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Archive 2015 · First Weekend Shooting Hockey (NAHL) D750

  
 
alaskandood
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · First Weekend Shooting Hockey (NAHL) D750


(NAHL) Fairbanks Ice Dogs vs. the Kenai River Brown Bears (1/17/15)

I shot hockey for the first time the weekend of January 16 & 17, and played amateur sports photographer. (not counting my wife or kids practices) I would still consider myself a novice photographer, but prior to the games I did a lot of research on how to shoot hockey. I thought I was prepared, but nothing can really prepare you for such a fast paced game. I have a whole new respect for sports shooters after this.

I thought I had decent results for my first time shooting a real sporting event, but certainly nothing to brag about. I shot 4 games that weekend (2 H.S. and 2 Juniors) and learned a lot just playing with different settings. I never caught any of the peak action or game changing hits, but I thought these were the most interesting shots. I don't want to clog the forum with too many shots, but if anyone cares the album is at (KRBB vs FBKS )


My Goals Prior to Shooting:
*Begin building a portfolio
*Learn as much as possible
*Experiment
*Try to get some decent action shots
*Try to catch some good expressions

What I used:
*D750 & 70-200/2.8 VR II
*Back Button Focus using the AE-L/AF-L for focus and separating the shutter from the focus
*Aperture Priority with Minimum SS set at 1/1000 (tried 1/640 & 1/1250 for the prior games)
*F/2.8 (On previous nights I used smaller apertures with decent results above the glass, but didn't like the results TTG)
*A generic Rubber screw-in lens hood pressed against the glass. I thought it worked pretty well, but would have preferred it to be a little more rigid.
*AWB (I plan on learning how to set a CWB off the ice)
*12 bit lossless raw (was just doing this for fun, can't imagine having deadlines for this sort of thing. Still had a hard time finding the sweet spot for WB and exposure)
*EC @ + .7

What I learned:
*1/1000 seemed to be a good shutter speed at an acceptable ISO TTG (Through The Glass), and 1/1250 was good above the glass.
*Shooting through the glass is awful. Next time I shoot, I'll try to go and clean the glass on the inside of the rink from my anticipated shooting positions.
*The glass gives off a greenish color cast that I haven't quite been able to eliminate.
*The glass destroys contrast. Even after boosting it in LR, still seems way off.
*I could get sharp pictures when the lens was flush with the glass, but any tilt (sideways or up and down) would be noticibly less crisp.
*The curved corner glass offered the best angle, but the worst IQ.
*The shots above the glass were much better IQ wise, but less interesting. (some from a H.S. game the same weekend SOHI vs. Wasilla)
*Anticipating the play is really difficult in hockey.
*The games absolutely flew by. I couldn't believe when each period was over so soon.
*I should change shooting positions between periods. These were all shot from the same postion.
*I need to get over my shyness. I don't like being in front of people and was constantly thinking people were looking at me, when in fact no one probably even noticed me. I tried to pick the least obstructing view that had the cleanest glass.
*If anyone has a trick for reducing the haze in these images, I'd be all ears!
*Horizons: I still haven't figured out which lines to use for correcting the horizons. The curved boards were no help. Was mostly just guessing.
*I had a blast! Can't wait to do it again!


#15 Maurin Bouvet of the Kenai River Brown Bears (NAHL) carries the puck into the offensive zone.
JWB_0269.jpg by jbactionphoto, on Flickr

#7 John Zimmerman of the Fairbanks Ice Dogs pursues an opponent. Not sure why, but I liked the composition of this shot.
JWB_0177.jpg by jbactionphoto, on Flickr

#2 Jakob Stridsberg takes a shot on goal.
JWB_0139.jpg by jbactionphoto, on Flickr

#14 Tyler Andrews (Kenai River) tries to defend #21 Chandler Madry (Fairbanks)
JWB_9896.jpg by jbactionphoto, on Flickr

Not sure why, but I liked the expression on the player bracing for a hit. You can see the other players reflection in his visor.
JWB_0350.jpg by jbactionphoto, on Flickr

#15 Maurin Bouvet of the Kenai River Brown Bears (NAHL) visibly pained after missing a scoring opportunity that would have tied the game. The team had lost 12 straight at this point.
JWB_0279.jpg by jbactionphoto, on Flickr

KRBB vs FBKS



Jan 29, 2015 at 06:01 AM
Greg Mason
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · First Weekend Shooting Hockey (NAHL) D750


Thanks for the share!

