My first hockey shoot

[unklscrufy]

I shouldn't call it a "hockey shoot." That makes it sound like I was hired to be there. This was just me in the stands taking pictures with a new lens, a Canon 70-200 L 2.8 on a Canon 50D. This was a womens game, NCAA Division I.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46866714@N08/sets/72157623132288089/

I'd never shot hockey before last weekend, but I kind of knew the basics as far as what settings I'd need to use. The arena has cycling lights, but I thought with continuous shooting that wouldn't be a problem.

I did a custom white balance off the ice during pregame warm-ups and that worked pretty well. I shot at 2.8, of course, and ISO 1000 at 1/640. I did have to use post-processing to intensify the whites and I know that can quickly blow out the highlights, but I was more interested in how the jerseys looked rather than the ice. I couldn't use the camera's exposure bracketing because you can't do continuous shooting when you're using that feature.

I have a couple more weeks before the next home series, so any tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated. But for my first time, I'm happy with these and looking forward to getting better at this. I love photography and I love hockey, so doing both at the same time is a bonus.

 

[GFreg]

any tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated

Here is a tip if you are looking for C&C. Pic a few images(3-5ish) that you like or think need improvement and copy the image location from Flickr and drop it between

tags. You will likely get more responses to you thread if the images show in the thread. Generally links don't get followed as frequently. I can't really offer any tips and tricks for the shots.

As for the photos go. I think you did a wonderful job of capturing the action. I would have loved to see that one photo of Luara Fridfinnson without the glass cutting into the scene but I completely understand that stuff like that is unavoidable. Setting the white balance to the ice seemed to work out well. Great shots. :thumbup:

 

[unklscrufy]

Thanks very much, Greg. Let's see if this works...these are just three samples I chose at random:

As far as the glass, unfortunately at this arena the seats don't go down to ice level and no holes in the glass to shoot through. So we're kind of stuck in the lower balcony as low and we can get and have to make do with that.

And I suppose I should throw that link in again, so here's where the whole set of photos is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46866714@N08/sets/72157623132288089/

~Dan

 

[Big Mike]

The thing with shooting hockey, is that there is a whole lot of white ice & boards etc. All that white will trick the camera's meter, making it think that it's brighter than it is....and that's why you end up with underexposed shots that needed to be brought up in post processing.

The camera's meter always tries to photograph as 18% grey. (mid tone). So if you scene is brighter or darker than that, your exposure will be off if you follow the meter.

The solution is to compensate for that. You can use EC (exposure compensation) in any of the auto modes. Or use manual mode and adjust the 'correct' exposure, not just what the meter says.

In this case, I'd suggest trying something like +1 EC (one full stop above ---0---).
If the arena has consistent lighting, you can probably figure out the setting that works, with a few test shots, then leave it that way for the whole game.

 

[unklscrufy]

Thank you, Big Mike. That's exactly what I had in mind for the next home series, so I'll give that a shot and see what happens.

~Dan

 

[AG74683]

Pretty good shots!

Definitely know what your talking about Big Mike.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v220/Macdaddy4738/PC160033.jpg

Theres a link to a shot I took at a hockey game (with a P&S camera), and you can definitely tell its waaaay underexposed. Your shots unklscrufy look really true to the real color, awesome work!

 

[unklscrufy]

Thanks, AG. I don't know how a P&S camera would handle cycling lights at a hockey rink or if one of the generic white balance settings would do okay. I haven't tried that before. I used to bring a Canon SX1 to games and shoot HD video, but still I'd have to tweak the white balance on the computer afterwards.

~Dan

 

[AG74683]

Thanks, AG. I don't know how a P&S camera would handle cycling lights at a hockey rink or if one of the generic white balance settings would do okay. I haven't tried that before. I used to bring a Canon SX1 to games and shoot HD video, but still I'd have to tweak the white balance on the computer afterwards.

~Dan

Well we might find out how well it works messing with what little WB settings it has here on Thursday. Going to another Hurricanes game, and I probably wont have my D3000 by then sooo...it has a Beach and Snow setting, so I am thinking this might be my best option...