1st Sports Shoot...

<p>I'd like to start by saying thanks to those who post here...I spent quite a bit of time lurking before I shot this Youth Hockey Tournament. So I learned a lot in the short amount of time I had to prepare.</p>

<p>So I'd like to relate my experience.</p>

<p>I was interested in shooting some youth sports and got approached by the local team to shoot their tournament.</p>

<p>I accepted without fully researching what it entailed... (Risky for sure)</p>

<p>I got the schedule - 2 games Friday, 4 games Saturday, Finals Sunday</p>

<p>Real Schedule 2 games Wednesday (this was supposed to be my 3rd practice), 4 Games<br>

Friday, 8 Games Saturday, and Finals on Sunday</p>

<p>So needless to say...way more hours than I anticipated...No biggie though my excitement level was huge.</p>

<p>Equipment - D300 - 2 SB600's on stands either end of the rink trigger by cybersyncs - 70-200, 2.8VR, Sony Dysub printer, Laptop w/large monitor, 3 cards, misc stuff, lots of batteries.</p>

<p>So here are the issues...</p>

<p>1. lighting in the Arena is old and horrible... Flash helped... struggled to maintain a constant white balance - fixed most of those issues in Raw<br>

2. Lens was rented from the Lens Depot, I have rented enough from them to buy 1, never a problem. Lens came early and I did not make time to test it...My fault... VR was off...it started dancing all over the place. It worked intermittently...So I way over shot to compensate. 50 to 60 images (or more) per period. I called them today, they are sending another free of charge, the next time I need it...great response, I have no issues with them.<br>

3. All editing done via Bridge and PS - Now I'm gonna breakdown and buy Lightroom - It was really insane, the amount of images.<br>

4. This is related to #2 and #3, hours of editing has been horrible do to the over shooting to get enough sharp images. Not being able to get enough images for the parents to see in a timely manner. We did sell some and took a lot of orders so it will work out in the end ( I hope)</p>

<p>Overall... I have great respect for those of you that do this work all the time, I was (am) still physically and mentally exhausted. Again I would like to say thanks for the info. Education is expensive no matter how you get it and I got a load of it in 3 days. Would I do it again? Absolutely...just better prepared. The parents were ecstatic...they loved the shots...I am a bit disappointed, I know what that lens is capable of, first hand. I am super critical of images that are not tack sharp...</p>

<p>Sorry it's so long, but any comments would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<div></div>

<p>Just a few quick comments since I believe you have the perfect set-up with the D300 and 70-200mm. </p>

 

<ul>

<li>Forget the flashes and use higher ISO such as 1600-3200</li>

<li>Get a custom white balance off the ice, this will accurately act as a grey card.</li>

<li>Turn VR off. You should be shooting at shutter speeds of 320-500th generally.</li>

</ul>

<p>@ Glenn - Thanks for commenting, I finally did turn the VR off, it still had some issues the focus wouldn't lock properly...something wrong in the lens...but none the less it was a good time and I got some good stuff. As far as white balance...I never really do that, I always fix in Raw...after the couple of practices I went to...I decided that would be the best course of action but the images seemed a bit to blue to me. I'm sure operator error on my part. The next time I will address it long before time to shoot the real stuff.</p>

<p>Ken -</p>

<p>Welcome to the wide world of shooting youth sports - where events never start or end on time and arenas once served as dungeons during the Dark Ages.</p>

<p>My advice - (I've been doing various youth sports - including Hockey for the past 3 years) -</p>

<p>1. Buy a sigma 70-200 f2.8 - Cheaper than the Nikon and a good performer. For sports - VR is not needed...You're shooting too fast for it to have impact.</p>

<p>2. Do as recommended above - 2 sb 600's aren't nearly enough to light even a small hockey sheet.</p>

<p>3. For sports / events - I shoot in JPEG - and then use Photo Parata (Miltonstreet Software) to display the images for parents to order onsite. I run 1 master laptop and 3 workstations.</p>

<p>4. Don't try to edit / convert all the images before displaying to parents. Put up a large sign - saying that all images will be cropped, color / exposure corrected, etc...</p>

<p>5. Experience has shown me that the younger / newer the participant the more willing to buy the parents are...by the time they get to HS, sales go down - unless you get the SI Cover shot or a real special moment.</p>

<p>- Yes, it is exhausting work, but it is all worth it when a parent smiles and tells you thank you for getting a great shot of their child!</p>

<p>Dave</p>

<p> </p>

<p>@ David - Thanks for the info, I really enjoyed the overall experience. 1 gal bought like 5 prints of her boy flying off the ice and was running around showing them to everyone it was quite gratifying.<br>

I'll look into that software.</p>