taking pictures in hockey rink, help!

<p>Hello, I'm a complete beginner, and need advice on camera settings for taking pictures at an ice rink. The ones I've taken have been a little dark and very blurry. I bought a Nikon D50 from someone and it came with another lens. I really have no clue about the different lenses, but it says Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 G. Is this a good lens? Could anyone explain what to do to take crisp, clear pictures on this camera? Here is an example of one of the shots I took the other day, just in Sports mode.<br>

<img src="http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e81/alliecat684/034.jpg" alt="" /></p>

 

Hi Allison.Welcome to photonet, and look forward to see your shots in your own gallery.Here you have a combination of ... light in the rink? settings on your camera Sports mode will not give you a lot of flexibility,The iso setting ie.. 100. 200 400 etc will get you a bit more freeze Try to download the manual and check . f4 will be ok in better lighting. need some detail so if you post this up in your gallery and include the camera recorded details, we could help more . Regards miken

PS. Allison try the blue learning tab on the headers , neat stuff on exposure ISO and aperture stuff Miken

<p>You need a faster shutter speed to stop the motion. Increase the ISO until the shutter speed is around 1/250th second at least, if you can. "Noise" (grainyness) will worsen with higher ISO settings, however. A "faster" lens (one with a larger maximum aperture like f/1.8 to f/2.8)would help, like a 70-200mm f/2.8, but you're talking $$$ here.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses. I uploaded the picture in the gallery here <a href="../photo/14371575">http://www.photo.net/photo/14371575</a></p>

<p>It is likely that it is impossible for you to get much better than this unless you set the camera up, perhaps by taking half-trigger and holding that until the person arrives at the spot that you used to set-up on. You should have been able to set exposure and focus on the ice where he was likely to be for the shot before he arrived, having your camera set to a minus EV value should cope with getting a reading off the white ice. A test shot before would establish this. You then hold half trigger until he arrives. Alternatively one can use the readings the camera gave you in manual mode. <br>

The camera has given you a good exposure for the subject but to do this it has used 1/40 shutter speed while you choose 330mm equivalent focal lenghth with the zoom. The character is also I think crossing the liine of view.<br>

When using that focal length you need to remember the advice to use the reciprocal of the focal length 1/focal length ...in this case 1/330 or faster. The subject matter is crossing the field of view so needs a higher shutter speed than if he was coming at you or going away.<br>

I wonder if you waited for the camera to do its calculations before taking the photo? Evenif you arein a hurry with an action shot you MUST wait for the AOK signal, however your camera gives you this, before completeling full pressure on the trigger to take the photo.<br>

With a DSLR this isusually very quick but if you go to full pressure before the camera is ready either the camera will refuse to take the shot or else you get bad results.<br>

There is a problem that you were already working almost wide open at 1/40 second .... f/5 with an f/4.9 lense according to EXIF embeded in the file. This means if you had used 1/330 shutter speed in S or M modes [ I think at your stage of learning S mode would be best ] you would get a dark result, about three stops under-exposed. EXIF doesn't tellme what ISO you were working at but you would need to increase the ISO speed by thee stops [ie 400 ISO up to 3200ISO] to enable you to work with that shutter speed. If you were already working at the highest ISO you have available to you the only solutions would be to use flash if that is permitted in the arena [ and if your flashwas/is powerful enoughat that distance] or else in a good editing programme to use the 'Levels' or 'Curves' tools to raise the dark result. Unlike the brightness tool in lesser programmes these tools enable you to selectively raise the dark areas without burning out the highlights. Three stops is about the limit this process permits with a DSLR with reasonable results.<br>

I may be old fashioned but I have never used a 'mode' other than A S M and this I suggest is something for you to aim for. I was suprised that 'sports' mode used such a slow shutter speed as 1/40 until I found that the automatics couldn't open the aperture any more than it had at f/5. So faithfully it gave you a good exposure at the price of sharpness .. it probably was in focus but the photo has subject movement and camera shake on your part .. ..I'm guessing here. I couldn't handhold a 330 lens at 1/40 :-)</p>

<p>Allison is working with a Nikon D50.</p>

<p>Hello Allison,<br>

getting crisp & clear pictures out of a hockey rink is a difficult task with almost every camera. I'm afraid your D50 and lens are not really suited for this kind of sports.<br>

I've shot ice-hockey with a similar camera in the past, but was able to mount „faster” lenses on it. And even with a fast lens (this means a low aperture-number = f 1:2.0 or 1:2.8 instead of 1:4-5.6) it was very difficult to get a good picture.<br>

The example picture contains some data (called „EXIF”) about the exposure of your shot. You've shot this picture at 1/40 sec. and the lens was wide open at f5.0 (read: it was as „fast” as possible with this lens). To get clear shots of moving subjects a much shorter exposure time is needed - 1/250 sec. or even shorter. To get a shorter time you have to choose a higher ISO-value (ISO 1600 instead of ISO 400 for instance) or a lower aperture-value (f2.8 instead of f5.6 - not possible with your lens).<br>

