Ice Hockey Photos

I have been shooting a variety of ice arena action frames for the past month. I

have taken over 4000 pictures in a variety of arenas/light conditions trying to

arrive at the best settings for stopping action, image clarity and realistic

light.

 

The equipment that I am using is a Sony a100 with a Sigma 28-300 mm 1:3.5-6.3

lens. After much experimentation, I have settled on shooting in RAW at ISO

1600, f 5.0 - 6.3, shutter speed 125 - 250. I am then using the Adobe Photoshop

RAW plugin for white balance adjustments and other post processing. The problem

that I am having is that all of my pictures have a grainy, almost pixelated

texture when I preview them with the RAW plugin (or any other RAW viewer e.g.

Picasa) and this problem worsens the more that I process the images. I am not

sure if this is a lens problem or a firmware issue with the camera or something

else.

 

Has anyone encountered this issue with Sony .arw format? Any advice welcome.

just a guess, but your trouble is more likely the lens than the Sony... that aperture range is really not fast enough for most indoor venues, and you're getting a lot of noise as a result (you really need to brighten them a lot, I'm guessing?) You might want to try to get hold of a 2.8 lens to try. & see if it helps out!

The grain is the problem and the more you appluy sharpening, the worse it gets!

To shoot inside these areans you need a f2.8 constant aperture lens. Not sure what is available with the mount to attach to the Sony. I use a Sigma 70-200 F2.8 with my Nikon bodies (D70S and new D300 coming tomorrow!). I returned a D300 a few wks ago, not focusing correctly.

anyways, a lens with 2.8 or faster/wider aperture is what's required. The Sigma is about $800, the Nikon is $1600, and a f2.0 200 prime is around $4500!! Ouch!! An 85 1.8 is good for nearby action but not across or the other end of the rink. You'd have to shoot thru the glass standing near one of the goals.

Actually, the only post processing that I typically need to do is adjust the white balance to resemble more of a fluorescent temperature. Otherwise, the exposure appears to be bright enough. I will upload an example for comment. I do agree, however, that that a more responsive lens would likely help tremendously.

Addendum to upload3.jpg I have not applied any post processing to this image. This is the image as it comes off the camera in .arw format, cropped and saved to jpeg through Photoshop CS2. Again, no white balance adjustment, sharpening, contrast etc. has been applied to this picture.

If you are dealing with typical arena light levels, you will need a faster lens, preferably f2 or better, to get a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the action.

 

I shoot a lot of basketball, and find I need 1/500 sec. to stop motion blur. That usually requires f2 or so at ISO 1600.

 

The other concern is gaining sharp focus on a player who is moving. Does your camera have a tracking mode, like Canon's AI Servo, where you lock the active focus point on your subject and the camera refocuses continually as you shoot?

Try using flash?

<p><i>"The problem that I am having is that all of my pictures have a grainy, almost pixelated texture"</i></p>

<p>Its noise from using a high ISO. As mentioned above, a faster lens will allow you to use a lower ISO and avoid the noise.</p>

Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions. You have confirmed my suspicions that I need to be in the market for a new lens. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much choice for Sony compatiable zoom lenses in the 1.8 - 2.8 fstop range. Does Sigma make a 70-200 2.8 with a Sony mount? Does anyone have any expereince using the Sony 70-200 2.8G (even though it is a bit out of my desired price range at $2400).

Andy...Remember...The higher the ISO, the more grain(or Noise).

I shoot alot of Hockey, and i use no less than 1/400 hutter speed at f2.8. I would suggest if you have the means to do so, get yourself a 70-200 f.2,8 or 80-200 f 2.8 lens. Then perhaps you maybe able to lower your ISO some, and also increase your shutter speed.

If you continue to PP noisy images, you magnify the noise, and ultimatly, they will turn into larger "pebbles" on your image.

The image i posted here, is an example virtually noise free, however, there still is a small amount of motion blur, and is not as sharp as could be. (Taken with a D300 and 70-200 F2.8 VR)

John - what were the D300 settings you used for the hockey pix? did you use 'dynamic area' AF or one of the other settings? I'm expecting a D300 tomorrow- replacement for 1st one that I could not get to focus sharply. I was using dynamic area setting for all my sports shots.

 

Steve

Steve, I was using Dynamic AF

here's another one, just a little less motion blur

Have you tried Neat Image or Noise Ninja to get rid of the noise?

I'm frankly amazed at how poor the noise level is in that shot at 1600. That is truly dreadful.

