Ice Hockey - Tomorrow Night.

dellipher

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Adele
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Now, I am going to take photos at the Ice hockey tomorrow night. I stand in the box, no perspex for me!! Hardcore yanno....its only amatures, and no flying pucks...I promise you!

Anyway....I have Pentax K10D, 18-55mm kit lens and 70-300mm lens....now they're not travelling at super-duper speeds...but seriously, how am I going to get the best shots, as I dont have a small enough apature lens[?] or is someone going to tell me that I'm not going to get any decent enough shots...but I'll try anyway...Sometimes they just stand on the ice doing nothing....I think those might be the pics I have to take!!

Please Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've shot with my point-and-shoot before, and they [the people who are on the ice] were happy enough with the shots, alot of them just get posted on the forum [for the ice hockey amatuer teams]

Any help please!!!!!!!!!!!

Adele - stressed already, and its only practice. lol
 
I don't suppose they'll take too kindly to you using flash, so these are going to be available light shots and under artiificial light. Your shots are going to look a lot better and you'll save a lot of time messing about afterwards if you get the white balance right in the camera.

I'd use the lens wide open on AP Mode with a fairly high ISO which will get you a pretty fast shutter speed . Perhaps try using your longer lens to isolate some of the action rather than trying to get a wider view?
 
If it was me doing it I would go like ct for a more telephoto lens to isolate individual parts of the action as opposedto the whole scene which will quite often just look too busy.

Use the 70-300 at the 150~300 ish region to get in really close to the action, preferably you will want the puck in shot too as with football this helps people understand the shot a bit more although getting in close for facial expressions and glances between players will work well also.

I have no idea what the iso noise levels are like on the pentax but i imagine you will be using iso800~1600 to get a fast enough shutter speed to avoid blurring of the players. You will want to use continous autofocus and track the subjects to keep then in sharp focus this will also help with using slightly lower shutterspeeds as it will produce a panning effect. As a rule of thumb I would try to get 1/200th ~ 400th shutter speeds to help you keep the hit rate up.
 
I don't suppose they'll take too kindly to you using flash, so these are going to be available light shots and under artiificial light. Your shots are going to look a lot better and you'll save a lot of time messing about afterwards if you get the white balance right in the camera.

I'd use the lens wide open on AP Mode with a fairly high ISO which will get you a pretty fast shutter speed . Perhaps try using your longer lens to isolate some of the action rather than trying to get a wider view?

Nope, cant use flash at all. I think that I will use my longer lens, as I want to get some close in shots rather than the wide angle shots.


Yes i was a duplicate thread, but most people told me on that one that I couldnt do it! lol :p

If it was me doing it I would go like ct for a more telephoto lens to isolate individual parts of the action as opposedto the whole scene which will quite often just look too busy.

Use the 70-300 at the 150~300 ish region to get in really close to the action, preferably you will want the puck in shot too as with football this helps people understand the shot a bit more although getting in close for facial expressions and glances between players will work well also.

I have no idea what the iso noise levels are like on the pentax but i imagine you will be using iso800~1600 to get a fast enough shutter speed to avoid blurring of the players. You will want to use continous autofocus and track the subjects to keep then in sharp focus this will also help with using slightly lower shutterspeeds as it will produce a panning effect. As a rule of thumb I would try to get 1/200th ~ 400th shutter speeds to help you keep the hit rate up.

\o/ Thank you all for your advice, I'm setting off in 2hrs...10:30 start....:eek: be there til about 12 shooting...charged two batteries. taking point and shoot just in case. 2 x 2gb memory cards....I normally take a lot of photos.
Camera already set up now to continuous autofocus....and apart from that...I think I'll just have a play about! lol
 
So how did it go?

It didnt go to bad thank you, I'm just finishing uploading the pics onto the computer. I filled a 2gb memory card, and a bit more of another one. I was highly glad I took my tripod [obviously] and used the 70-300 lens, all night [I did take a couple with my 18-55] they looked on ok the LCD, but some did come out a little blurry, whic I think was also me moving the camera, rather than the camera not being able to cope. On the camera some of the whites looked a little blown, but now I'm seeing them on the computer they dont look that bad.
One of the hockey players said that he has a 70-300 f2.8 lens[?] and he struggles to get good hockey photos...:| from what everyone saw, they were happy enough with them.
One of the other players said that "they're a load of vain idiots, print 'em out and charge 'em a fiver each" :lol:

And I may have got a little job taking a bands photos too :D
 
Are you sure he was asking you taking a 'band's' shots, rather than him just saying you're 'banned'?

