Taking Hockey Pictures

[ancestry]

My son's friend has asked me to come to his hockey game with the intent of trying to get several good pictures of him in motion. He is the goalie.

I lucked out and got some good actions shots of my son during his football season so now all of the kids seem to think that I'm a great sports photographer (and I am so completely not).

I'm sitting here wondering how to deal with the elements that exist in a hockey arena. I have to shoot under flourescent lights (with cold fingers ) and will have to shoot through the glass as this specific arena doesn't have an elevated level that will allow me to shoot over the glass.

Any suggestions? Hints? Tips?

 

[mom2rtk]

Can you tell us what camera and lenses you have?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Two words: very difficult.

Outside football and inside hockey are two very different animals.

 

[Diane♥Disney]

My son is a goalie and I've been taking pictures for years. I have a Canon Rebel XTI. I use the P setting and have my ISO set at 1600. Pictures come out great. It is challenging taking them through the glass, they don't come put quite as good but this setting doesn't use a flash so there is no flash/glare showing on the glass.

 

[ancestry]

Thank you Diane! That helps. I have a Canon T3i. The lens I have with me at the moment is a Canon 55-250mm. It isn't the greatest lense but it is the only zoom lens I have at the moment.

 

[photo_chick]

Thank you Diane! That helps. I have a Canon T3i. The lens I have with me at the moment is a Canon 55-250mm. It isn't the greatest lense but it is the only zoom lens I have at the moment.

Shoot RAW. Getting the white balance right will be really difficult in this situation, shoot RAW so you can easily adjust it later. Other than that, you should be able to get the shots with what you have. You will probably need to bump up the ISO and it will be a little noisy, but it's totally doable with the T3i. You may have to manually focus through the glass around the rink, so be ready for that.

I'd approach it like I do all my action shots, in Tv mode. Set the minimum shutter speed I want then bump up the ISO until I get the exposure I need.

 

[mom2rtk]

Keep in mind that with your zoom, your maximum aperture gets smaller the more you zoom. So your camera will be capable of faster shutter speeds with less telephoto. So get close and don't zoom any more than you have to. Shoot at your largest file size so you can crop down in processing if you need to.

 

[pointandshoot]

That is going to be tough to pull off. Yellow cast on lights, likely dim. Through glass is even tougher.

I shoot Hurricanes practices and pre-game skates for fun sometimes. Since I cannot bring any big, fast zooms, I shoot 100mm 2.8 or 85 1.8. I spend most my time at ISO 1600 around 2.8 or faster. Maybe rent a lens for a day is you can.

As for tips, center focus spot can be faster to lock on target. RAW is a really good suggestion. Noise and white balance will be tricky. Find a spot no so smeared on the glass if you can. As soon as the autofocus locks, fire. Do not wait.

 

[wbeem]

Any chance you can go to a practice session before the game? It would be useful to have some familiarity with shooting in those conditions before the actual event.

If you can work out the white balance using a grey card under the same lighting conditions as the game, you can shoot JPEG. Typically I always shoot RAW, but sporting events favor being fast and light. If you have your WB nailed, you can fire off a burst of frames in JPEG during an action sequence without filling up your buffer so quickly.

 

[Frantasmic]

My suggestions:

Get up higher and shoot down. Attempt to get high enough to shoot over the glass. You have a nice white backdrop (the ice) and you don't have to go as high ISO wise. I took some decent shots up high a few years back with the S5 I have at a Dallas Stars game. It isn't nearly the camera you have. Even extended fully, if you go to ISO 800 or above, you should still be able to shoot at 1/160 or so and nearly stop motion. Shooting in RAW is key to so you can clean up the noise some afterwards.


Dallas Stars 018 by msf61, on Flickr

 

[1Grumpy9]

I was going to say the same thing as PP...sit up above the glass line. I sit the 2nd row in my home arena (AHL hockey) and I get the glass smudge marks or reflection. Another place to sit is center ice because no matter which end he is, you will be at a good angle.

This is probably my favorite picture I have ever taken in my home arena:

It is with a non-DSLR (because at the time DSLR's were banned from the arena) and as you can see in the picture, you can see the smudge marks and reflections in the picture.

 

[bob100]

Thank you Diane! That helps. I have a Canon T3i. The lens I have with me at the moment is a Canon 55-250mm. It isn't the greatest lense but it is the only zoom lens I have at the moment.

if you got good football pics then you know you need a minimum shutter speed to freeze the action. Use similar settings (Tv mode) but with higher ISO levels 1600+ Also shoot in RAW so you can later make adjustments more easily

 

[ancestry]

Thanks everyone!

I went to a test session at the arena the night I had posted this. There is no getting up above the glass in this arena. It is a local arena for high school hockey players and community skaters. All one level. Even if I could get up higher (which I can't) they have a net that stretches from the glass to the ceiling so I would have to shoot though the net which is worse that shooting through the glass.

The only option to not shoot through the glass is to get into the box with the team which might be a possibility at some point. The test shots I got through the glass weren't bad. I think they will serve the purpose of the kid who wants/needs them. Tv settings with AI servo worked pretty well. The arena was lit well enough that I could keep the ISO on 800 or 1600 depending on where I was standing.

My biggest complaint or problem was that the glass wasn't clear all the way around the arena. The glass was the clearest behind the goalie which defeats my purpose since I need to get pictures of the goalie. The glass on the side, where I could get a good angle, isn't very clear. It looks like it has a yellow film or coating on it.

 

[wbeem]

Yeah, scuffed up glass can kill you. Not only does it have potential to add a color cast, but one of those scuff marks could throw off your auto-focus.

Much of photography is about building relationships. If you can get in with the team and shoot there without disrupting them, that sounds like a better plan.

In any case, good luck.

 

[spinetnglr]

Another thing to try is to get permission to stand in the penalty box for one of the teams and not in the team box. I shoot action shots sometimes for local youth sports teams and when we do hockey tournaments that is where we go to avoid the glass issue. If you don't have one try to pick up a monopod to use .. it helps alot to keep the camera relatively stable and at eye level and not get too fatigued.

 

[mrodgers]

Whatever the camera says is good on the exposure level, brighten it up some. As seen in the 2 pictures in this thread, both are under exposed (no offense...) That is a lot of white on the ice for the camera's sensor to pick up and underexpose. This is where experience with photography and understanding exposure and how to compensate with the settings comes into play and not just having a "good" camera helps.

Ice and snow is white, not grey. Increase the exposure by the exposure compensation if in Program mode, Aperture priority, or shutter mode, or by setting manual. Personally, I would take a few test shots and set in manual mode, since the lighting isn't going to change.

My first hockey game (only game actually...) right at the beginning of owning a camera. Mistakes were auto white balance and manual exposure but only centering the light meter display and not compensating made for a horrible picture. 2nd image is my early fixes in post processing, much better, but not the greatest.

$200 superzoom camera used with really crappy ISO400 performance from about 6 rows from the very top corner of Joe Lewis Arena.

Post processed

 

[handicap18]

Here are a few I took a few weeks ago at a charity hockey game against the Boston Bruins Alumni. As one of the official photographers I was able to get access to the penalty box.

All shots with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII and Nikon D300 at ISO 1600 and f/2.8. Shutter speeds were around 320-400.


Former Boston Bruin Terry O'Reilly:

Former Bruin Bob Sweeney having a little fun with one of the charity's team players:

Former Bruin and Hockey Hall of Famer Brad Park looking for a scoring opportunity:

More action on the other end: