Russ Isabella wrote:
dj: As if there's anything here the parents wouldn't like! Great series--good variety, nice sportraits and action, and you succeed at "isolation" even when you have 4 players in the shot! Colors/white balance are awesome as well. Does this arena have cycling lights? and if so, how do you beat 'em?
Russ you are way too kind... thanks for checking 'em out.
This arena has really nice lighting as far as non-pro rinks go. ISO3200 was getting me anywhere from 1/400th to 1/800th all over the ice, and WB is fairly consistent if I get the preset dialed fairly close in-cam. I just shoot the preset shot with a longer shutter (1/20th or so) about 1/2 way through my shooting zone off the white ice before the zamboni hits it. Thing is, I still shoot RAW and have to tweak them in post, although not with the crazy swings in pink-blue you get at other arenas with lesser lighting. This rink also has a TV bank of lights that if that's ever on goes from good lighting to great, I'm told. Paul, of course, introduces even more stellar lighting on his, but that's another story!
sutegrat wrote:
What are you doing shooting on my turf?
The arena never, ever cleans the glass. There has been time where what looks to be bodily fluids on the glass, and there is no way I can shoot through it...
Good job as usual.
-Paul
Heh heh... you left the door unlocked!
I'll tell you what I was doing here... wondering if you accidentally left your PW's and AB's sitting out and already wired up!
dj dunzie wrote:
Thanks for the comments... and yeah the lighting here in this rink is about as good as it gets for amateur rinks around here... I think ISO3200 was buying me around 1/400th to 1/800th all over the ice, so I sure won't complain about that. I actually shoot from the side of one of the player benches in this rink (which is easier when you're hired by that team to shoot ) so I don't have to shoot through the plexi. The spinoff is I'm only getting faces coming out of the zone, and not in towards the goalies, but at the same time I can get the goalie faces which is nice. It also lets me get a pretty nice low angle at them. The 300 on FF is a decent length here too because I can get goalies and even into the corners a little, plus coming out towards the neutral zone... but what I lose is the stuff closer to the benches, unless I go for real tight expression shots (like #1).
Ah yes, that makes all the difference not having to shoot behind the plexi.
I was getting 1/640s at ISO6400 (luckily the 1D3/FlexNR combo does it better than any other), and I suspect that without the plexi I would have been getting around 1/500s at ISO3200. One of the worst aspects of shooting behind plexi is the sickly colors, especially the way it affects skin tones... they have a bit of a greenish hue. It's very hard if not impossible to fix perfectly in post.
Luckily the new arena I shoot in is like this one in the fact you don't get the blue/red/pink cycling colors.
Sportraits are definitely the way to go with this type of photography for sure. If I was a parent, I would much rather have isolated images like these than a scrum of 5 players.
Although I think #5 and #12 would be very popular.
daleroy wrote:
Nice shots. 12 and 13 would be my favourites. Wonderful youthful emotion captured in 12 and 13 is a great action shot!
I liked both those shots too. The kid in #13 steamrolled the defensive player while carrying the puck. Don't see that too often. Was a funny shot to get, even though I didn't really get the eyes in it. Thanks for checking 'em out!
Great series--good variety, nice sportraits and action, and you succeed at "isolation" even when you have 4 players in the shot! Colors/white balance are awesome as well. Does this arena have cycling lights? and if so, how do you beat 'em?