 

A faster lens will help you lower your ISO setting. The other thing you can try is reducing just the colour noise. I do this with my high ISO hockey shots and it works well. The colour noise is more objectionable than luninance noise. When you eliminate colour noise, luminance noise is left and it looks more like film grain which isn't so bad. Although on that Sony, who knows.

 

You don't say what version of ACR you're using with which version of PS but the version of ACR in Lightroom and PS has sliders for both types of noise. Reducing the luminance noise in ACR will soften the image quite a lot, eliminating the colour noise doesn't soften.

I'm with Robert.

 

Unfortunately that's photo life in community arenas. Sodium and vapor lights reek havoc on your images.

 

They also cycle through a bunch of different colours and depending what phase they are cycling through you will get pink, green etc colour casts in the photo. Sometimes all three in different areas of the rink, because of course they do not all cycle at the same time.

 

As you found out higher iso means more noise (and lots of it). So you need faster lenses (2.8). But again that only goes so far. If you then slow down the shutter to get more light you get motion blur, but the slower shutter will sometimes capture the entire cycle of the lights so you get better WB.

 

Noise Ninja or the like helps a lot.

 

The only other way is more light. That means external flashes.<div></div>

The above photo was a D200, 70-200/2.8VR, ISO400,5.6

Flash isn't a good idea. Not on camera flash anyway. You've got to be close enough to the ice/players to use it and at those distances it can disturb/distract the players, if you happen to fire into their eyes it can temporarily affect their vision and cause injuries. Get caught using flash in anything above local kids' league and you're likely to be asked to leave the arena - and maybe asked not to come back.

 

The only way to use flash effectively, as Gord points out, is with external flash. That means high powered strobes in the rafters of the arena, fired with a radio trigger.

 

That does a couple things. One, it gives you more and better light on some shots but it also restricts how much you can shoot. The flash units can't recycle quickly enough so you've got to do a better job of picking your spots and getting your timing right. Working in burst mode at 6 or 7 fps for a couple seconds won't work.

 

The other option is to use more continuous lights but those aren't typically as powerful as strobes so the effectiveness is going to be less and may not work at all unless you're talking the big-ass TV type lights. Not many people going to be carrying those around. ;)

 

Practice panning. With good panning technique you can stop motion even with a slower shutter speed. Work on developing a good sense of where the action is going and how the game flows. That can be kind of difficult with less experienced players but from about bantam on up the game flows better. Try to train yourself, if you don't already, to shoot with both eyes open. Having your left eye open, looking over the camera, will allow you to get a bigger picture viewpoint and allow you to anticipate better and be ready with the camera already positioned to take a shot before the players get to where you're aimed.

 

A little blur isn't always a bad thing either. Time a slapshot at the bottom of the arc with the stick loaded (curved backward), the upper body and legs of the player will be relatively still and sharp but the stick and maybe arms will be a bit blurred. It's a cool shot.

Andy - $2400 buck$ - that's a good size investment! Sigma has version II of their 70-200 2.8 and may have limited availability of a Sony mount. I went online yesterday - www.sigma.com - and found their realtime email answer link. I wanted to know if my 70-200 could be upgraded to the II version. Sorry, but nooo!

Anyways, go there and ask the question.

Basketball - HS boys - tonight. Going to UPS office to pick up my D300. Hopefully this one focuses correctly!!

Steve Hopkins

Good Luck with it Steve!

Good morning I use a flash (Canon 580EX II) mounted on a Rebel XT and I have done over 10 games with the flash on and all of the ice rinks are poorly lit.

 

Lens Sigma 70-200 f2.8 EX HSM APO DG.<div></div>

2nd pict with same setup.

 

Regards,

 

Luis

Hi Andy,

 

The only post-processing that I do is Capture One 4 for Windows and I only shoot in RAW, no more JPGs for me.

 

Have fun!!!

In *no flash rules* rinks what one can do as an adult league hockey player is shoot the puck at the glass where the photographer is. After awhile most get the *picture*:) not the break the rules. Any flash abpve the glass is also fair game; and a great target that one can *accidently* hit:) . Annoying behavior that distracts players should be reduced; a flash is often quite taboo. At one rink this chap had a flash above the goal and was firing it and the golaie was quite ticked; and the strobe and all destroyed to drive home the point.

Luis, first, it looks like what you're photographing is rec. league hockey or something similar. There's a difference between that and competitive league hockey. Second, just because you do it doesn't make it right.