Lighting for Indoor Hockey

DFRANCIS · May 19, 2015

Hi

I am new to the forum and would like some help in what to use for strobe lighting in a hockey arena. The last professional used two strobe lights and a couple of pocket wizards, but I am unsure what the lights were. The arena is fairly large. I would also like to setup a camera so that I can trigger remotely along with the strobes.

Any advice or recommendations?

tirediron · May 19, 2015

To do this properly, you'd need more than two strobes IMO. Measure the distance from the overhead to the ice surface to determine your required power (I'd go for about f5.6 or so) and once you know your power, figure out placement by determining beam spread based on the reflector you will be using. You will need one PW for each light (unless you connect them by cable, but I would avoid that - too many risks) and one for each remote camera. A well built Lexan box clamped to the upright of the net (on the backside) should do nicely.

DFRANCIS · May 19, 2015

Thank you for your reply. I am new to the lighting side of photography. The distance from the top to the surface of the ice is 80 feet.

tirediron · May 19, 2015

Okay, so you're going to need about a GN of about 400, or probably about 2400 w/s at ISO 100 - the number of lights you need will depend on the beam spread and light circle produced by the reflector you choose.

DFRANCIS · May 20, 2015

Thanks for the info. What is GN? Also are you saying 2400 watts at 100 iso? Is this how they are gauged? As I said before, I am new to the lighting side of photography. I guess the guy before just flooded the arena with light, although he only had two strobes! What model do you recommend, I am on a budget so nothing way out there on price.

Mach0 · May 20, 2015

DFRANCIS said:
Thanks for the info. What is GN? Also are you saying 2400 watts at 100 iso? Is this how they are gauged? As I said before, I am new to the lighting side of photography. I guess the guy before just flooded the arena with light, although he only had two strobes! What model do you recommend, I am on a budget so nothing way out there on price.

Budget can be anything but at ISO 100 a guide number of 400 isn't going to be cheap.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

DFRANCIS · May 20, 2015

Ok, so what am I looking at here?

Derrel · May 20, 2015

The most-popular arena lighting systems have been made by Speedotron, and Dynalite. For decades now. Speedotron is one of the USA companies that actually "invented and developed" modern, studio electronic flash systems, over seventy years ago. Their 2400 and 4800 series packs have been arena flash staples for decades now. They have reflectors and extension cables suitable for arena lighting.

See this 1999 Sportsshooter.com post on arena lighting for some ideas of ideal type setups.Arena Lighting

Dynalite has its own "Arena Series" lighting items. Arena Series Dynalite

tirediron · May 20, 2015

DFRANCIS said:
Thanks for the info. What is GN? Also are you saying 2400 watts at 100 iso? Is this how they are gauged? As I said before, I am new to the lighting side of photography. I guess the guy before just flooded the arena with light, although he only had two strobes! What model do you recommend, I am on a budget so nothing way out there on price.

"Way out there" probably means something different to you than to me. If I were to do this, I'd rent the gear; I haven't worked out the math, but I'm guessing you'd want eight heads and two 2400 w/s packs; to buy new? About $10K, used <$2K. This isn't really an undertaking for someone "just getting into lighting" and two of any lights will NOT flood an entire arena. The budget option would be one pack and three lights; center hice, and each goal.

vintagesnaps · May 21, 2015

You have to know what you're doing to make sure they're anchored properly because obviously you can't risk one of them possibly coming down from that height onto players below (unless arena staff will be installing them). I do hockey in existing light and know what permissions and restrictions are in place for that so there would be much more liability involved in doing this.

I took a workshop with this photographer on sports photography which touched on strobe lighting but didn't get into specifics. There may be some differences now but the links show his set up.
Workshop at the Ranch - April 2005 - Arena Sport Strobe Lighting 101 Dave BlackDave Black
Workshop at the Ranch - April 2010 - Little Lights BIG Arena - PART 1 Dave BlackDave Black

(Just realized what Derrel posted - great minds! I agree, check out Sportsshooter.)

PATRICK MURPHY-RACEY · Jan 11, 2021

how to strobe a large arena:

how to strobe a smaller arena:

I do professional strobe installations for universities and team photographers if anyone is in need of that service

pm-r

John Fantastic · Jan 13, 2021

DFRANCIS said:
Hi

I am new to the forum and would like some help in what to use for strobe lighting in a hockey arena. The last professional used two strobe lights and a couple of pocket wizards, but I am unsure what the lights were. The arena is fairly large. I would also like to setup a camera so that I can trigger remotely along with the strobes.
Any advice or recommendations?

Hello DFrancis,

This is an unorthodox suggestion. Since Ice Hockey events are already well lighted, why don't you use a late model DSLR or Mirrorless with very good ISO Performance then as suggested by @nixgeek, go Manual with auto ISO Mode.

Meaning you shoot at a chosen shutter speed and aperture and let the camera choose the ISO to compensate for lighting. I have seen many modern DSLR's and mirrorless cameras that produce excellent results even at an ISO of 24,000 .

PATRICK MURPHY-RACEY · Jan 13, 2021

Sure, you will probably need Elinchroms for this purpose. How many lights you use will dictate how much of the rink you can shoot. If you can only do two heads, I'd shoot for doing one goal since the action mostly happens there. The problem with strobing hockey is the rink is SO long and big. It's a ton of ground to cover. what you want to avoid is what we call "dirty ice," which is when there is not enough light to get all of the ice lit the same--any part you can see in the background will turn grey and then black. What is typical in NHL arenas is the use of 6 (minimum) or 8 packs and heads. What gear you choose depends on two things: 1. how bright is it lit now, and 2. how high is the ceiling or catwalk. The lower the ceiling/catwalk, the more lights you have to use. The really high arenas can get away with just 6 lights because as the light is dispersed from a greater distance, the more even a larger area of the rink will be lit. If your arena is pretty dark, you can maybe use a set of Elinchrom 500 or 600 w/s heads with sport reflectors. if it's pretty bright, you may need two sets of Elinchroms or a set of Speedotron packs and heads. I do these types of installs all the time and can assist you with using either new gear or used heads. last, you will want to use a PocketWizard system to trigger everything you install. it's really the only system that can handle the distance and sync.
You can find me at pmrphoto.com--just use the contact link and I'll get back to you.

snowbear · Jan 13, 2021

2015 thread. I'm sure the OP has figured it out by now.

vintagesnaps · Jan 13, 2021

I would hope so! And if this isn't in an NHL arena, better learn how to shoot in low light with crappy glass - figure out where the lighting is decent and pray to the hockey gods.