C&C Please, nephews hockey game, first time

[qwibbled]

I usually tend to take photos of kids, landscapes, and buildings so shooting sports is not something i've done much, if ever? I took my 30D and 70-200 F4 IS to watch my nephews hockey game. I shot at iso 1600, F4, 1/400th. I would love some C&C, how is the exposure, white balance, composition, etc? Anything wrong with them? What could I do to improve next time? Be perfectly honest, I have thick skin :) One thing I found pretty annoying when I got home is despite the fact that I shot at a fixed shutter speed the whole time, exposures were wildly different.. I'm assuming its due to the flickering of the lighting system? Is there any way to compensate for this? The worst (as you can see in some of the photos) is when different parts of the frame are lit by lights that are not the same brightness/temperature.. anyways, thanks!

[Brikwall]

The photos look fine to me.

The cycling of the lights will cause exposure and white balance problems. You can offset the exposure issues by shooting manual, as you have done. There will still be some variance but it should be relatively minor and easily fixed in post-processing. As for white balance, I tend to worry about the jerseys rather than the ice - I can handle off-colour or multi-coloured ice as long as the white jerseys are actually white.

You will probably get some complaints about the lack of faces and/or pucks in some of your images. Ideally, you want to see all three of Face, Puck, Action in each shot. However, it's not always necessary (such as in the first and last shots). Even the second and third shots, both of which are lacking the puck, are still good shots and would probably please most parents.

C'est bon!

[qwibbled]

I shot him every second he was on the ice, 200 shots, those are the best "face" shots I got.. I can't imagine the lining up of the stars that would need to occur to get the face, puck and action in one single tight shot with nothing blocking the view :) I did get one of him scoring behind the goalie which was lucky. He scored 2 of 4 goals but he doesn't really skate with the puck, mostly hangs around the goalie..

[Brikwall]

I can't imagine the lining up of the stars that would need to occur to get the face, puck and action in one single tight shot with nothing blocking the view :)

http://www.macdonald-photography.com/galleries/canada02/images/canada_fredericton_11oct2008_29_7237.jpg

Face. Puck. Action.

http://www.macdonald-photography.com/galleries/ab2008-14/images/aiglesbleus_acadia_01nov2008_02_1537.jpg

Face. Puck. Action.

http://www.macdonald-photography.com/clients/lightning-taran/images/tg_20090104_2669.jpg

It works for the little guys, too...

It's a matter of knowing what to look for, and knowing how to position yourself to get it.

[qwibbled]

Well the kid has to have to puck though :) Behind the nets was closed off so I shot from the stands a little past the blue line towards the goal, do you guys typically shoot through the glass? I shot from above

[Brikwall]

Yes, I agree that the kid has to have the puck before you can get a shot of him with it. :) It's tough sometimes.

My comment wasn't meant as a criticism from me in particular. I'm well aware that you don't always need all three to have a good shot, nor is it always possible to "have all the stars line up." However, some other photographers may criticize based solely on the fact that one of those elements is missing.

As I said in my first post, the photos look fine to me and I think any parent (or kid) would be happy with them.

Personally, I'd rather shoot through glass than shoot from above, especially with kids. Shooting from above tends to compress their bodies, and their legs in particular, and make them look smaller than they are. By shooting through the glass (camera just above the dasher) you get them straight on or even slightly from below, which will make them seem a little bigger (taller) and a little more imposing. But shooting through glass comes with its own problems, of course. In the end, it's a question of personal preference in combination with available conditions. Try both and see which one you like best.

[Brikwall]

Anyways, as I noted, you don't always need all three to get decent shots.

Sometimes it's the face and the action...

http://www.macdonald-photography.com/galleries/ab2008-20/images/aiglesbleus_stu_03jan2009_22_2205.jpg

Sometimes, the face alone is all you need...

http://www.macdonald-photography.com/galleries/ab2008-22/images/aiglesbleues_mta_31jan2009_30_3632.jpg

And sometimes having little more than the puck can still tell you what's going on...

http://www.macdonald-photography.com/galleries/ab2008-14/images/aiglesbleus_acadia_01nov2008_25_1943.jpg

[DHMN]

I'm finding that people (including the University SID that uses some shots) really likes the non-action celebratory shots and parents might also.. from a fan standpoint I've rarely cared about the celebration as much as the action.

We had the lighting conversation the last time posted college hockey pictures and I still haven't come to a conclusion on blown out ice when jerserys are exposed nicely, other than I think I prefer some blown out ice over strobed/flash hockey.

Arena spotlight butted in on these
http://www.viewthroughmylens.net/Galleries/UMDWomensHockey/VsRMU2/UMDWomenVSRMU2_14.jpg

http://www.viewthroughmylens.net/Galleries/UMDWomensHockey/VsRMU1/UMDWomenVSRMUGame1_21.jpg

Unless its' a solo shot (like this) that will be used for a news release I tend to delete non-puck shots
http://www.viewthroughmylens.net/Galleries/UMDWomensHockey/VsNorthDakota2/UMDWomenVSNorthDakota2_3.jpg

[qwibbled]

Cool well my main concern was that I got the exposure and white balance right, and that there isn't too much fill light.. I'll have to work on composition, next nephew I'll be shooting is a goalie so we'll see how that goes :)

[DHMN]

Goaltender shots are a lot easier I think.. they have such a limited area that they rarely leave that you can set up better on them. I try to shoot with both eyes open (this subject shows up a lot it seems) to know when a player is setting up to shoot at the goaltender, then do a 3-4 shot burst to get the puck in the shot.

Without the burst it's hard to get the puck because it comes at the goaltender so fast sometimes

I know I posted a couple weeks ago.. one frame earlier the puck wasn't in the shot and this frame right on the post.

http://www.viewthroughmylens.net/Galleries/UMDWomensHockey/VsSCSU1/UMDWomenVsSCSU1_10.jpg

[carshop]

nice shot