What you've learned really is what we've all gone through, so I'd say you're definitely on the right track.

-Glass is always a mess. When I shot varsity back in my college years I used to wait for the Zamboni to go out and when they swung the doors open run out and clean a 2ft wide section of glass (I would carry brillo pads to scrape off the puck/stick marks). The color cast is super annoying.

-Your settings/setup are good imo, normally I shoot at 1/1000 minimum and try to stop down as far as I can get away with.
-I routinely shoot at ISO 2000+

What I like in particular is your goals to shoot action but also the emotion of the game. THAT is what will separate your portfolio from others. There's more going on out there then just skating/shooting and hitting.

One last note, and it could just be my monitor but you may want to bump up your exposure 1/3rd. They seem a TINY bit under.

Great start! Look forward to round 2.



Jan 29, 2015 at 12:26 PM
alaskandood
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · First Weekend Shooting Hockey (NAHL) D750


Greg- Thanks for your comments! Going to re-calibrate monitor. It's hard to properly expose for the players without blowing out the ice. I looked through your smugmug portfolio, Very nice work! Would love to shoot those major junior games, especially knowing all the NHL stars that have came out of there! I saw in a few pics there were cutouts in the glass, how often do you get to use those?

I wonder what it would take the local rink to install a couple. (Probably an act of Congress).

I really appreciate you taking the time to comment!



Jan 30, 2015 at 02:21 AM
gschlact
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · First Weekend Shooting Hockey (NAHL) D750


Good starting set.
Horizons- use a try vertical to set horizons, they remain vertical in all perspectives unless you gave distortion from a lens, then choose center of frame vertical.
Glad to see creative cropping.
But don't over reach you FL.



Jan 31, 2015 at 11:22 PM
alaskandood
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · First Weekend Shooting Hockey (NAHL) D750


gschlact-- I really appreciate your comment. That's a huge help! Not just with sports stuff, but general photography. I'm always struggling with horizons and that made things quite a bit easier.

Also, have been thinking about over reaching my focal length. I'm too new at this to know what is acceptable percentage of cropping. In my mind 30-40% is fine, but is that pushing it? Or are you referring to being just too far from the action?



Feb 01, 2015 at 08:23 AM
Greg Mason
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · First Weekend Shooting Hockey (NAHL) D750


Hockey and ice is tough. It's always a bit of a battle to get good exposure levels on the face/jersey/player but still have SOME detail in the ice. At the end of the day, I'll sacrifice ice if I have to.

Thanks. It's always a 'work in progress' with my sports stuff (and really I should upload the more recent games, I've been slacking). Looks like I have a weekend project, have 4-5 games just sitting on my HD.

Cutouts- Yes I'm very lucky, our rink has 3 cutouts in decent spots, the glass also has virtually no color cast and is very clean. Generally I get a cutout every game. You can always ask the arena manager if there is a plan to add cutouts, but I know from shooting University games back in the day normally the answer is 'no'. So grab a scrub pad and some rags and do your best! It pays off later.

Cropping- Generally in sports they say to shoot tight, crop tighter. For now I would suggest just shoot what you feel is comfortable, as you progress you should start to push yourself to shoot as tight as you can (keeping player, puck etc. in the frame). The more you shoot the more this will become habit.



Feb 05, 2015 at 01:08 PM
falconrosefoto
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · First Weekend Shooting Hockey (NAHL) D750


alaskandood, These are darned good for "first-time". Minor hockey arenas are probably the worst to shoot in; the ballasts in the lighting is not steady and they keep throwing all sorts of weird color tints onto the ice and if you're not constantly checking your WB, you get weird looking things like pink ice.

Even for us Canadians, the damned puck is hard to follow. (I will deny saying this as I will end up giving up my Canadian-ness card if I admit to this...so anyone else. YOU NEVER HEARD THIS!)



Feb 28, 2015 at 06:37 AM





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