Hockey....I'm learning

[Rahb]

C & C welcome. These are shots I take of a friends team. I play in a lower league, and I shoot their games any time they play before or after mine. I'm working on framing and capturing the right timing. Sometimes it's hard to realize the shots aren't exactly level when you have weird shooting angles at the ice rink.

I try to keep the iso 800 or below. I shoot with a Sigma 70-200 lens. I am shooting in Manual more often now, but started shooting aperature priority. I keep the shutter speed above 1/250 and I try to get the aperature at f2.8 ....lighting doesn't always agree. Too much noise at 3200iso.

1) 2) 3)
4) 4) 6)
7) 8) 9)

continued...

 

[Rahb]

I guess the 10th photo will just have to be named 0....accidently posted that one. Sorry. on to the next lot:

10) 11) 12)
13) 14) 15)
16) 17) 18)

 

[Rahb]

Last batch. In the below pitcures I was trying to capture something unique with the sticks. Just something to draw some interest that didn't pertain to the action. 23 I captured good motion with the player stopping to catch the puck. 20 and 21 are break away goals. Caught the action of the breakaway but didnt have view for the goals. I was on th bench shooting.

19) 20) 21)
22) 23) 24)

 

[Rahb]

These guys are in the finals on Saturday, so I'll be capturing some more shots then.

 

[Designer]

You are getting a lot of good practice. I wouldn't worry about getting each shot level, most are pretty good, and it is easy to level them in post. I am not familiar with shooting any sport, so what do the pros use?

 

[The_Traveler]

You won't get more than cursory comment on this many shots.
Where you are shooting at 2.8 (because of the light) you have two shooting options, shoot on shutter preferred to stop the action and let the iso float or shoot on manual and let the iso float.
Either of those would seem, imo, to be better for sports shooting in low light than shooting aperture preferred.

 

[Tony S]

Softness from the slower shutter speeds is really the downfall in these, that and several that are not focused on the players. I would suggest bumping your ISO up in spite of the noise. I would prefer sharper photos from the action being stopped with noise in them than soft images with no noise. For me stopping the action is more important than noise free. You can always work on the noise a little later in post processing, but you cannot do anything about the lack of sharpness if you don't get it to start with.

As for composition and keeping things level, leave yourself a little room for cropping. This also leaves you latitude for different image sizes of final prints.

 

[Rahb]

You won't get more than cursory comment on this many shots.
Where you are shooting at 2.8 (because of the light) you have two shooting options, shoot on shutter preferred to stop the action and let the iso float or shoot on manual and let the iso float.
Either of those would seem, imo, to be better for sports shooting in low light than shooting aperture preferred.

Im trying to shoot in manual now. I find in the rink with all of the ice it throw off the metering too much. I will try some with floating ISO tonight. I will also try manual with 1600-3200 iso

Question: I shoot with one focus point and "one shot" AF. Would "AI Focus" or "AI Servo" be better?

 

[gsgary]

You won't get more than cursory comment on this many shots.
Where you are shooting at 2.8 (because of the light) you have two shooting options, shoot on shutter preferred to stop the action and let the iso float or shoot on manual and let the iso float.
Either of those would seem, imo, to be better for sports shooting in low light than shooting aperture preferred.

Im trying to shoot in manual now. I find in the rink with all of the ice it throw off the metering too much. I will try some with floating ISO tonight. I will also try manual with 1600-3200 iso

Question: I shoot with one focus point and "one shot" AF. Would "AI Focus" or "AI Servo" be better?

If i was shooting this sport i would be on manual so the meter cannot alter my settings

 

[DBA]

Question: I shoot with one focus point and "one shot" AF. Would "AI Focus" or "AI Servo" be better?

I would definitely use AI Servo (or AF-C if you're a Nikon user like me).

I also agree that a higher shutter speed would've helped here. Moderate noise is pretty easy to fix, especially if you have Lightroom/PS. Plus it'll be hard to see noise in pictures this size.

 

[Rahb]

Thanks DBA. I used servo the last round (posted four in "stanley Keg" thread. I did get the ISO at 1600, and shutter speed to 800 on the new set. let me know if it's still blurry. tried my best on WB, but at certain angles i would get a megenta in the ice, vs the blue green it should be. (again, on the newer shots)

 

[Canuk]

I have shot quite a bit of hockey for my kids. The 60D is easily able to handle iso3200 and higher if you overexpose and reduce the noise in post.
MLeek has posted in several threads about noise removal and reducing noise in post processing.
A custom white balance can help, as different rinks have different lighting.

 

[brian_f2.8]

1/250 is very low. Try f2.8 1/640 minimum then adjust the ISO. As mentioned dont worry about noise. Start around 1600 then increase as needed. They will clean up in post.

Also if you shoot raw ok but definately set a custom wb with a grey card. It will help out a lot.

 

[Rahb]

Thx brian. I shot the next round at 800+ shutter speed 1600 iso. Hard to get their faces sharp behind the masks, but I was happier with the results. The team liked them very much. It was their final game the "Stanley keg" which is basically an emptied coors keg.

I posted 4 photos from that set (learned not to posey this many at once

 

[imagemaker46]

Most of the comments are well put. Slow shutter speed is an image killer, the exposures are all over the place as well. Shooting manual is your best bet always, if the light doesn't change, and in rinks it stays the same, except you'll be dealing with the pulse light when in rinks with older lights, there is little you can do about that. Straighten the ice up, rinks are flat, use the top of the boards or the bars on the glass to level it out, around the goalie, use the net as a level. You're better off with a little more grain and stopping the action. Just keep at it, try shooting different angles and places in the rink, it's all about practice.