There are methods („panning”) to get sharp pictures with longer times, but it's a bit of hit-and-miss.<br>

You could set the ISO to the highest value possible (ISO 1600), but I'm afraid the camera did this already.<br>

Dull looking pictures can be tricked-out to look good, but really blurry images can't be rescued.<br>

Some pros are mounting strobes/flashes into the ceiling, but this is probably not practicable for the most of us.<br>

The goalie was shot at ISO1600, at 1/200 sec exposure-time and f 1:2.8 with a 135mm lens. The camera was a Nikon D100 - very similar to your D50. Sorry, I couldn't find a real „action-shot”. The original file looked pretty dull and it took some minutes to made it look clear.</p>

<p>Hope this helps and please excuse my english, Georg!</p>

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<p>Your D50 set to ISO 1600 and set in-camera noise reduction high. However the 70-300 G lens is just not fast or not good for this. Perhaps you could try to sell it and get about a $50. I believe this lens when new at some time was selling for less than $100. Use the lens on bright sunny days, and make sure shutter is about 1/500 sec or faster, if hand holding.</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone for the responses. If I invest in a new lens, which one would be the best for taking pictures in the rink?</p>

<p>Allison,<br>

There is no "best" but there are better choices. It depends on a lot of factors: cost, distance to the players, usefulness outside of hockey, etc.</p>

<p>Basically, you're looking for a lens with a long enough focal length to capture the players and a large enough aperture to allow you to shoot at faster shutter speeds. This would mean a lens with a minimum aperture of f/2.8.</p>

<p>How much money are you looking to spend? How much are you willing to compromise on things like focal length in order to reduce costs? Can you move with the action and plan different places to photograph from that will help you capture the players? </p>

<p>Rob,<br>

I'm wanting to spend as little as possible of course :) but I'm willing to spend as much as I need to get the results I want, but I will be using this lens only for hockey. As far as distance to players, I'm right at ice level along the boards and can move with the action. Thanks for your help!</p>

<p>Allison, I don't shoot ice hockey but I do shoot figure skating, which is extremely similar in that it's fast moving kids in the same dimly lit rinks. To start with, you simply can't shoot this with the lens you have. You really need a 2.8 or faster lens. I use the Nikon 70-200 2.8 VRII on my D200. It's a $2500 lens but I rent it at my local camera store for $50 for the weekend. (They also rent the VRI, which also works very well, for $40). Tamron and Sigma also sell 2.8 70-200s for a lot less but not sure if they autofocus as fast. There's also the older Nikon 2.8 80-200 but I've tried it and it doesn't autofocus as fast either. I'm a big fan of manual focus -- I've been shooting for over 30 years so there was no autofocus when I started -- and have tried to pre-focus on skating but have not had good luck. In baseball, you can pre-focus on one of the plates and wait for the action to come there. In football you can focus on a yardage line or something. But it's almost impossbile to pre-focus on a spot of the ice -- just nothing contrasty enough to easily focus on. And the kids are all over the rink, with few set for the action to come to. (You could probably prefocus on the goalie in hockey, maybe the puck drop.) You need your ISO at 1600, but do not turn on any noise reduction -- it reduces digital noise but does so at the expensive of reducing sharpness. I leave it off on my camera. At ISO 1600 at the local rink lit by overhead fluorescents I get 2.8 at 1/200th. I used to shoot in aperture priority but now I've gone to manual exposure. I simply used my handheld meter to take a reading from out on the ice. The exposure is the same all over the rink, so no need to change once you've teaked what's right for your rink. Also I use the AF mode where there are maybe five sensors activated in the center (group dynamic, I think) and the camera chooses which one has a subject in it at any given moment. Another issues is how fast the D50 can autofocus. As a lower end consumer camera, probably not very fast regardless of lens. I would look into renting the 70-220 VR II and give it a try. Good luck.</p>

<p>If you don't want to spend money, and sadly owning a DSLR is all about that, then I suggest you try my suggestion about using the levels or curves tools. Also since you don;t want to spend you will find a basic 'levels' tool in Paint .Net ... a free download.... if you do not have an editing programme. It is not as nice as others which 'cost' but it will do essential jobs. <br>

If you are prepared to learn to manually focus then a less expensive way to get fast reach is to consider an M42 to Nikon adaptor ring from Ebay and then older M42 lens from film days. M42 is the mounting thread to the camera. The adaptors rings appear to cost either side of US$10, though how much an M42 lens will cost is problematical since people have been suggesting this solution so often I guess these lenses are not as cheap as they used to be. <br>

An aspect of my suggestion to pre-focus on the ice where the guy will be removes the need for Auto-focus ... but to be successful means you need to know how the pattern of play will unfold ... anticipation can be a big factor in successful action photography.</p>

<p>IMHO, I think buying an M42 adaptor and trying to use screw mount lenses is going a little too far. It's going to make things too complicated for a beginner and buy the time she pays for the adaptor she isn't going to save any money. There are plenty of manual focus Nikon lenses going for cheap these days, not just screw mount manual fcous, so if you go that route just buy Nikon to start with.</p>