Ice Hockey Photography

GooGaBu

GooGaBu

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Hey !

As I get the chance to take photos for the Ice Hockey team I support ( I mean what better 'job' could one have ) - I thought to start a new thread for Ice Hockey photos.

Here's trying to post the first one - lets see if I got it right.

- sorry didn't get it to work now, and got to run to work, so I'll try later -

If it won't work, I do apologize and I will try to 'fix' the issue.

X-it spook - www.googabuphotos.com
 
C'mon then, we're waiting :D
 
OK - sorry to be late with this one. As it seems someone was 'waiting' :clap: Then here is giving it another try....

russia pressure.jpg


I do hope this one works - I did read the Guide from FAQ.

(edit : It did work - This photo is from Finland vs Russia about two weeks ago here in Helsinki. )

calm down guys.jpg


X-it spook
 
Yep, shooting hockey is great fun. I actually do it for a Finnish sm-league team called HIFK.
I've been also translating their game reports from Finnish to English for the past three years.

http://www.hifk.fi/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=23&Itemid=91

Over there any photos are taken by myself and some of the ones on the main Finnish and English pages as well.

At the moments I am doing this just to get some experience - but who knows... One day it might be something else.

Will try to keep adding stuff to this thread as time goes by.
 
great shots there mate no1 for me (y)
 
#1 for me too, it almost looks like you're on the ice with them :eek:
 
Here's linking some more photos for you guys to see - took them in the game last night. Here's few I liked myself.

2007_2008_VilleVuorinen_k2.jpg


2007_2008_VilleVuorinen_k3.jpg


2007_2008_VilleVuorinen_k6.jpg


If you follow this link http://http://www.hifk.fi/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=367&Itemid=1
There you'll see more photos and will see the ones from here in a bigger size.

Thanks for all the comments you guys have left here - and I look forward to seeing some your hockey shots as well!

OK, the link does not work - for some reason. But if you go to www.hifk.fi and then click on the HIFK in English tab on the top. These photos are under the 'Picture report from Birthday Game' article. I do apologize for this and I will try to learn to use the links as well...
 
Being a day off from work - and having just joined the TP, I have a 'backlog' of pictures. Which gave me a chance to post some more stuff...

http://
assat_7.jpg


http://
assat_1.jpg


These two give a nice feel of the physical side of the game - hope you guys enjoy them!
 
Thanks for the comment !! That was a 'lucky shot' - but that's why Digital cameras are so great, just take as many shots as you want and in the evening you'll see if any came up OK...
 
Not many games on to go here in Finland at the moment. But went to one last night - and here's a few snaps from it.

jok3.jpg


Look at the players feet, the skates are pointing in different directions - looks a little un-natural

jok5.jpg


Not easy being so popular

jok2.jpg


shaving the ice

jok1.jpg


In the air


Well, hope that these pictures will be 'accepted' and any critique is always wanted.
 
More than acceptable :)

Nice series. There is exif in some of them. All quite short focal lengths. what lens are you using?

The all look a little dark to me (the last ones less so) so I tried auto levels on one and it came to life a lot more. I've deleted my edit as you don't have the box ticked in your profile to allow editing.

Look forward to seeing some more.
 
Nice to know that the difference is noticed on the pictures.

The early shots were either with 18 -125 sigma or 70 - 300 sigma lenses... and they kept on coming dark.

The last lot was taken with my birthday/Xmas present, which is a Canon 70-200mm f.2.8 L is - and I saw a huge difference on the image quality.

Tomorrow evening is the next match - so hope to get few shots on the site again.

There is more of my shots on the Ice Hockey teams website...can post the link if people are interested.
 
I did a few ice Hockey games in Blackburn.. Shot through very grimey plex.. dark conditions iso 1600 and down to shutter speeds of 200 and 250 at f2.8

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Here are few snaps from Monday evening

bl6.jpg


bl3.jpg


bl11.jpg


More on my website and at the hockey teams website at www.hifk.fi (find Mark's Corner under NEWS on the English section for the picture report)
 
Digging up this thread again after the Xmas break - so here are few snaps from yesterday evenings match up here in Helsinki.

Hope you guys like them.

(oh, and a reply to Superman - I am about as close to the ice as one can get, without being a player. I got to stand behind the dirty plexi-glass)

kal1.jpg


kal2.jpg


- See if you can find the puck in this one... it is there somewhere. I sort of like it, but what is your views??

kal4.jpg


kal5.jpg
 
I know this is an old thread & I hope it hasn't died, but I have only just discovered this forum & this thread.

I use my 30d with a Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lens at Milton Keynes.

