Hockey Time again...

I went to shoot a tournament this weekend and was lucky enough to get on the ice so I thought I'd try a few things.

Once I started editing, I try a little color saturation. Did I go too far??

Thanks!

Good shots. The second (goalie) shot does have a heavy blue to it. When using saturation, I watch for colors going electric, then ease back on that Saturation throttle. I'd also use PhotoShop and lose that hockey stick coming in from the left.

What do you do in camera for White Balance settings? I set mine to Flouresent, and seem to get mixed results. Example, the player your following gets a break away, so hammering 8 frames a second. The result of those images in a row are mixed for me....you get white ice, then yellowish, then back to white??? Do you get that?

I set a Custom white balance before I shoot every game. It really helps even everything out. Oh, and with the 10D I can only get about 3 frames per second........

Alan -- your shots are pretty good. first one looks a little overexposed, blacks aren't black enough and low contrast overall. Second is very good. My son had same brand goalie pads and your colors look about right. Were you actually on the ice or in the penalty box?

My kid's season starts in 2 weeks (practices) so I'll have some shots coming round soon.

and, Alan, hoping you don't mind my addressing Rob-Roy's concerns, though it is your post.... your problem with inconsistent photos comes from automatic exposure and also automatic white balance. For hockey, best to do both manually. Shoot a picture of empty ice before the game to use as a custom white balance shot (as Alan says above) and also take a bunch of meter readings off faces, jerseys, etc and dial in an exposure in M mode, take a test shot and adjust the histogram to get the big peak (ice) to the right, with just some of it off the right edge.

again, Alan, nice work, especially #2.

Thanks Dave. I'm really in the trial and error mode. But I keep pluggin' away.

Your suggestion to Rob is spot on.

What a surprise seeing your pics on the forum! Good job, as always.

Glad you "Finally" made it here! Enjoy the ride!!

Excellent advice, and I'll try it this weekend at the arena. I must admit ( a million times) I'm in that ugly learning curve with Digital. I'll attach a couple images from the arena, to show ya what I'm getting so far.

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What camera, lens, and setting are you using??

Well if you must know Nikon D70. 80-200 2.8. ISO 500. W/B set for Flour .

Set to program, and autofocus on. Don't hate the Nikon, were all students of Photography, brothers if you will

I think I have a answer of the arena not using all the same bulbs. Meaning that they could have replaced them with anything around... so I could have Daytime, warm, cool, flood, whatever. If that makes sense?

thanks for responding!!

I can't give CC but wanted to say thank you for posting all these pictures. I want to start trying to shoot hockey soon (just lil guys lol) and need all the advice I can get. I'm also looking into a lens just for this. Anyhow great work, I look forward to seeing more.

Lisa

Hey - not sure what you are using for a photo editor... I use Phote Essentials 3 as it does quick and dirty stuff really well. If you happen to be using it, select filter -> adjustments -> photo filter -> warming filter (85), then adjust with the slider. It is quick and easy... and does the job in no time. Rescued plenty of images this way with minimal effort. I tried in on your first image and came out great. If you don't have PS3 - see if your allication has digital versions of the old filters we all used in the good old film days... If you are using PS3, check out the other filters as well. cheers.

Rob, I must admit that I know absolutly nothin' 'bout the Nikon and that you are one brave sole for admiting that on a Canon forum. But here are a few suggestions that should work for you.

First, Your lens is fast enough so focus on your camera settings (pun intended)

Shoot in Manual mode so that you have control over both the apature and shutter speed. Set the apature so to utilize the 2.8 constantly, the adjust the shutter speed to the fastest (and cleanest) pics. Start with around 800 and go from there. Don't forget to set the custom white balance and the ISO settings prior to shooting the game. Oh, and try to shoot as tight as possible. Post process from there and you should be in the ballpark. Once you're there, tinker with the setting until you get what you're looking for.

Lisa, There are tons of folks on this board who'll be glad to give you advice depending on your needs. Just ask and wait for the response. Good Luck!

Please critique. I was not able to upload the files in the size I want to cuz of restrictions.

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Venkat, What equipment were these shot with and what kind of post processing did you do? They seem to be a little blown out to me?