Hockey with the 135 f2

Sharks v Garner, a tight game.

moving up in the world. The extra f-stop of the 135 over my sigma 70-200 let me back off on the ISO, and I think the 135 is sharper at f2 than the sigma at f2.8, so maybe my shots are getting better.... Comments & criticism welcome.

blocker save (look closely for the puck, it's there...)

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Frankly I'm sure you could do a lot better with that equipment.
They look a bit dull in the color and lighing and most of them have focus on the background. There is not a single picture where the face of a player is sharp enough to be recognized. If they are directly out f the camera exposure is OK but don't be shy of some post processing. Some noise reduction, levels tweak and som unshap mask would make them come alive. Lots of noise in the pictures especially visible on the yellow shirts. I'm a bit surprised about the amount of noise when you shot at ISO 800, did you afteradjust the exposure from underexposed? You shot at 1/640 which is faster than you need, I would suggest you back off to 1/400 and use the extra light for stopping down the lens or just get a higher exposure. You might sometimes get slight motion blur on the puck that way but the pictures will improve over all. You don't have much light to work with so it's important to use it well.
This focus on the background thing happens often to me when I use AI servo and if you do that then try sometime to use one shot. Then you can prefocus on the goalkeeper when a situation comes up, recompose some and be ready in advance.

Yep, they're all back-focused. How did you have your focus points set-up?... if these are all shot at f/2, you're going to have to work really hard to nail the focus as your DOF is minimal. Also, do you have any shots where the players are further from the boards... and therefore better isolated from the background?

... and they certainly don't look like they're shot at ISO800. Shooting at ISO800 should produce some pretty punchy, crisp images. I think there are many, many indoor sports shooters that would die for the chance to shoot under that kind of lighting. I know I would!

---- Gavin

thanks for the comments. I'm a bit frustrated sometimes by the issues you raise.

these are taken with a 20D, in AI SERVO. custom function 4-1. the center focus point is selected, and in every case the center point is on the shark's logo on the front of the jersey.

the exposure is set so the ice & boards create a big blob on the histogram just to the right of the edge (eg, just barely not blowing out the white parts). no other adjustments there.

suggestions for improvement are welcome, thanks

hmmm... AI Servo works well, on my 20D anyway, I'm really thinking you have a back focus problem then. Like said before, with that setup, these iamges should be popping!

Yes, those photos look like you focused on the back ground. I use AI Servo a lot and its very consistent and very close to 100% perfect. Try gettin one of the players into focus and then literally with t hat focus point track him/her and focus will keep up.

well, I appreciate that the boards are in better focus than the players, but I don't see how to fix it. These photos are all cropped. In every case, the center focus point is squarely on the player's jersey (I track the shark logo). The camera is set to the center focus point only, in AI servo. this is leaving me very confused.

David, over the summer. I got my 20D and was exposed to AI Servo for the first time.

The first trip the to beach to photo jet skiers was terrbile. Most of the shots had either the jet ski in full focus or the water behind or infront was in focus. I had trouble "Tracking" the subject. After a lot of search and questions here in the forum I realized I had to develop a motion of tracking. So lets say the guy is going in a straight line fropm left to right. I get the guy in focus with the middle AF point and then continuously track him with that same point. If you do it right, you will see that he or she is always in focuss. Then you snap away @ the moment you want.

Try it out! Its really fun. The trick is hooking the subject and staying with it.

Try NOT using AI Servo all the time, mix with some One Shot and see how it turns out. As for the noise I'm clueless as you say you expose to the right already, they should not look like that. Must be a well lit arena if you can get the histogram to the right at 1/640 at ISO 800 even on f/2.0.