shooting in an arena

[thunderstang]

any one have any experience or suggestions for shooting action in a hockey arena, ie white balance, any other settings.

thanks for any help

[IndyJeff]

White balance should be tungsten, shutter speed at least 2.8, ISO 400 minimum.

Make sure you have the saturation set to normal. If you have it set at + it will create purple shadows on the ice in lower light areas.

One other tip, your not going to get every shot so don't try. Get behind and to one side of the goal if possible, preferably the right side. Focus on an area in front of the goal and wait for the action to come within that area. Good action shots from there with plenty of faces.

If possible get at mid ice to get goalie shots.

Oh and be sure to take plenty of batteries, in the cold the batteries will drain pretty quick.

[tbfoto]

Ive shot in alot of different gyms and found that I always am better off to do a custume white balance before I shoot. I always carry my gray card to an indoor event.


Tom

[donlavange]

White balance should be tungsten, shutter speed at least 2.8, ISO 400 minimum.
quick.

Is there more light in an ice arena than a basketball court? I seem to be always stretching for light as my fastest Digital lens is an F2.8 which I shoot at 1/250 to stop action and seem to have to use ISO1600. I guess, the ice may "conserve" some of the light through reflection.

I have been considering a faster lens like the 85mm F1.8 or even the F1.2 ($$$$).

[IndyJeff]

My bad, that should have read shutter speed at least 1/250, apt @2.8, ISO 400 minimum. Of course if you can get a faster shutter speed by all means do it.

The only hockey arena I have shot in has pretty good lighting, I thought. The thing I noticed about the lighting tho was that it wasn't consistent throughout the ice area. There were bright spots and darker spots away from under the lights. That was why I didn't do a custom WB. Unfortunately I had the saturation set to + and it created light purple shadows on the darker areas of the arena.
This place was pretty cool as the ice area was in a closed in area away from the rest of the buiding. You could stand and watch the game in the comfort of the heated areas. I was allowed to get inside that room so I could get right up to the glass. LOL Had one shot go wide and damn near scared me out of 20 years. I didn't even see it coming until it came into the lens, then BAMM against the glass.

[gramps]

I think the first thing on my "to do list" for tomorrow is order a 85 1.8...........I think that it just might be the poor mans arena lens.

[donlavange]

I think the first thing on my "to do list" for tomorrow is order a 85 1.8...........I think that it just might be the poor mans arena lens.
Sounds good to me!

[IndyJeff]

Gramps I used a 50 1.8 and was able to do pretty decent with it for a first time shooting hockey.

[eastcoast909]

Gramps:

Try this link

http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=50381&highlight=hockey

drisley has had some great pictures put up, I'm assuming hes uses the 135 f2.8 with a 1.4 tc.

You might also try over in (gasp!) Fred Miranda in the sports forum. They have discussed what lens to use there quite abit.

Personally I would give various body parts for a 70-200 f2.8 (sigma or canon) to use in a rink.

I have used a Canon 70-300 f4.0-5.6 at a very brightly lit arena (used for QMHL team games) to take pictures of figure skaters with so so results. Even with a high iso, lots of noise and very dark.

I have also seen a website where the person has done some remarkable shooting with the same lens.

Try this link for her journal where she talks about using this "slow" "consumer grade" lens.

http://journals.fotki.com/pattiea/

She normally uses a 70-200 f2.8 canon

Hope this helps.

[ShutteringFocus]

Ice arenas are pretty good compared to gyms and swimming pools. White balance has never been a problem for me and there is usually a lot of light as the surface is white and the walls are white so there is a lot of light bouncing around in there. The hardest part is finding a clear piece of glass to shoot through.

I used a 70-200 2.8 without any problems. You could easily get away with a 50mm or 85mm lens in a hockey arena. I stood behind the goal just on the other side of the glass...and most of my shots were taken at 70mm and sometimes I wished my lens was shorter. The action is close if you can stand right there up next to the glass.

Im not sure you could get away with something like a 4/f in there though...I'd want at least 2.8.

[PattieA]

Gramps:
[snip]
I have also seen a website where the person has done some remarkable shooting with the same lens.

Try this link for her journal where she talks about using this "slow" "consumer grade" lens.

http://journals.fotki.com/pattiea/

She normally uses a 70-200 f2.8 canon

Hope this helps.
::bump::

Found this thread by accident today. eastcoast909, thanks for the kind words. I was the team photographer for my local minor pro hockey team until I was deployed to Iraq last fall.

I started out with an old Canon Rebel 2000 and that 75-300 4.5-5.6 lens, and while I still have both, I never use the Rebel and rarely use the 75-300. as eastcoast said, my main hockey lens is my 70-200 f/2.8L used on my Canon 10D, although I also use a 300 f/4L, and occasionally some shorter lenses, depending on what I am shooting.

I started using a custom white balance relatively late, but found it makes a nice difference.

I shoot at the largest aperture possible with the lens and usually shoot with a shutter speed of 1/250 and vary the ISO depending on the quality of the lighting (there is a BIG difference between arenas), usually at ISO 800. If the lighting in really poor or I use a slow lens (the 75-300 or 300 with teleconverter), I may slow the shutter speed a bit, too.

[PhotosGuy]

Try this link for her journal where she talks about using this "slow" "consumer grade" lens.
http://journals.fotki.com/pattiea/ Her "lighting " looks OK, but the 3 random shots I clicked on were all OOF.
I remember another thread where it was said the he used a customWB on the ice to keep it white. I suppose that every arena has it's own lighting personality - ones where the NHL plays (played) might have the best lighting for TV. One thing they might all have in common is fingerprints on the glass so I'd carry a rag to clean up the plastic in front of you. ;-)

[BrandonSi]

Am I the only one that goes into situations like these with less that perfect lenses and just shoots Tv @ 400/800/1600 with enough shutter speed to stop action, regardless of correct exposure? I know I can always bank on RAW to give me at least 2 stops brightness that I lost by not using a wide enough aperture.. If I had the money for super-fast glass then I'd buy it, but that's not the case.. so until then it's RAW exposure correction and neat image to de-noise the shots. You gotta make do somehow.

[PhotosGuy]

Am I the only one that goes into situations like these with less that perfect lenses and just shoots... :D:D:D You must have missed this thread of mine! I'd rather be shooting, even when I know the results won't be "perfect". ;)

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=587218#post587218

[eastcoast909]

Hmmm. Been away for a while playing nurse to my wife who suffered a broken leg and wrist.

I don't think that these are out of focus Frank, I think that the fuzziness that you see here is from shooting through the plexiglass.

The main thrust of my post is that it is "possible' to shoot inside a rink with a "slow" lens but faster is always better!