T1i and Sports can mix?!?!

[paradiddleluke]

Hey guys, here are a few shots I got tonight at a hockey game for my school, Sorry about the positioning, it was PACKED and that was about the best I could do, pictures have been edited slightly, settings in DPP for almost every picture was brightness +4, contrast +6, sharpness 70, saturation +6, Helped compensate for the lost quality through the glass. The lens used was an old Tokina AT-X 80-200 f/2.8 AF, pretty slow auto-focus and the T1i's AF system is no 1D but I was quite impressed with the amount of keepers, I tried to stay at 1/800th of a second at f/3.2 or 2.8 whcih made the ISO at 1600.

All in all, for a camera not meant at all for sports I was quite pleased! tell me what you think, this was my first hockey game with pictures so criticism is welcome!

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/6181/dpp0107b.jpg
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4503/dpp0105n.jpg
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6952/dpp0099.jpg

[jackandmom]

They are nice shots!

[paradiddleluke]

thanks! I was quite pleased! again those are edited but still

[monk3y]

good photos, but it looks a bit noisy, is it because of over sharpening or because of iso 1600?

[paradiddleluke]

probably a mixture of both, however a majority of it probably to the iso 1600, i only sharpened it to the value of "70" on the scale of 500, so that didn't effect it too much from what I can tell

[clarence]

T1i and Sports can mix?!?!

I use a T1i as a back-up body for my 1D Mark III. I bought it when it first came out (before the 7D was announced) because my 40D failed. But even when my 40D shutter was replaced, I chose to keep it instead of the 40D.

I really like the high-ISO performance, plus the 15MP really gives Noise Reduction software a lot of pixels to work with.

Here's a galley of some of my T1i Sports photos. I have a lot of indoor sports shots that I need to add...
http://loco-photo.com/t1i/

[BenJohnson]

These look a hair underexposed even after the brightness adjustment. In this type of situation I'd probably bump the ISO to 3200, shoot at f/2.8 and find a shutter speed that exposes the subject properly (or even slightly over exposed). You may blow out some highlights or even parts of the ice, but you should have less noisy images because you won't have to pull up the exposure in post.

I would also try to get some tighter framing. But I do think these look good for shots through the glass. I have yet to shoot hockey, but I am very interested to see how my photos end up looking through the glass!

[JustinL]

You're getting the grain because these were originally shot under-exposed and you're trying to bump the exposure in post processing. I've shot ISO 1600 and 3200 with no noise in hockey rinks many times. Keep checking your histogram and making sure it's higher on the right side

[paradiddleluke]

Clarence, nice looking shots!

BenJohnson, Yah I should have shot at a higher ISO instead of underexposing at 1600, The framing was pretty difficult with where I was standing (Playoff game for my highschool vs. our rival highschool so it was jam packed with 100's of people in a very small amount of space, not ideal for a 7"x3" 3 pound lens! haha

JustinL, yah, I've been trying to use my histogram more, I should have boosted ISO instead of under exposing, still tryin to learn that better! thanks for the advice!

[Invertalon]

Boosting ISO would not fix your underexposure problem (if not shooting in manual), instead, bump the exposure comp. up a few... +2/3 or even +1. This will bring up the right side of the histogram and expose better.

For me, the 7D consistantly underexposes -1/3 at least, my "default" is EC of +1/3 to +2/3 to level the histogram and expose it properly.

[Dan-o]

Boosting ISO would not fix your underexposure problem (if not shooting in manual), instead, bump the exposure comp. up a few... +2/3 or even +1

You do realize that the dial isn't magic, all it does is lower your shutter speed to let in more light. I would rather shoot at 3200 and deal with noise then sub 500s shutter speeds and have motion blur.

[monk3y]

Boosting ISO would not fix your underexposure problem (if not shooting in manual), instead, bump the exposure comp. up a few... +2/3 or even +1. This will bring up the right side of the histogram and expose better.

For me, the 7D consistantly underexposes -1/3 at least, my "default" is EC of +1/3 to +2/3 to level the histogram and expose it properly.

this will happen if you are not using manual mode right ? i find it difficult to use TV mode and spot meter, because the WB tends to change depending on where you focus your center point

[Nic Rapacz]

Not meant for sports? I disagree!

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4353072909_85fef32d39.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4335243421_6b886bb73b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4346723809_e06bc35de6.jpg

[monk3y]

nice shots...

[cstewart]

Not to burst your bubble but 1 and 2 and even 3 to some degree are soft. 1 and 2 also need to be cropped much tighter to focus only on player. #3 just does not have any action and could also be cropped more.

Try and shoot hockey from a position that will allow you to get players faces. I'd kill to be able to shoot hockey at 1/800 and 1600 ISO. Don't be afraid to to drop shutter to 1/500 for hockey or even 1/400 if it means you can get brighter images. In most rinks I shoot in I am shooting 3200ISO at 1/400 or 1/500 and f3.2 or so (see my galleries for examples).

Cheers!

Chris

[Nic Rapacz]

I shot every picture there with a 24-70 L, so getting tight pictures of faces flying around the ice is a bit harder than you expect. I'm also dealing with the glass that is so scuffed up that there are sometimes complaints from casual fans.

The shots are sharp at 100%. I promise! (I even double checked just to make sure.) I drastically downsize them for flickr and photo forums because using large files is a waste of space and downloading time. The 1/800 was just an instance where I was messing around to check my results. 1/400 or 1/500 for hockey is perfect. I'm brand new to this stuff, but am learning FAST.

And you've got to be nuts if you think there is no action in a 1-2 combination...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4335178505_1ee223ffc4.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2702/4335241811_7eb16a6c9f.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4355629886_4f08e417df.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2733/4353822188_e04e7209ce.jpg

[cstewart]

Um Nic...my post was in relation to the original post's hockey photos, NOT your boxing and hockey photos. Cheers! Chris

[Nic Rapacz]

Oh sorry dude. My bad!