Couple of hockey photos

Sharkbait · Mar 16, 2004

Went to another Indianapolis Ice game this past weekend, and in an overall pretty boring game, managed to snag a couple of decent shots. Lighting was terrible in this building, so I had to shoot at ISO 1600 and then still had to brighten and adjust levels some from there.

Sharkbait · Mar 16, 2004

Hey, on that last one (the b&w), any thoughts on how I can bring out the shooter more against that background? I was shooting a short lens to get the whole frame, and it lengthened my DOF. I tried blurring the background and was unhappy with the results, so settled for burning the crowd a great deal. Still not 100% happy, but it's livable at least.

graigdavis · Mar 16, 2004

hum, thats a tough one. I would have said blurr the back ground. But if you didnt like that then I would say its probably as good as your gona get it. try to magic wand the player or something and see if you can lighten him up. Im thinking a flash would have lit him up pretty good when you took the picture.

are there holes in the glass for you to put your camera through? and do you have a press pass or something to get down there?

Would you mind if I saved the picture and tried to mess with it?

Sweet shots by the way!

Sharkbait · Mar 16, 2004

graigdavis said:
hum, thats a tough one. I would have said blurr the back ground. But if you didnt like that then I would say its probably as good as your gona get it. try to magic wand the player or something and see if you can lighten him up. Im thinking a flash would have lit him up pretty good when you took the picture.

The problem I had with blurring the background was the section of boards that you can see through the net. I couldn't get that to blur evenly and still keep the net in the DOF. :| Plus it was hard to get the shooter separated with the selection tools because of the lack of contrast between his dark jersey and the dark crowd. :|

are there holes in the glass for you to put your camera through? and do you have a press pass or something to get down there?

All my hockey photos are through the glass. Makes focusing a challenge sometimes, that's for sure!

I usually have a press-pass, but this time was there mostly as a spectator. It's a minor league hockey club, so it's easy to get good seats--this was a $20 ticket that I bought 15 minutes before the pre-game skate started.

Would you mind if I saved the picture and tried to mess with it?

Go for it, I'm open for all the help I can get.

graigdavis · Mar 16, 2004

I probably went a little over board. But here is what I was going for.

I have tried through the glass before and I get so much of a reflection off the glass its worthless.

Sharkbait · Mar 16, 2004

I can see it's a bit overboard, but I still think it's an improvement over mine. Bringing up the highlights on the shooter separates him from the background more. Hmm, I'll have to go back to the original and see if I can fix it that way. That's a good idea.

Between shooting the hockey photos and shooting my fish in the aquarium, I've gotten pretty good at focusing through glass. hehe. I never use flash, for one thing. That can be problematic in and of itself though, as the building where the Ice play most of their games is horribly dark and has 4 or 5 different color temps of lighting, so my shots come out with wildly different color casts depending on where the player is on the ice.

It's funny, because the glass at the Pepsi Colesium is pretty nice--not too many scuff marks or anything. The Ice also play half a dozen or so games a year at Conseco Fieldhouse (where the Pacers play). The lighting there is phenomenal, but it looks like they use 15 year old hand-me-down glass--It's tough finding a camera-lens-wide spot that's free of scuffs and scratches. :lol:

So I shoot in one barn and I'm brightening and dealing with high-ISO noise, and I shoot in the other barn and I'm cloning out hazes and scratch marks.

graigdavis · Mar 16, 2004

Heres another one. I lightened up everything but the boards, ref, and crowd.

karissa · Mar 16, 2004

The other one is so much more affective. I thought it was great. Your amazing Greig!

terri · Mar 16, 2004

Wow, #2 as well as #3 are both good action shots. I love that shot of ice in the air on the second one -very dramatic.

Shark, I understand what you're after, and I think Graig has made some improvements to your B&W, but don't be too harsh - it's a good image regardless.

Sharkbait · Mar 16, 2004

Here's another version...
I basically went back to the original color version and started over from scratch. Did a lot more burning at a much finer detail level.

karissa · Mar 16, 2004

Wow Shark.. you are doing a great job. I hope you are having fun. Wish I could do that.

graigdavis · Mar 17, 2004

Looks good. Only thing is that the burning isnt consistant. You can see where you burnt more than other places. I think your best bet is to select a large object and then lighten/darken and mess with the contrast and such. I love that picture though.

Sharkbait · Mar 17, 2004

Yah I noticed the uneven burning too. I was hoping that it would come off looking like uneven lighting in the arena, but no luck. :| You're right though, I think this photo has promise, it's just going to take a LOT of detailed PS work to get it perfect.

graigdavis · Mar 17, 2004

I think in the first picture I posted the player is a little bright, but I think it may be on track. If you took that picture and lightened the goalie and net about half way between where it is now and the player it would be rite on. Im just affraid the shooter stands out a but too much. But bringing out some others may help.

Do you have that picture in color? What if you kept the goalie, net and player in color and the rest in B&W? Im not a huge fan of two tone pictures but you may be.