Grandchildren Sports (1 Viewer)

[nydave]

Still learning, but highly motivated and having fun. That's what it's all about.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Welcome to the forum, Dave. In the past, I shot some ice hockey at our local rink -- it used to be home to the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League, and is now home to USA Hockey's National Team Development Program (NTDP). It can be difficult to get the proper exposure, especially in the challenging (and usually poor) lighting conditions of smaller rinks. It looks like you did well with the photo above.

 

[nydave]

Welcome to the forum, Dave. In the past, I shot some ice hockey at our local rink -- it used to be home to the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League, and is now home to USA Hockey's National Team Development Program (NTDP). It can be difficult to get the proper exposure, especially in the challenging (and usually poor) lighting conditions of smaller rinks. It looks like you did well with the photo above.

That’s very cool that you got that experience. It was tough trying to get a good exposure. I’m a newbie to this, but I find it very enjoyable.

 

[JohnRice]

That’s very cool that you got that experience. It was tough trying to get a good exposure. I’m a newbie to this, but I find it very enjoyable.

Fortunately, digital has a lot of dynamic range, so you have latitude as long as you shoot RAW. With ice hockey, there tends to be a lot of white, so it might help to set a but of + in the exposure compensation.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Fortunately, digital has a lot of dynamic range, so you have latitude as long as you shoot RAW. With ice hockey, there tends to be a lot of white, so it might help to set a but of + in the exposure compensation.

Agreed. I would set an exposure compensation of about +1 or + 1 1/3, which would tend to blow out the ice. I would then reduce the highlights of the RAW file in post to bring back some definition to the ice. Also, I would shoot in manual mode, and would also take a shot of a white spot on our boards for reference later -- I found our boards worked well as a white balance reference. The trick was finding enough white space between all the advertisements. It also helped if I used a constant max aperture lens if I was using a telezoom. Our rink had enough lighting that I could get away with a 70-200mm f/4.

I went to grab an example, and realized it's been over 8 years since I brought my camera to the rink. Here's a shot from the last game the Plymouth Whalers played in our arena before relocating to Flint, MI. This also happened to be Connor McDavid's final Ontario Hockey League game -- he was selected #1 overall that summer in the NHL Draft by Edmonton, and is considered the reigning best hockey player in the world.