First attempt at hockey C&C please

This was my first attempt at hockey. This is an old, old rink and prolly the most poorly lit one ever. I took advice and took a shot of the ice to use as my custom white balance. I used my lens wide open (f/4) and i think the shutter speed for most of them was around 350. Most of them werent focused correctly, probably because about halfway through i realized i was using one shot focus. I shot from up in the bleachers but plan to shoot from the penalty box next time. Oh yeah, had to shoot at iso 1600 too. Here's a few. I think i did well exposing the ice but please C&C for my first time at hockey. Thanks

The white balance looks reasonable, but the images are all quite underexposed.

Because your lens is only capable of f/4 and the XT can only go to ISO 1600 you're going to have some problems getting the correct exposure. I don't think you should shoot much slower than 1/320s as with these images, so my only advice would be to either get a faster lens (like a 70-200 f/2.8 ) or at least shoot RAW since you will have a better chance of correcting the underexposure in post processing.

well, from your discussion I think you know exactly what you need to do on the technical end. Good hockey lenses are 70-200 f2.8 (either canon or sigma), 135 f2, 100 f2. Shorter and slower lenses, and slow-focusing lenses, are going to limit you. I guess if you can afford it, a 300 f2.8 would be nice to try.

Try getting players facing you, or in profile, so you can see faces. Shoot when the puck is in the frame. To me, hockey shots without a puck are only interesting if they are one of: follow-thru of a slapshot, goalie covering the puck, or a big body-check. Otherwise, you need the puck in there. Single-player shots, skating with a puck, are less interesting than shots showing contention for the puck between opposing teams. Skaters always look best when they're leaning on their edges.

hockey is the hardest thing I've ever shot. keep at it.

troyer16 wrote in post #2504209
This was my first attempt at hockey. This is an old, old rink and prolly the most poorly lit one ever. I took advice and took a shot of the ice to use as my custom white balance. I used my lens wide open (f/4) and i think the shutter speed for most of them was around 350. Most of them werent focused correctly, probably because about halfway through i realized i was using one shot focus. I shot from up in the bleachers but plan to shoot from the penalty box next time. Oh yeah, had to shoot at iso 1600 too. Here's a few. I think i did well exposing the ice but please C&C for my first time at hockey. Thanks

all a littel underexposed, did you put lots of AEB on?