Hockey Photography: Silver Cages & Flushed Faces

In September of this year, I took the volunteer position of "team photographer" for my little guy's hockey team. The children were all born in 2008, and this is the first year playing for all of them.

I've been seriously involved in photography since 1988, but I've never had any interest in sports photography. To be frank, I'm generally not particularly interested in shooting people at all.

As to what led me to volunteer for this position . . . I suppose it was arrogance. I've had it, up to my eyeballs, with people who think that just because they've got a DLSR they're going to get good photos. I was not prepared to let my son's first year in hockey be captured by a hack.

I had no idea what I was getting into. Long story short . . . the learning curve has been insane. I'm finally starting to feel confident in my abilities, and my photos have gone from garbage to pretty good. There is still room for improvement, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The other parents are thrilled with what I'm now delivering.

I'm really struggling with a couple of things that I can't seem to resolve, and I'd love some advice.

All of the children are Caucasian. Some are a little olive in skin tone, but most of them are very, very, fair. Most of the children have black helmets with silver cages. The smallest, and fairest, little girl has a white helmet with a silver cage. The silver cages lack definition on the really fair faces. The faces and the cages almost blend together.

I'd love to request that everyone put a black cage on their children's helmets. The black cages work really well for photographs: with lots of contrast and clear definition. I can't make this request, however. Does anyone have any advice for increasing the definition between faces and cages?

The second problem I'm having is with a couple of red-heads. Most of the children get a gorgeous, healthy, rosy, glow on their cheeks while on the ice. The red-heads' faces flare up very quickly: within seconds on being on the ice their complexions are very red and blotchy. I would love some suggestions on how to deal with this.

I shoot in RAW, full manual. No flash. I use a handheld lightmeter. I use a custom white balance based off of a grey card. I also use a ColorChecker Passport to calibrate colours. 70D with EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM.

I'd love to post a couple of photos of the issues I'm having, but I can not legally do so. I can't share the photos with anyone outside the association who is not a parent and/or legal guardian of any of the children. My child is the only exception to this rule, and he's not an issue to shoot.

Thanks.

Hmm it sounds like you're doing everything right in terms of prep. Also, you have gear more than capable of getting the exact results you expect.

As to why you're not getting said results, it's really tough to say without sample pictures (which I totally understand, given the world we live in nowadays). If the cages are really blending in to the kids' faces, perhaps you can play with the tone curve to try and pinpoint the exact contrast where it doesn't occur. I'm not a PP wizard so I can't offer too much in terms of advice

As for the blotchiness, I'd say that since it's a very natural occurance, to just leave it as is. There's not much you can do aside from opening up PS and blending it away manually, which can be quite time-consuming. Personally, unless a parent is complaining and you're feeling up for the task, I'd just leave it to "mother nature being mother nature".

I've been fishing through the images trying to find something I can post as an example. I cropped a tiny portion out of a jpeg deliverable to illustrate. It is probably around 1% of the original image.

This is far from the worst, but it is, IMO, pretty bad. The problem starts to become a bit noticeable underneath his eye (his cheek is a bit rosy). Where the cage crosses his nose, his nose and cage are almost indistinguishable from each other. It is at the longer focal lengths that this is an issue. At 70mm it is a non-issue. At 200mm it is a disaster. This image was shot at 145mm. At 200mm I can't get a useful, non-identifying, sample.

First of all, I would increase your shutterspeed to at least 1/640th to ensure movement is not affecting the sharpness of your photos. Your camera should be able to handle higher ISOs. Following this, in post, I would clunk around with colour saturation and contrast, this may help.

On another note, sounds like minor hockey in Calgary is a bit over the top with the privacy rules. Kinda sucks the life out of being a volunteer.

Regards,

Voaky999 wrote in post #16518788
First of all, I would increase your shutterspeed to at least 1/640th to ensure movement is not affecting the sharpness of your photos. Your camera should be able to handle higher ISOs. Following this, in post, I would clunk around with colour saturation and contrast, this may help.

On another note, sounds like minor hockey in Calgary is a bit over the top with the privacy rules. Kinda sucks the life out of being a volunteer.

Regards,

I'll try 1/640. ISO 6400 is perfectly usable with a little noise reduction. I figured with these guys being so little, and not overly fast yet, that 1/500 should be enough. With my 70-300 (which I have to break out when my arms go to jello) I have to shoot at 1/250 . . . which is pretty sketchy.

My personal "hockey style" that is emerging is one that is slightly over-saturated, with medium to high contrast, and just a touch overexposed (truth be told, that's just kind of my style all around). I'll pay a little more attention to how my tweaking affects the cages. I may have to dial it back a bit.

This is my first year as a "hockey mom," as my eldest son (who is now 20) was never involved in hockey. I know that the manager was surprised by some of the changes to the rules this year. Whether the changes are only for Timbits, or if they include older players, I don't know. Being the "official" team photographer means I have rules to abide by, but I get some benefits that aren't afforded to others with cameras (though that doesn't always stop others from stepping on my toes and breaking the rules). At this point, I think the trade-off is worth it.

I've shot hockey here in BC using a 70-200 f/4, ISO12800, and 1/640. With your gear, you can get 6400 by shooting your 70-200 wide open. At that ISO, there's very little noise reduction needed, assuming you have adequate lighting and especially since you overexpose a bit. Having shot sports with my outgoing 2.8 IS II, it's not normal to not get sharp results at 200mm. Make sure your IS is off, and try and crank the shutter speed up significantly. Even though they're just kids, you could argue that since they're a bit more unpredictable, the extra shutter speed will come in handy. That should increase your keeper rate.

Those Bauer masks are great on the ice (I use one myself), but I can see how they provide little contrast against faces. Try the faster shutter speed first. If that doesn't help at all, contrast like Voaky said will be your best option. Below is a sample of a player wearing a similar (if not the same) mask. Personally I think there's enough detail in the face to discern who it is. Were you getting similar detail and wanted more? Or are you not getting the same level of detail?

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/vangeles/112400​13986/

I think the faces of the players you've photographed, m3thods, are a bit more distinct than what I'm getting. I think we're getting about the same level of detail, but this image doesn't display quite as much blending of the cages and faces.

This could partly be due to the age of the players. Children often have fuller "baby" faces without really strong features. One girl I shoot has incredibly sharp and mature features, and she's gorgeous to shoot. But, the gent in the white jersey appears to have a quite full face. It could just be his huge smile that gives this appearance, though.

There is a spot in your photo that illustrates quite a bit of what I'm getting, on the gent in the blue shirt: where the cage crosses his cheek bone, and where it crosses above his eye.

It could be that what I'm hoping to achieve just isn't realistic.

I'll try cranking up the shutter speed and turning off the IS. I only shoot practices at one arena, as it has a lot more light than the other two they practice at. But, I shoot all games. The game on Sunday as at an arena with dreadful light.

I do really like your photo. It is pretty similar in saturation, contrast, and exposure to what I'm producing. It is very vibrant. Sometimes I think mine might be a bit "overdone" . . . but in seeing someone else do the same thing, I love it.

Thanks neacail!

That's a point I didn't consider (re: the baby vs adult faces). It's very likely that you're right given the fact it's fairly rare for children to have really prominent facial features at such a young age.

If I wasn't so lazy, I probably wouldn't have blown out the ice that much. Given that it's just ice, I was really just watching for blown highlights in the whites on jerseys that day, and given I didn't quite cross that threshold I'm still happy.

Arena lighting makes a huge difference, as you'll probably notice. The rink where that shot is from was recently refurbished to brighter, higher-efficiency lighting. Compared to shots I've seen taken before on the same surface, it's night and day. Also, it's worth noting that when shooting at high-ISO, you're really losing out on fine detail, which can help explain the "blending" you're seeing. Like you said, given the situation with shooting hockey, perhaps it's almost impossible to get really fine detail and separation (without resorting to say, a 200 f2 or the like :P)

Do keep us posted with your findings. I have several family members who are just old enough to put on some skates, and I'm sure I'll find myself taking pictures of them when they start playing. Any tips to make that as easy as possible would be awesome

Quick question - are you using AI Servo or One Shot and what focus point are you using?

AJ05: I use AI Servo. I usually use zone focus, with the centre zone. I sometimes use a single point, but that tends to negatively effect my composition.

I found one photo I can post from this morning. This is of my little guy, almost asleep in the goal. All of my "action" shots of him have other children in them.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

• The bright pink CCM helmets with black cages are awesome for girls. The colour is phenomenal.
  
• Bauer has a line of red pads and gloves which are awesome to shoot. The colour is gorgeous.
  
• Brightly coloured waxed laces help in identifying children.
  
• Get funky/flashy hockey tape, and use it liberally, to make children easily identifiable.
  
• Put matching stickers on the front and back of a helmet (different ones for each child) to help in identifying who is who.
  
• Get two head-shots of each child: one with a helmet and one without. Print them up, write their names and numbers on them, and have them easily accessible to make IDs easier.
  

neacail - the reason I asked if you were shooting AI Servo or One Shot is because I get photos like your first sample sometimes when I'm in AI Servo on my 7D - happens when I don't give the camera time to acquire focus before I shoot. I generally shoot hockey with AI Servo and a single focus point and sometimes experiment with Spot AF. I'm not a fan of letting the camera select the focus point as happens when using Zone AF.

AJ05 wrote in post #16530245
neacail - the reason I asked if you were shooting AI Servo or One Shot is because I get photos like your first sample sometimes when I'm in AI Servo on my 7D - happens when I don't give the camera time to acquire focus before I shoot. I generally shoot hockey with AI Servo and a single focus point and sometimes experiment with Spot AF. I'm not a fan of letting the camera select the focus point as happens when using Zone AF.

Interesting, Alice. I would expect the 7D to be a bit more capable than the 70D in focusing, as I think the 7D has a dedicated focus CPU, while the 70D doesn't. I could be wrong. If what you're describing can happen on a 7D, I would say that it most certainly could happen on a 70D.

The 70D doesn't have the Spot AF function. I'll see how it works with the single focus point.

neacail wrote in post #16531445
Interesting, Alice. I would expect the 7D to be a bit more capable than the 70D in focusing, as I think the 7D has a dedicated focus CPU, while the 70D doesn't. I could be wrong. If what you're describing can happen on a 7D, I would say that it most certainly could happen on a 70D.

The 70D doesn't have the Spot AF function. I'll see how it works with the single focus point.

It doesn't take long for the 7D to acquire focus - just a fraction of a second. I find my keeper rate goes up if I give the camera that little bit of time to do its thing. Same with IS (which I almost never use) but you have to give the IS time to react.

The Spot AF is great for macros, still lifes, scenics, etc., but isn't ideal for moving targets such as hockey players.

Have fun and enjoy the learning process!

I've shot lots of minor hockey and lacrosse over the years as I have two sons 19 & 20 who both played 'AA' and 'AAA' hockey from novice to minor midget and beyond. My 9 year old daughter is also playing hockey. We don't have the strict privacy rules but I use common sense about posting pictures (I post them to a password protected gallery for the parents).

I shoot manual 90% of the time, using AI Servo. Arena lighting varies greatly and most times I'll take a white balance shot before the game (and before the ice is cleaned) and use that as my white balance for the game (I don't wander too far from my shooting spot).

After shooting I play around with the exposure, shadows, and contrast in Lightroom. I also crop them in LR to get a better view of the faces. It can be tough, though, to deal with arena lighting and the cages the kids have to wear.