My personal preference is to use an ISO of 1250, a white balance temperature of 3500k, with manual settings of 1/500 & f2.8. I always shoot RAW as whilst my settings are ok most of the time, occasionaly you get the lights recycling & there can be moments darker than others (this happens with the lights, but you cannot see it with the human eye!). RAW rescues this for me!

Once I am home from a game, I use Lightroom to preview & delete any poor images, only having keepers. I then go onto Photoshop CS4, using a plug in noise filter (I have a few, but have settled with Noise Ninja).

I can then achieve acceptable shots as below (apologies for the watermark, it is a pre-requesite oif the team).

_MG_8360.jpg


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Hi, and welcome Tony!!:wave:

Naah, I doubt any thread is really dead here (I for one dig up old ones every now and then), so I am sure you'll get few responses to these shots.
And as I am feeling like writing few comments...and do a bit of hockey myself (in FInland).. so here's my comments on the shots.

1. Not sure if you've cropped this? there's a good moment you caught here - could do something with the composition though (not that there's much of chance to affect that in games). Would be nice to see the few faces of fans that have been cut in half.. and on the other hand would be nice not to see the player coming to the shot (especially as he seems to be the goalies team mate and not opposition). But as said, moment well caught (y)

2. That's a nice one.. very good 'save shot', or at least I think the goalie will save this one...

3. Nice action shot by the goal. there is quite a lot going on in this one (and I am sort of torn between if it is good or not...:shrug: ) The horizon seems a little wonky.. but I know that in hockey it is tough to choose between a straight horizon and the shot looking 'right'. But this does seem to lean towards the right a bit...or what do you think?

4. Once again nice moment caught in the shot (you sure seem to know the moments to capture!! :clap: ). The player (or half a one) at the back does take some impact away from this one though.

Your settings seem good, WB is also depending on the rink - but your choice seems good for this rink - as for f.2.8, I know that is pretty much what you need in hockey most of the time. But I 've been persuaded to try to lift the f to 3.2 or 3.5. And it does give more players... So maybe give a try to upping the f to 3.2 and lowering shutter speed to 1/400. That should still be OK speed for most of the action.
As for shooting RAW - my choice as well and for the same reasons as you give here. Light can change at diff parts of the arena and that's when RAW is the saving part.

As for the PP, do you not do any sharpening for you images? As you only stated NN as an action..
Few of the shots there could maybe do with a little boost in saturation/contrast to 'pop them out' a little more.

That's all...:)
 
1. Not cropped, but I did re-size to suit the website etc.

2. He did save it

3. Given what I am shooting on the night, having a straight horizon isn't my biggest priority, however I take your point on board. That said, it does depend what you are referencing if it looks level or not (try referencing the glass frame uprights & then the goal posts to see what I mean).

4. Again, given what I am shooting, I wasn't giving too much consideration to the player that I have cut in half on this one. I was quite happy with catching the netminder as it is (he faced 72 shots from our team on that night & his team beat us!)

Forgot to say that I do indeed use Smart Sharpen on all images.

I do agree with your comments about the colours lacking a little pop, but whatever I try just doesn't look right. If you have any suggestions there, it would be much appreciated.
 
Tiesse said:
Forgot to say that I do indeed use Smart Sharpen on all images.

I do agree with your comments about the colours lacking a little pop, but whatever I try just doesn't look right. If you have any suggestions there, it would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

I pretty much look at the way I do my photos on a photo to photo bases. But here are few things I keep returning to, when adjusting the photos.

Saturation and Contrast - usually I give these + 1-3 initially
Levels - bit of tweaks on highlights and shadows..
Saturation - choosing the main colors of the image and increasing them accordingly.
Quick selection tool - selecting the player or players on the shot and doing minor adjustments to the area to try and bring the player out a little more from the background.

(Just shots a game in JPEG last night, and it was funny as none of the above was really needed... but the light was good at the arena so I decided to give it a go).

You probably knew all the above mentioned things already, so it might not have been much help there. But those are few of the things I do to my RAW images in PP.
 
Tiesse said:
I know this is an old thread & I hope it hasn't died, but I have only just discovered this forum & this thread.
"occasionaly you get the lights recycling & there can be moments darker than others (this happens with the lights, but you cannot see it with the human eye!)."
Click to expand...

I wondered why my images had varying results - thanks for explaining. I joined my son and his fiance at a match at Milton Keynes in January and stood up at back to see if I could get any results. I must say I had a job keeping up with the action! - not knowing the rules didn't help either, having never been before, but I enjoyed it despite it being on the same day as the TP Whipsnade Zoo meet. Spent the whole day iced up. Brrrrrrrrr!

