Spring Hockey - Success can be had in horrible lighting!

Time to break up all the baseball and outdoor shots with some spring hockey action. Last weekend I shot my son's games at the Mainland Hockey Tournament in Vancouver which featured one of the most horribly lit rinks I have been in yet (Richmond Six Arenas, "Garage" for any of you locals). Think of that greenish, gloomy color that the sky and light turns just before a big summer thunderstorm and then darken it down a touch and you can come pretty close to what this rink was like.

The shots below, while not technically my best, are simply intended to show that even in crappy lighting situations, with luck and the right gear and some post processing, you can get acceptable results.

While EXIF is embedded, all images were shot (barely!) at IS 3200, 1/400, f2.8 and even then, all had to be bumped up on the "Exposure" meter in Lightroom anywhere from 1.5 to 2.0!! This creates some noise which LR can mitigate a bit. In fact, I have printed a couple of these to 8 x 10 and they are acceptable at normal viewing distances, although the noise is very apparent when you look closely.

In any case, see what you think!

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I like 6, looks like he is about to be slashed, however as a fellow hockey player, that is not fun....Look great!

How did the tournament go?

An OK tournament for us. We competed well against some tough competition. Won a game 3-0 and lost the other three, but all relatively close. No blowouts!! Thanks for the comments.

good job,
could just be my monitor but the ice seems a little pink and yellow in some photos.
hehe the goalie has yellow pads.

Maybe your monitor could be off, I dont see any pink or yellow at all.

I see the pink and yellow on my calibrated monitor. However, the white jerseys look good.

I have the same problem in a couple of my local arenas - cycling lights cause bad colour casts but correcting for jerseys still leaves off-colour (and sometimes multi-colour) ice. There's only so much you can do, though.

Good shots, Chris.

PS: Those "yellow pads" cost $1200 to $1600 Canadian. Top-o-the-line gear.

Yes in addition to dark lighting, the color cycles were horrible too, despite using a custom WB. Those are nice yellow pads. My son is the other goalie and I got away lucky this year with a new set of Reebok 6Ks for $400. I am saving my pennies though as I am sure the next set will be much higher!

whewww, thats alot. The most expensive piece of equipment I own besides my skates are my sticks...and $1200 for pads...I do suppose price you do pay for protection.

Chris

still playing huh? gotta love it....my two finished this past week when tryouts for next year concluded.....and my beer league finished this week too.

The shots seem to have a too much contrast. It's like the dark uniforms have no definition - just 'chunks' of black. Although at 3200 you fared OK.

keep skating
Darcy

My son has a pair of Vaughn Velocities, which is the same make and model as the yellow pads shown above. His are black, white and grey, though, not yellow. Fortunately, I picked them up used for the low, low price of $750. Although much is personal preference, the better gear does work in the goalie's favour, offering better protection and increasing freedom of movement. In some respects, it's not unlike camera gear

Brikwall wrote in post #5412318
the better gear does work in the goalie's favour, offering better protection and increasing freedom of movement.

...provided it's fit properly. One of the bigger mistakes I see around the rinks is equipment too big for the goalie; poor kid can't feel the puck and the big gear then works against him/her with lots of rebounds and uncontrolled pucks.

I know why it happens - darn stuff is so expensive Mom & Dad are trying to get 3-4 seasons out of a set, but their little Rogie is growing like a weed so they go oversize figuring he'll grow into it.

Darsk...yep still playing. My son was asked to be one of the goalies on a spring select team, so we will play right into July, finishing with a tournament in Whistler! The contrast was pretty much unavoidable given the exposure bump and resulting noise that I has to deal with in PP.

I think you did a great job with the white balance.