Yes I am sure...:lol: :p

And what, pray tell, are you doing whilst the shots are uploading in order that you might suffer from RSI? ;)

:eek: :nono: surely we cant have that type of talk on here...and it was from the shutter button.... :p I was constantly taking photos [almost] for 2hours.

Just remembered, we have a club comp on Sport coming up sometime, so you're already ahead of me on that one!

Yes I am! Although....Im aiming for 20th!!!!!
 
Just a couple of pics, they havent been post-processed in any way yet....any C&C welcome :D

1551142700_282210ae67.jpg


1551171562_8653d42735.jpg


They were taken on ISO 1600, around apature 4.0-4.5 and 1/60-1/125 I dont know the exact data as I do not currently have my camera near me!!!
 
After some post processing I think that the 1st shot will turn out very nicely - tis a tad dark but under such difficult conditions using the lenses that you used, I think you've done really well - Ice hockey is really awkward because in order to get the guy & hockey stick in frame, you've had to use landscape orientation & chopped his feet off :p Unavoidable though because if you'd have shot portrait, you'd have (erm...how to word this :thinking:) cut his stick off.
Have you tried a closer crop of his face - may really show up the noise but Noise Ninja or Neatimage should tidy it up a bit.
Very well done on not blowing the highlights - make sure you set your white point properly in post processing & I think you'll be sorted :thumbs:
 
:eek: :nono: surely we cant have that type of talk on here...and it was from the shutter button.... :p I was constantly taking photos [almost] for 2hours.

;) Of course. I thought it would've been something like that.

Photos look good - nice white ice, but not blown out, and grain certainly acceptable at 1600! Good job :thumbs:
 
You've done extremely well there. The biggest trap you were always going to fall into was a wrong white balance, but they look OK with good whites. By the time you've tweaked those in processing they should look pretty good. :thumbs:
 
May be the second pic needs rotating a touch.
Looks as if the ice is on a slope.
But what do I know:thinking:

Good pics all in all :D
 
Pretty good attempt. If I was being picky (which I am so hope you don't mind), in image one you would have been better zoomed out just a little to get both the bottom of his skate and the end of his stick in the shot (and clone out the arm of the other geezer). In image 2 I would probably straighten it a bit and would have liked to have seen the puck somewhere obvious in the image - I think I might be able to see it between the skates of the bloke in the middle.

Looking forward to seeing the rest too!
 
;) Of course. I thought it would've been something like that.

Photos look good - nice white ice, but not blown out, and grain certainly acceptable at 1600! Good job :thumbs:

:thumbs: Thank you!!! Some of the Images the white did look blown out on the camera, but....they looked fine on the comp...

You've done extremely well there. The biggest trap you were always going to fall into was a wrong white balance, but they look OK with good whites. By the time you've tweaked those in processing they should look pretty good. :thumbs:

Thank you! When I figure it out I'll post some more on here LOL

May be the second pic needs rotating a touch.
Looks as if the ice is on a slope.
But what do I know:thinking:

Good pics all in all :D

:thumbs: Thank you!!! Im always lookin for ways I can improve the pics...

Pretty good attempt. If I was being picky (which I am so hope you don't mind), in image one you would have been better zoomed out just a little to get both the bottom of his skate and the end of his stick in the shot (and clone out the arm of the other geezer). In image 2 I would probably straighten it a bit and would have liked to have seen the puck somewhere obvious in the image - I think I might be able to see it between the skates of the bloke in the middle.

Looking forward to seeing the rest too!
Note taken....I didnt mean to cut his feet off...

There must have been more light where you were than where I normally go! :D

:lol: It was taken at Ice Sheffield...on the "bad ice" as the skaters call it...[the public ice which is mainly used for]
 
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