Thank you, you have some great shots. Are yours through a port, the lighting looks really decent?
No port for me, through the glass. Tried to find a piece not too banged up and then some dehaze, clarity, and denoise among other edits in Lightroom. I’d love a port but I guess it would add another level of stress as well.
thank you!
no port for me either. the arena is used for high school and peewee midget bantam whatever and if there were ports, there would be too many 'little brothers' trying to stick their fingers through or other fans. im really the only photographer for the team (semi-pro, Federal Prospects HL) so i move around during the game and that would leave the ports 'exposed' to the fans. seating is right next to the glass except against the zamboni end. i suppose a system to close and lock them could be developed but its tempered glass and cutting a hole NOW would be a very risky proposition. and again seating goes right next to the glass so im either a) taking away seats or b) getting in peoples way.
the low-ice-level shots FACING the goalie are from the bench. nice wide benches with 2 tiers so i can usually get up above the players. the low-ice-level shots behind the goal is the ONE REALLY NICE piece of glass that i usually go in early enough to clean with a good foaming glass cleaner and a razor blade to scrape off the tape and rubber much. i add a bunch of magenta slider on those because the glass has a discernible green tint in the images. im going to have to look into the dehaze thing. i take noise out on anything over 3200 ISO because even with the 5d4, they look dirty to me.
the rest of the shots, are from the main seating. im just inside the blue line, at a level that puts the railing top almost even with the top of the glass which just cuts under the dot in the face off circles. then i crop. sometimes a LOT lol
a couple of years ago (2018-2019) the city got a grant or decided to spend the money and installed LED lighting. it had Mercury Vapor/High Pressure Sodium. that light wasnt the best. quantity was close but quality sucked. if you didnt know, those vapor bulbs start changing K-temp colors with about 70% left in their life cycle. ive had shots in the far far back where there was yellow, magenta and cyan tones in the ice. in the SAME PICTURE. kind of difficult to color balance that. the new LED is much better quality but its really not any more quantity. i just shot an away game that had a vast amount of lighting at rink's edge, shining IN towards the center of the ice. NICE BEAUTIFUL CONTRASTY light that made the uniforms pop! our lighting is all straight down and its rather flat. i dont think i can convince the city to add more around the periphery. when they first announced the new LED, it was supposed to be by a certain time. the next season came around and when i asked the rink manager if they were going to put the new lights in, he asked if i was offering to pay to install them....
