Asked to shoot U12/U14 Ice Hockey...HELP ME!!

[jamesb84]

Guys,

I've been asked by a friend to shoot their son's Ice Hockey games, I know about all the surrounding business issues and can handle all that (including selling to parents, and dealing with the guy they want to get rid of!)

However...I have never shot ice-hockey before.

Where on earth do I start? Do you shoot through the perspex/glass on the sides? Where should I sit?

Any advice on the game, and the photography side of it would be VERY VERY gratefully appreciated.

James.

[Darsk47]

Some of the techniques that seem to be favoured by many of the kids' hockey shooters on here, myself included:

- CWB off used ice - or use an 18% gray card on the ice for WB
- meter the warm up so you can get a s/s of 1/400 minimum. Faster is better, but you will have a good chance to stop the action of U12/U14 with this.
- your 70-200 and 300 will be perfect - you may end up shooting wide open to keep your s/s up. It's impossible to know your lighting of course, your iso could be 800 or 1600.
- try not to go TTG (through the glass) why put that messy, nasty plexi in front of your big $ 300mm if you don't have to?
- see if you can get in the penalty box or on the bench if the coach says there's room for you
- if you do have to shoot TTG, keep your lens hood against the glass to minimize glare; watch for pucks sailing your way
- shoot as low on the boards as possible, means you can rest your lens on the dasher board
- keep the boards behind the players level (your horizon) - fix in post if not.
- chimp alot and use your histogram - the abundance of white ice and boards throw off the metering at times.
- use your EC as required
- face -puck- net is the trifecta IMO, certainly most images need a face and puck


Post some results !!! Cheers.

[Skid]

I always stand on the stairs when I shoot hockey games, the stairs in our rink go just above the plexi, before going to the seated area, so it's pefect. I don't persoanlly, but some bird who shoots games too uses a monopod and 70-200. I use a cheapo 90-300, the 90 end is a little long, not sure about 70, as I'm shooting on a 1.6x

I tend to shoot at 1/250 - mainly as I like to get a bit of movement on the puck when it's being shot, I shoot at 800 too but obviously my kit is much inferior to yours. I've got my CF card with me in work today, and plan to go through a few of the shots if I can find a card reader (didn't think about that one this morning!).

The rink I shoot at has a small ice pad (smallest "legal" one), so I'm pretty close to the action... I've thought about renting a 28-300 for this very reason, but depending on your distance, etc you will probably be ok!

I'm a "newbie", so dont use a grey card or anything like that - I tend to leave it on AWB, and correct after the shot in PP. Probably not ideal, but I'm still learning.

If you do have to go through the plexi to shoot (I got an awesome penalty shot; shot this way) make sure you watch out for the light reflection/refraction in it - esp at the curves ! Couple shots I didnt notice this in, until I got home and looked at the photos.

Also, if you like said above have a camera slot at your rink it's a great place to shoot - you may want a helment though :) I've seen someone drop their camera at the rink as the puck smacked the plexi by the photographer so hard (it made me jump from the other side of the rink) - so yeah insurance probably is somehting to consider, i'm sure you have it but talking to this chap afterwards, he didn't! - He was almost in tears :/

[jamesb84]

Some of the techniques that seem to be favoured by many of the kids' hockey shooters on here, myself included:

- CWB off used ice - or use an 18% gray card on the ice for WB
- meter the warm up so you can get a s/s of 1/400 minimum. Faster is better, but you will have a good chance to stop the action of U12/U14 with this.

I think I will CWB and aim for a minimum of 1/400, see what that gets me. If i remember rightly, the rink has a fairly consistent lighting so Manual Mode I reckon.

- your 70-200 and 300 will be perfect - you may end up shooting wide open to keep your s/s up. It's impossible to know your lighting of course, your iso could be 800 or 1600.

Generally I shoot wide open anyway, especially if indoors. Anything upto ISO1600 is ok, I find there's a bit too much noise at 3200 and even noise ninja cant quite fix it.

- try not to go TTG (through the glass) why put that messy, nasty plexi in front of your big $ 300mm if you don't have to?
- see if you can get in the penalty box or on the bench if the coach says there's room for you

Theres a DJ booth at the rink, which has a space in the glass, however it's right on the halfway line, so won't be the best but better than TTG.

- if you do have to shoot TTG, keep your lens hood against the glass to minimize glare; watch for pucks sailing your way
- shoot as low on the boards as possible, means you can rest your lens on the dasher board
- keep the boards behind the players level (your horizon) - fix in post if not.

Take the windex I reckon, clean it as much as possible, always shoot low anyway, used to getting down to their level (if not lower at some football grounds) and I have had many an image rubbished by my boss for not being level, so I learned the hard way on that one.

- chimp alot and use your histogram - the abundance of white ice and boards throw off the metering at times.
- use your EC as required
- face -puck- net is the trifecta IMO, certainly most images need a face and puck

Again, I wouldn't try and sell anything but...I wont ever put out a pic if you cant see ball (or puck) and eyes.


Post some results !!! Cheers.

OF COURSE!!!!!

