setting for shooting ice hockey

Hi,

I have two kids that play hockey and I received a Rebel XT camera and f/4-5.6 ERFS 17-85 MM lens with it as birthday gift to shoot their games. I don't know a whole lot about it but I was told to set the aperature as low as possible and the shutter speed as high as possible with an ISO of 1600. I have been trying that but the pictures come out really dark. I am at 5.6 and 1000 speed. Does anyone have other suggestions that a novice can try? I'm not trying to get heavy duty shots, just a few for scrapbooks, slide shows and our website.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

It's hard getting enough light at f/5.6. You can try a faster shutter speed and panning or getting the players when they slow down.

Other than that you need a lens that lets in more light. The Canon 85mm f/1.8 prime might be one the better lower cost options or you could spring for one of the f/2.8 zooms.

thanks for the input. I think I'll probably do that. Since I am new to photography this may sound like a stupid question, but do I still keep the film speed really fast at 1600?

If you are shooting indoors with ISO 1600 and aperture 5.6 your shutter speed might end up being less than 1/100s for a properly exposed photo. If the lighting is poor enough your speed might be in the order of 1/40s. That is too slow to stop motion but there is no way around it if that is the limit of your equipment.

The ISO, aperture, and speed work together to get a proper exposure. If you double the ISO, you double the shutter speed. If you increase the aperture by one stop (which doubles the light entering the camera) you double the shutter speed.

Here's how that works. You start out with ISO 1600, f5.6, 1/40s. If the Rebel XT is capable of ISO 3200 (not sure about this) you could have ISO 3200, f5.6, 1/80s. If ISO 1600 is the highest ISO then you can increase the aperture one stop to get ISO 1600, f4, 1/80s. Increase the aperture one more stop for ISO 1600, f2.8, 1/160s. One more stop would give you ISO 1600, f2, 1/320s. That shutter speed (1/320s) is fast enough to stop a lot of the motion blur.

But the only way to get to f2 is to use a lens that is capable of that aperture. That is why a lot of people will use the 85mm f/1.8 lens for action shots indoors. The lens you have now is probably only suited for indoor still shots or indoors with a flash.

Does all that make sense?