First real attempt at hockey

JerryMartin

Greetings, fellow 'mugers!

I'm new to the forums, and SmugMug in general, but have been active on several other photog forums for a while now. Since I'm now using SM I thought I'd try participating here!

I recently shot some little league baseball pics for my newphew while on vacation in Miami, Florida last month. I had only intended to shoot him but I had three parents tap me on the shoulder and ask if I was there in an official capacity. Ofcourse I was prepared for "Don't you shoot my kid... blah, blah, blah..." but I was pleasantly surprised when they asked where they could view and purchase the pics! :barb Alas, I now have a SM Pro account (and one sale, to boot!).

Anyhow, I've spent a lot of time in the sports section here and on other boards and have read with great interest all the stories about shooting hockey. Well, I happen to have a co-worker (#33 in the shots) that plays adult league hockey. Here's my first attempt at what was certainly a challenge for me. The lighting was pretty good and after figuring out a good exposure setting I'm pretty pleased with the results.

All pics were taken in RAW with auto WB and for the most part at ISO 3200, f/2.8 or f/4, 1/640, using my Canon 20D w/grip, 70-200 f/2.8L IS. Slight variations in those settings in a few and corrected in PP. Speaking of which, I use CS2 and my PP consisted of cropping, curves, Noise Ninja, sharpen, save as jpeg (in that order). Most pics shot through the glass, others through the net above the glass. I hope once my buddy's coach sees the pics he'll consider my request to be on the bench for next game!

Enough blabber, on to the pics!

Entire gallery here: http://www.jerrymartinphoto.com/gallery/2550700

mmahoney

JerryMartin wrote:

Most pics shot through the glass

Gotta stop that or you'll go blind shooting thru the glass often eats up the contrast, leaving things looking pretty dull.

Nice start & get the motor drive going for your next game from the bench but beware .. shooting from that position takes away a lot of the good shooting opportunities as you will have the action going past you rather than having it come towards you if you were to shoot from the ends of the rink.

My favorite spot is about at the blueline over the glass .. pretty safe location and allows you to shoot the action as it comes in, then turn and shoot the goalmouth action.

Good luck and post the next game's shots,
Mike

JerryMartin

Mike, thanks for the great advice. Unfortunately, this facility has netting from the top of the glass up, about 10 more feet. The shots I have above the glass were okay as long as I was able to keep the lens mashed up against it pretty good. Either way, for me it's a learning experience and I'd just like to see what I can get from the bench.

Thanks again!

aktse

I play and shoot adult rec league hockey. It's no the easiest thing to do, and you did well!

Congrats on the sales of the photo!

JerryMartin

Thanks, aktse!

Luckily this particular facility has pretty good lighting. I'll be back out there Sunday evening for another game.

ETA: I just checked out your hockey pics. Nice work, and it looks like you have good lighting at your facility as well. I'm guessing you're in the San Jose area? I'll be out in Santa Clara next week for Sun training. I love northern Cali, especially the coastal areas. I was out there last December and got some real nice pics from Half Moon Bay all the way up to Miur Woods. I'll have my gear with me next week, too!

shoppix

Ice hockey shootin'
Jerry - These are good shots you posted here. I just finished local high school season and have sold $200+ worth. I would hand out 4x5 flyers I printed at home on bright colored paper, to parents on both teams. not much response/sales from the opposing teams, though!
I shot with sigma (new) 70-200 2.8 on 800 iso. Afraid to try higher because of noise. I had plenty as it was! I will try it next time I shoot in not well lit envirionment. Maybe higher ISO results in less noise than underexposure !??? I do now use Neat Image to clean up my 'noise'. Works well.
Now waiting for Spring sports and heading outside in good light again!

JerryMartin

Shoppix, thanks for the kind words. I know how you feel about shooting in high ISO, I had the same fears. However, Noise Ninja and NeatImage both do a fantastic job. Check out this pic. Left side Noise Ninja defaults; right side camera raw.

mmahoney

JerryMartin wrote:

Check out this pic. Left side Noise Ninja defaults; right side camera raw.

Also try loading your specific camera profile in Noise Ninja or creating your own custom profile .. the difference is significant. All my hockey is at ISO3200 and noise is well controlled by correct exposure and custom noise profiles.

This is a small sized file but I print these at 8X10 and noise is simply not an issue.

shoppix

hockey shots
Thanks Jerry. I'm going to have to pump up my ISO, shoot at 640 sec shutter spd and go for it. Then let Neat Image take of the apparent noise.
This should cut down on my editing time - I had to adjust levels on every shot since they were to dark, underexposed at the ISO i was using. Same for my gymnastics shot. Should improve my 'work flow' ememsly!

Thanks for your suggestions. Keep shootin'.
Oh, have you, or you other dgrinners out there reading along, thought of trying Adobe lightroom yet. I just bought it but have not gotten to far into it yet. Scott Kelby's book is due out soon, but I'll just peck away at it and try not to screw tings up!

One more ???, do you have a separate, personal website with your smugmug gallery linked to it. If so, who is your site provider?I'm concidering so that people can people can 'google' my name and get to my smugmug gallery.
Steve

winger

Nice shots for your first time.

Hockey maybe one of the hardest sports to shoot, there are so many things going on that make it difficult. The fast moving action, the generally crappy light, often you have to shoot through glass and that is if your lucky. Most of the time its plexi and its all puck marked!

Things I tend to look for.
Action at the face off: players make great faces and you can get an isolated puck and typically two players tying each other up.

PK: my new thing is getting the forwards on the PK, blocking shots making poke checks, I got some nice shots with the shooter OOF, the forward on the PK in focus and the goalie and possible another D man behind out. Its a pretty cool perspective. Its the kind of thing I shoot from the box.

Everyone loves isolated, but a goalie with isolated pucks is always a favorite.
Not to plug my own stuff but check out the 2nd shot: http://www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?t=56044
The black thing over his left shoulder is the puck and he is watching it sail by.

One thing I always post is faces, faces, faces....Faces help tell the story, show the emotion, the sweat of the game. Sometimes for dramatic effect you may not want faces. But for the most part, and from my general NO ONES ass looks good in hockey pants.

That and keep it tight. Which maybe a limitation on glass and light. Trying croping tight in the frame of the camera. You wil find amazing images. Its scary at first but the impact of the image and the color will make you glad you messed up all those photos along the way.

NEVER put the camera down. Some of my favorite photos are the action in between the action. A ref chatting with a goalie, a coach screaming at the ref. Two players from opposing teams jawing at each other. The scrum at the night after the whistle between a forward crashing the net and a defender. Those shots are often the ones that are missed and can make the difference between being a good sports photograhper and a great one.