Thanks very much

James

[jamesb84]

I'm also tempted to place my 350D and 18-50mm lens on a tripod behind one of the goals (and above slightly) and then trigger remotely, any thoughts on whether it's worth it?

James

[FeXL]

Good luck trying to get 1/400. :D

We shoot in a half dozen rinks in southern Alberta, best is 1/250;2.8;1600. Even then, they are sometimes underexposed a bit. (1D MkII & IIN) We use Noise Ninja on all of them.

Don't like going to 3200 on ours, either.

[dmwierz]

Getting more than 1/320s is gonna be tough, even at ISO 1600. Do you have a hand held light meter?

My preferred set-up is to climb atop a ladder like this and shoot OVER the glass. You get better shots and the backgrounds are cleaner (often just ice). You can even rest your monopod on the paint shelf. They're available at Amazon.com, Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.

In a pinch, it's skinny enough to even fit in a penalty box and leave room for 3 angry players.

Seriously, if you can find somewhere with no glass, choose this location. I have sometimes been able to convince rink operators to take out a pane of glass at center ice. This means you'll need at least a 300, though.

I WAY prefer to forgo burst shooting and choose on-camera or remote flash or strobes when I cover indoor kids hockey.

[Darsk47]

I'm also tempted to place my 350D and 18-50mm lens on a tripod behind one of the goals (and above slightly) and then trigger remotely, any thoughts on whether it's worth it?

Worth a shot, but having been behind the net for many games, with and without camera, you see a lot of mesh and the goalie's back.

Perhaps behind and to one side. The glass is nastiest behind the net. Puck marks all over. :cool:

[Skid]

Edited out - nevermind! :)

[primoz]

A bit late but... :)
Ice hockey is easy to shoot or it can be pain in the a** to shoot. It depends on speed and knowledge of players. But with U14 hockey, speed shouldn't be issue. Knowledge on the other side will be. No matter what someone might think, but shooting NHL is easier then shooting local kids. Sure NHL players are extremely fast, but action photos look much better then when shooting kids. It's just more interesting action. But anyway... that's not what you would need to know anyway :)
So how to shoot? There's 4 options. For first time, I suggest you only 3 or even 2, because some of them are too dangerous for someone who was never shooting hockey. One option is somewhere between goal and blue line high up on tribune. With 300 or 400 lens (depending on size of hall) you get nice standard photos. Some action infront of goalie and some action on blue line.
Second option is above glass left or right from goal. This is my favorite place, but it's dangerous, and I'm not joking about. With 300 lens, you can get great shots of back line of defenders when on attacking side of field. And you can also get some action straight infront of goalie.
Third option is between benches. Sometimes it's possible to shoot from there, sometimes it's not. But not to mention this is extremely dangerous spot. Pucks can easily fly over the fence straight into your head or in better case just lens.
And then there's fourth option... behind or on side of goalie behind glass. This depends on court. Some of them have nice clean glass, some of them have crappy almost semi transparent glass. I have "luck" that most of fields here have ****ty glass, so I don't like this. For me this is only option for 70-200 lens, or sometimes even 14mm. You can get pretty interesting photos from here, but as I said, it depends on glass quality.
As far as settings go... custom wb (I don't bother with expo disc, grey cards etc. but just get it from ice. It's white/grey enough for good wb), manual aperture and time settings, and ai servo for focusing. It's not that hard :) Oh and make sure time is as fast as possible. I prefer to be over 1/500 or even 1/640. Ice hockey is pretty fast, and swinging stick should be sharp not blurred.
I hope this will help at least a bit :)

[ChrisRabior]

Man, I don't know about that. I've seen some pretty fast 14 year old hockey players.. they grow up quick =)

[hockeyshooter]

I shoot a lot of hockey. I usually shoot from behind the goal for one period.. to the right or left of the actual goal to get the faces of the attacking players. This can only be done if the glass is clean... or you can find a clean spot. So far, what works for me is to just put my Canon 40D in Program mode. Then I set the ISO to 1000 if the rink is well lit and even up to 3200 in some darker ones. I use a Sigma 70-200 2.8 lense. If anyone has any other suggestions, like using Av or Tv I'd like to hear them. I did try using those at first and ended up with my current method. I then usually get shots from the stands the rest of the game. At some rinks, I can stand by the players bench, unhindered by glass.

[PhotosGuy]

My preferred set-up is to climb atop a ladder like this and shoot OVER the glass. You get better shots and the backgrounds are cleaner (often just ice). I've done that & it worked out fairly well.
You should read this thread, too: Fluctuating pictures quality (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=595094)

[Brikwall]

The only problem with shooting over the glass or from higher vantage points is that it "compresses" the players, shortening their legs and making them look smaller than they are. This isn't too much of an issue with the big kids and adults, but can be with the younger kids. Shooting from a lower vantage point makes them look bigger and also lets you see more of their faces. Try several shooting positions and compare, to see which work best for you.

If you do use a ladder or chair to shoot over the glass, make sure you keep one eye on the puck and sticks at all times as it can get dangerous. I got hit in the back of the head Friday night by a deflected shot - fortunately, though, my brain is the one part of my anatomy where injury leaves no lasting effects... :lol: