First attempt at indoor hockey

There was no available seating without the glass in the view, so flash was a no go. The 55-250 worked wide open at 1600, not great though. Wound up shooting mostly with the 50 1.8 set at 2.8, 1/500 and ISO 800. They results weren't horrible... Focus could be a bit better but I'm sure the glass doesn't help matters. A couple of shots from the game:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

Does your 50mm not sharpen up until f/2.8? You might try shooting at f/2 or so to get slightly faster shutter speeds. I would probably want to be around 1/1000 if possible for hockey, but with kids you might not need that fast of speed. You might consider cropping these some, because there is a lot of dead space.

Mostly I just wanted to shoot at 2.8 to get as much DOF as possible as they focus on the mighty 50 1.8 isn't the greatest. I figured that would afford me a small fudge factor. Shooting at 1/500 seemed to be fast enough in most shots since these are peewee players. I suspect when the young man hits the bantam level I'll need a camera that can shoot at 2.8 and 1/750 or 1/1000, and ISO 1600 reliably. My XSI isn't stellar at 1600. Given my present equipment, the results weren't as bad as I was expecting going into the game.

I haven't done any cropping or sharpening to any of the photos as of yet. I will probably have the player pick his favorite 4 or 5 and do a full post on them with crop and sharpenening.

Would the difference in DOF between f/2.8 and f/2 be much?? Running at f/2 I would have to boost exposure less in post allowing for less noise. This would be good!!

The difference in dof from a distance wouldn't be overly dramatic. You might give it a try. I understand about the autofocus, because I have a 50mm f/1.8 as well and it can be annoyingly slow and jerky. Mine also isn't really sharp until f/2.2, so I would experiment a little bit and see what works best.

Thanks for the input Daniel. I appreciate all the insight I can get. I think next time around I'll play with shooting between 2.0 and 2.8. I'm thinking if the slightly less DOF doesn't hurt it'll get me some added exposure I can avoid in post which would improve quality quite a bit.

Not bad at all for the gear that you are using. I would be interested in seeing your cropped images. If you have a 70-200 or can borrow one try that and shoot at 1/500 at ISO 1600. Depending on your camera you will have to adjust the color and maybe apply some noise reduction. Just my 2 cents......

carguy4471 wrote in post #9417900
Mostly I just wanted to shoot at 2.8 to get as much DOF as possible as they focus on the mighty 50 1.8 isn't the greatest. I figured that would afford me a small fudge factor. Shooting at 1/500 seemed to be fast enough in most shots since these are peewee players. I suspect when the young man hits the bantam level I'll need a camera that can shoot at 2.8 and 1/750 or 1/1000, and ISO 1600 reliably. My XSI isn't stellar at 1600. Given my present equipment, the results weren't as bad as I was expecting going into the game.

I haven't done any cropping or sharpening to any of the photos as of yet. I will probably have the player pick his favorite 4 or 5 and do a full post on them with crop and sharpenening.

Would the difference in DOF between f/2.8 and f/2 be much?? Running at f/2 I would have to boost exposure less in post allowing for less noise. This would be good!!

I'm shooting indoor hockey as well and would like a little feedback on photos. I'm shooting an XTI with 70-200 2.8is. I have been shooting at around 250, 2.8, ISO 1600. I'm looking to get the images a little crisper and wondering if I bump up the speed, will I be able to PP exposure OK? lots of these "non professional" rinks have limited lighting.

I'm shooting indoor hockey as well and would like a little feedback on photos. I'm shooting an XTI with 70-200 2.8is. I have been shooting at around 250, 2.8, ISO 1600. I'm looking to get the images a little crisper and wondering if I bump up the speed, will I be able to PP exposure OK? lots of these "non professional" rinks have limited lighting.

sorry about the double posts above...I realized I loaded the photo with a watermark by accident

thanks for your feedback

Shooting with the 50 might not be enough reach for the sport. But I definitely understand the low light and shutter speed conditions. Hockey rinks are hell. Great work for what you were working with!