Hockey Photos - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

12/12/2006 02:38:59 AM · #1

I need some help. I have been trying to take some photos at the University hockey games, and they are turning out really bad. It seems that the lighting is always really poor, and I can't seem to get the setting right on the camera. I am shooting with my f/2.8 lens, wide open. The D70s is apparently very poor at higher ISO settings. I tried 1600 once, and decided never to do that again. At 800, the photos are still really grainy, but they are also a little blurry. The motion is not stopped at all. If I mount a flash, and shoot it directly at the player, then it looks like a poor snapshot. I haven't tried shooting the flash up at the ceiling to reflect it back down. Other than that, are there any other ideas out there to get some better photos worthy of sharing with the team and others?

Scott

roba

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

12/12/2006 03:39:51 AM · #2

haven't tried it, but i found some good advice here:
//forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1007&message=20643651&changemode=1

worth a look :O)

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D

12/12/2006 11:28:24 AM · #3

bump

LERtastic

Nikon D200

12/12/2006 12:01:53 PM · #4

I just recently bought a D70s, and I did a test to see noise levels, and was actually very pleased with the noise at 1600. It is extremely workable and I was able to make it look almost similar to ISO 200 by just using Neat Image.

Dial-Up Warning, large images!

All ISO Settings Compared (No Editing) (1,584 kb)

ISO 200 amd 1600 w/ NI Comparison (325 kb)

Edit to add: Using 50mm 1.8 Nikkor lens. All settings on manual, sitting on a tripod, no in camera processing done to jpeg's.

Message edited by author 2006-12-12 12:05:33.

MattO

Nikon D4

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

12/12/2006 12:17:56 PM · #5

Well having had 2 assignments for the paper already for club hockey I can suggest a few things that will help. First off lighting sucks at most of these places. And all that white on the ice really kills the use of metering unless you spot meter on the players and use that for metering. I shot both of mine at 1600 or 3200 ISO and 1/400th the first time I underexposed badly and second time I did much better but still underexposed a bit which always raises the noise. Its best to shoot at the highest ISO perhaps in apeture priority +2/3 and see what shutter speed your getting and how the histogram looks. Usually to get players with good detail you need to blow out the ice under the lights. I have some examples of my second attempt on the web let me find the link.

Hockey

Probably one of the hardest sports I've ever shot is hockey.

MattO

Editing to add another problem with shooting at these places is the fact the the glass if filthy dirty and nearly impossible to shoot through. BTW if you do dont use flash(dont ask how I know). You have very limited shooting places, either over the glass or through openings if you can get access. Then you have to watch flying players, pucks and sticks. Good thing I had my hood on when I shot my first game.

Message edited by author 2006-12-12 12:54:37.

UNCLEBRO

Canon EOS-30D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

12/12/2006 04:57:21 PM · #6

I quite often shoot at my local hockey arena.
It's ECHL.
The South Carolina Stingrays.

I'm handholding my 80-200mm lens in nearly all of these shots.
ISO is usually no higher than 400.
I think I set the white balance to fluorescent, but it never quite seemed to look right.
But I would literally do a "auto" with curves in Photoshop and it would be "perfect".
Sometime I would use levels or shadow/highlights just a little bit to brighten it up.
But that was all.
And I think I was shooting anywhere between 1/160 to 1/250

www.stevenmccabe.com/sports/stingrays/contents.html

P.S that is an old part of my website that I'm eventually going to either delete or re-vamp, so don't be surprised if you find some non-working links or missing pictures.
I'm showing you as an example as to what I shoot.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

12/12/2006 11:51:45 PM · #7

Here are a couple of the photos that I took. I guess they aren't horrible, but I was at ISO 800 and 1600, and could still only manage f/2.8 and 1/100 of a second. Do I need to go up to ISO 3200?

Message edited by author 2006-12-12 23:52:34.

UNCLEBRO

Canon EOS-30D

12/13/2006 09:55:56 AM · #8

I don't see why you have to go that high with your ISO?
Or maybe the arenas have different lighting?

The bottom half of these pictures are straight out of the camera (apart from a resize and save for web).

The top half has had curves-auto run on it.

This first one was taken with ISO set at 200 and shutter 1/400

This second one was taken with ISO set at 400 and shutter 1/500