Some pics here if your interested. A few more in my gallery.
ISO 1800 on some.
All C&C welcome.

1.
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2.
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3.
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Nice pics Geoff

I see you were at the Slough game. On the longer shots, if you had been a little higher to the right, I would have been in shot (I generally stand on the disabled ramp with my head above the plexi(!)

I may go up in the stands for a period or two having seen your efforts (adds a different angle on my stock pics).

I am at Saturday's game this weekend doing the honours (including man of the match at the end & mascot pics)
 
Ten photos a bit much to give comments individually on them all.. but good to see some more hockey shots coming along here - and from quite a few togs already.

But, here's comments on few shots of yours.

Image 2 = too many players facing away from you, and for me this would have been one that I would have deleted during the game.

Image 6 = excellent capture at your first outing. Would suggest to crop it so that the goal is the right border and bottom border goes just below the scorers skates. That would cut out the empty space from the shot and compact it to show only hte action.

Image 7 = also a good shot, once again a bit tighter crop would improve the shot.

Image 8 and 9 = Very typical images one gets from that angle. For me image 8 is the better of these, just due to the way the goalie is in action a bit more towards the camera.

Some of the shots could be a little brighter, and perhaps your camera could handle the extra push up on the ISO. At least these shots (on this size) don't show the noise too badly.
 
Tiesse said:
Another one where I was lucky with my timing from last year.
Click to expand...

You sure had a good timing on that one.. (y)
These shots work if you look at them for a little longer than the few seconds. Because the puck often is 'flat' so it does not strike you immediately. But once you see it against the dark jersey.. then it is a super shot.

Shame about the players coming to the edges of the photo...
 
Tiesse said:
Nice pics Geoff

I see you were at the Slough game. On the longer shots, if you had been a little higher to the right, I would have been in shot (I generally stand on the disabled ramp with my head above the plexi(!)

I may go up in the stands for a period or two having seen your efforts (adds a different angle on my stock pics).

I am at Saturday's game this weekend doing the honours (including man of the match at the end & mascot pics)
Click to expand...

Tanks Tiesse - Maybe we'll bump into one another sometime.
 
Here's few little takes of mine from the weeks gone by - trying to keep the amount posted to minimum, so that might encourage some comments :thinking:

But, to the photos...

TPH4.jpg


It's not always so nice to be a goalie..

TPH3.jpg


I've been told to try and capture other aspects than just the action in the rink.. so here is something...

TPH1.jpg


Thought this was an OK shot - even if the players are not facing the camera. WOuld love to hear your thoughts on whether it works or not? :shrug:

All comments, mainly on composition and WB are most welcome.

Image one is taken from the stands with Sigma 120-300, the other two with Canon 70-200. Image 2 near the locker rooms and third one from behind the plexi on ice level.

p.s Sorry about the watermarks on the shots.. it is just something I take as a precaution against people grabbing shots for free...
 
Love the second one the lighting works well.

As for the first one, nice capture. Before I damaged my arm I played as a goalie and I would take a hit anyday of the week rather than a puck off the mask. :puke:

3rd one, Hello Mum! :LOL:
 
Darran46 said:
Love the second one the lighting works well.

As for the first one, nice capture. Before I damaged my arm I played as a goalie and I would take a hit anyday of the week rather than a puck off the mask. :puke:

3rd one, Hello Mum! :LOL:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments..I was surprised by the second image myself... but positively so.

And I suppose you are right, a little hit is nicer than a puck to teh mask.. although the goalies seem to get more wound-up by the push than the puck...:shrug:

Thanks for looking and lets see who gets to post the next shots...
 
This on Saturday, led to ..................
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This (and it was over in one punch!)
_MG_8554.jpg


Man of the match after I had gone to work in Photoshop
_MG_8599nomuzzy.jpg


And before I went to work on the photo! (The player getting the man of the match is our player coach)
_MG_8599.jpg
 
I suppose you did not ask for comments on your photos.. but I thought to leave some anyways.. :D
The second fight photo you got the good action going on - but your focus is right at the referee. He is sharp, but the players are not as sharp as him.. Interesting on this one is also the guy at the background, trying to get his camera ready (wonder if he already took his shots or did he miss the action).

You've done a good job on the PS for the man of the match..

From the 'goal set' - the second has the best action, IMHO, but can't see the puck so...:thinking:
The other three in that series leave me a a bit cold.. also, what sort of setting did you use to capture these. as in each shot you have the player in focus, but the goalie is a bit blurred.. even at f2.8 I would thought the goalie to be a bit more in focus... :shrug:
 
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