NHL - Blackhawks Vs. Predators

Great colors Dennis... lovely stuff.

amazing! I have the opportunity to shoot the NY Islanders this season and I was wondering what you set your white balance to. Correct me if Im wrong but Ive heard that Iu could shoot the ice and use that to manually set my white balance.

Fantasic captures Dennis! Did you have access to the arena strobes the big boys use? Or did you shoot without?... either way, the shots are great!

Tom,

Here's what I do for custom white balance for hockey:

Find a piece of the ice that isn't reflecting anything funky (notice the multi-colored banners in the shot of the photo hole above - I had to wait for this nonsense to stop, since it was reflecting on the ice right in front of me) and take a shot of the ice, waiting until the lights are at their full power. You'll want to shoot in Av mode, stop down your aperture to somewhere around f/16, choose an ISO that results in a shutter speed of 1/60 or slower, put the lens in manual focus mode and blur the image, then fill the frame with the ice (or better yet, a gray card, but this doesn't apply to pro or college events unless you can talk somebody with on-ice access into holding your card - good luck) , then take a burst of shots, and select the one that looks "whitest" in the burst as your custom white balance image.

Rich - these are all shot ambient. The arena strobes are pretty much reserved for the team, the local papers, Getty, AP, et al.

Dennis

Dennis,

Your rightup on setting a custom WB looks worth trying... although, I have to ask... how would shooting the ice compare to using something like an expodisc?

Thanks.

I love these shots!!! The only photo I have in all the years watching hockey is of the BHawks and the Canucks,long time ago......with my Pentax 35mm.

i would think that you would be shooting with the ice in every frame why not set the white balance off of something thats going to be in the photo?

Dennis, those are great photos. I'd have thought that the shots near the net wouldn't need so much focal length from the shooting holes? were the holes in the corners near the goal line? great position to pick up attacking play.

Tom and Rich - well, IMO white is always white, and something like an ExpoDisc (or a gray card) is always preferable to grabbing something in an image and equating it to white, because it will always be an approximation for REAL white. The ExpoDisc is meant to allow you to translate any lighting for use in your camera as a white reference, and providing you aim it directly at the lights illuminating the rink, I would think this should work well.

The ice in a hockey rink is a lot of different colors, and white is only one of them. As I mentioned above, it also reflects other colors from the scoreboard, the entertainment banners, etc, around the arena.

Let me put it another way - if I could have used an ExpoDisc or a gray card, I would have.

DavidEB wrote in post #4264305
Dennis, those are great photos. I'd have thought that the shots near the net wouldn't need so much focal length from the shooting holes? were the holes in the corners near the goal line? great position to pick up attacking play.

David,

Here's an idea of where the holes are located.

This is the photo hole where The Little Guys are put:

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Dennis:

Should there ever be an award for most helpful individual on this site, I think they should name it after you. You consistently offer excellent advice to all and any who ask. I look forward to your posts, and always learn something from them. They're always interesting and insightful even if I don't shoot that sport eg., baseball.

I especially like hockey, as it has always been, and continues to be, a huge part of my life.

You put a lot of time into helping guys like me whom you don't even know.
Thanks a bunch - looking forward to your next post.

Darcy

Darsk47 wrote in post #4265503
Dennis:

Should there ever be an award for most helpful individual on this site, I think they should name it after you. You consistently offer excellent advice to all and any who ask.
Darcy

AYYYMEN! Great shots Dennis, and as Darcy said, thanks!

dmwierz wrote in post #4264309
Tom and Rich - well, IMO white is always white, and something like an ExpoDisc (or a gray card) is always preferable to grabbing something in an image and equating it to white, because it will always be an approximation for REAL white. The ExpoDisc is meant to allow you to translate any lighting for use in your camera as a white reference, and providing you aim it directly at the lights illuminating the rink, I would think this should work well.

The ice in a hockey rink is a lot of different colors, and white is only one of them. As I mentioned above, it also reflects other colors from the scoreboard, the entertainment banners, etc, around the arena.

Let me put it another way - if I could have used an ExpoDisc or a gray card, I would have.

Thanks Dennis, for your insight. You get my vote!

Wow, great shots and tons of useful information. It is really great to see what kind of results can be produced. Inspiring photos, thanks for sharing them with us.

Darsk47 wrote in post #4265503
Dennis:

Should there ever be an award for most helpful individual on this site, I think they should name it after you. You consistently offer excellent advice to all and any who ask. I look forward to your posts, and always learn something from them. They're always interesting and insightful even if I don't shoot that sport eg., baseball.

I especially like hockey, as it has always been, and continues to be, a huge part of my life.

You put a lot of time into helping guys like me whom you don't even know.
Thanks a bunch - looking forward to your next post.

Darcy

I agree. I've been away for a couple of days, and I just came back earlier to read this wonderfully insightful thread. I'm hoping to get a chance to shoot the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team later in the season, and this is some information that I'll put into practice.

For a lot of amateurs like myself, photography is a game of odds, but the sort of great information that you've dispensed in this thread helps shift those odds in our favor.

Cheers!
Ian