposed. I would really recommend bringing something to set your white balance off of, the lighting was ok, but it was a really weird colour.

Here's a couple shots I got, there's no PP on these at all.





Also, you may want to try to get a ladder or something so you can shoot over the glass. At the rink I was at (and a lot of others) the glass was really scuffed up and hard to shoot through).

KMCC

UT Scott wrote:

I shot my first hockey game (College club team as well) last Friday. I was using a Nikon D2x with 70-200 2.8 and the lighting was surprisingly good. I was able to shoot at F/2.8, shutter 1/200, and ISO 640. I probably should have bumped up the ISO a bit because my pictures were a little underexposed. I would really recommend bringing something to set your white balance off of, the lighting was ok, but it was a really weird colour.

Here's a couple shots I got, there's no PP on these at all.

Nice shots Scott. Also nice basketball shots on your web site.

A little tweaking really brightens up your hockey shots. I did this just using Levels:

risource

good luck
I've been learning by shooting in poorly-lit arenas and I find it really requires concentration. I do my best shooting old skool.... one shot, manual focus or single center spot AF with my finger dancing on the shutter to keep it active. I need more than 1/200 to stop hockey action... 350 minimum.

Canon 10D AF likes to find the facemask and focuses on it, but shooting wide open that gives me consistent fuzzy faces. If only there was a way to program it to find the facemask and shift 2 inches...

As noted, there is a lot of postprocessing to do.

These are all shot ISO 1600 http://www.bellinghamtoday.com/bellingham-hockey/whatcom-warriors-hockey/bellingham-hockey.html with little if any processing. If I want to print, adjust levels and denoise/sharpen but I don't enjoy processing at all.

I like to shoot my 135 f2 fixed lens and my 85 1.8, but always bring the 70-200 2.8.

Since it's club play you might talk your way to the side of the bench so you don't have to shoot thru the glass.