[icywarm]

I posted this before as a reply, but I think the tread may have be dead, so I'll start a new one.

I need to shot a hockey game tonight, need some photos of the refs. It was mentioned to use a flash in the other tread, but I thought it would be outside the range of a flash? Is there a special flash mode for 20-40 + feet from subject?

I was just going to take my faster Pentax M 75-150/4, or do you think with the speed I might be better off with a DAL 50-300mm lens for the auto focus? I find I can focus manually faster than the camera, but maybe it has just been luck up til now.

Would it be better to under expose for the faster shutter speed and fix in PP?

Any thoughts? advice?

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Last edited by icywarm; 01-26-2010 at 01:18 AM. Reason: Thanks for help

[daacon]

I would think the DA 55-300 is way to slow to get decent 'action' shots inside an arena. Lighting is generally bad. I have shot a few hockey games and for me this works the best. I will sometimes pop the flash or use an external flash just to get a better shutter speed never used it in the actual shot.

Find the cleanest area of glass unless you are shooting behind the bench.

I have had the best success with the Tamrom 28-75 and DA* 50-135 both 2.8 lenses - I try and shoot around F4 but sometimes I use 2.8 just to get decent shutter speeds. Use the fastest you have

Bump your ISO to the most acceptable to you (for me and K20D I would go between 800-1200 depending on the arena)

Learn to Pan the players (refs) for action shots. (fast shutter speeds and good technique will give the nice blurred background)

I will Pre-foucs on a spot I suspect the action to end up and snap the shutter when it comes (if it comes as somethimes I guess wrong)

If you shoot raw you can fix the WB later- if jpg try manual WB and use the ice or boards.

Use Spot Focus and Spot metering.

And most of all practice makes perfect. Try a few in burst mode while panning (I would trun SR off for this)

Good Luck.

[GoremanX]

Not only would you need a strong external flash to reach that far, you'd probably get terrible results if the flash needs to go through the plexiglass or the safety net. You're better off with a fast lens and no flash.

Depending on how magnified your subject is, you might end up with a lot of ice in your shot. If you underexpose too much, you'll lose tons of range when you try to get the ice looking white again in PP, which could result in lots of banding and/or loss of color. I would try getting the ice as bright as possible while shooting, depending on your shutter speed. Don't be afraid to use the higher ISO ranges if you need to.

F4 might be a little slow for the kinds of pictures you're looking to get, but it depends on the lighting conditions. I've been to arenas where the playing ice looks gloomy, and others where you'd swear the ice is glowing. In the former case, good luck getting good pictures. In the latter case, make sure you have a lens that has good control of chromatic aberration. The stark black stripes, pants and helmet of the refs makes for a vicious contrast against the bright ice.

[Lowell Goudge]

couple of points here.

the m75-150 F4 will not be flash compatible, unless you have a flash that supports TTL (not P-TTL) and are using an *istD or DS.

Otherwise you are stuck with "AUTO" if your flash has a built in sensor, or full manual flash.

As others have pointed out, you will also have a problem with plexiglass and reflections, and F4 might be a little slow for an arena.

Best chances are with a faster lens, like F2.8 and boost ISO>

Don;t worry about WB regardless of JPEG or RAW you can fix it in PP. Either put it to daylight or if you can work out what type of lighting is used set it to that.

[Ahab]

I have no problem using my *200x2.8 @ ISO1600, 1/750 shutter priority. The lighting in this arena was absolutely terrible.

[icywarm]

Thanks for your help guys. It was a good success for what I needed to do, coach some officials. But well I was there I tried to get some action shoots too. They are a little grainy, but my new 77 on its way should fix that up.

I also tried that motion thing with the slower shutter, I almost have the hang of it, got some promising results.

Comments are encouraged. Ie is the cropping too tight?

[GoremanX]

Comments are encouraged. Ie is the cropping too tight?

I don't think the cropping is too tight. There's just less wasted space, all the shot is used by the subject. It's great.

The exposure is excellent, but it's unfortunate that you had to use such a high ISO. The noise is super-evident throughout, and I'm not even looking close.

[icywarm]

Noise is next on my list of things to learn about photography, we must have a thread here about it, if not Uncle Google will have a lesson for me.