Ice Skating and Strobes Question

[eigga]

I have a big event coming up next month. I was wondering if anyone has used strobes to light up an ice rink much like you would a basketball court.

Although the light isnt horrible the cycling of the light makes for a lot of post processing. If I cna get it to work it would greatly reduce my processing time.

SO HAS ANYONE DONE THIS??

[eddarr]

Take a look at this thread. It's about a horse event but there are several posts that should be helpful.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=521428

[Darsk47]

Do some searches with 'strobes' and 'hockey' as the subject, There was some really good discussion on strobing hockey on this board earlier this year when hockey season was at its high point.

[eigga]

Well I have been reading and for some reason did not even think to search hockey

My issue with this job is there is no access to hang the strobes in the ceiling. Everything will have to be bounced.

Secondly, most of the setups I have seen focus the lights at the goals... in ice skating they are everywhere. I currently have 3 white lightnings (per rink) but I m not sure If this will offer a consistent light of the entire rink... or at least the inner 60% they tend to skate.

I appreciate the links and suggestions so far. I will be testing this soon and will post results but was willing to take suggestions!

[dmwierz]

I've not shot any competitive skating, but I've strobed a lot of hockey. I don't like the look of direct strobes, and only do this as a last resort (when the arena lighting is so bright that I can't stay 3 stops or more above it with my bounced light), so I bounce mostly, my lighting is pretty spread out. However, unless you use Speedotrons spread all over the ice, you're gonna have a bit of variability in your lighting.

I'd place your three lights behind you on light stands, and shoot from center ice. Put one light around each face off circle and one behind you at the center line. In this case, if you have the sports reflectors, I wouldn't use them, as you want your lights to be wider angle.

The third (and holding) episode of the podcast in my signature gives some info on strobing.

[eigga]

Thanks Dennis... as always you have great advice

Exactly my plan... I will get to practice and adjust the day before during their "practice day" If Im not getting consistent results I will just go with availalbe light... more editing but it still worked fine last time.

[dmwierz]

Matt - Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. As you may know, I'm a big fan of artificial light when shooting indoor sports (for a LOT of reasons) so I'm hoping this works for you.

Dennis