Low light hockey shots

[GooGaBu]

Hey,

Here are few shots from last weeks game.
The Arena lights were quite poor, plexi was dirty (although seen worse this pre-season). But here are few images I thought turned out OK from the evening.

Still pre-season so not much determination in the game, but still entertaining.

Haven't done much to the photos, naturally ran through NoiseNinja and resized and tad of sharpening to end with.

Will go to a game again tonight, it is a pre-season game but at a decent rink. So should have the first chance to take photos at a regular arena. We'll see if any decent shots from tonight, might then post some here later.

 

[macker]

I think they're great mate, especially if the conditions were unfavourable

The composition of each is very good, with the focus exactly on the action

 

[GooGaBu]

I think they're great mate, especially if the conditions were unfavourable

The composition of each is very good, with the focus exactly on the action

Thanks for the comments !! And as said, the conditions were 'not the best'.

And nice that the composition also gets a positive nod... always nice to good comments (although if the picture is crap - then it would be good to hear that as well).

 

[gingerjon]

I think they're excellent. Sharp enough to read the sponsors (for some reason I always use this to judge if I've got a sports action shot sharp enough) and excellent composition that shows off the action.

For some reason until reading this board it had never occurred to me that you had to shoot through the plexi at ice hockey matches. I'd somehow thought photographers had a magic happy space to shoot from.

 

[Darran46]

Some arenas have holes cut in the plexi to fit cameras through for team/media photographers but more and more have stopped doing that after lens caps where starting to end up on the ice during some NHL games.

 

[GooGaBu]

Yeap, the holes in plexi were maybe great for photographers, but I can see how it would be rather easy to get your lens sticking few inches to the wrong side.. and that would be pretty bad for the unfortunate player who might skate by..

But many rinks do still (at least in the Nordic Countries) allow press to go between the benches... a lot depends on the space available there.

Maybe that 'Magic Happy Space' would be nice for us covering the sport...

 

[GooGaBu]

Here are few more from tonight... slightly better conditions. They didn't have all the light on though.. but still managed to lower the ISO.
Here's two shots from the game... getting late here in FInland so off to bed now!

 

[Darran46]

Love your work, Belfast Giants season starts this Saturday, hoping to get a few shots but like I said previously up in the sky.

An idea of how far back my photos are taken from is this

Larger pic

 

[markp]

Yeh, it's getting to that time of year again! Love it, and highly recommend going to see a game to anyone that's not been before.
Shame that they won't let the public take photos of any sort at the Nottingham Arena where we usually go.

Fantastic shots as usual GooGaBu, I really wish I could get down where the official togs lurk - as Darran46 says though it's always difficult to get anything decent from high up (especially at Nottingham - you won't get anything no matter wherever you sit!)

 

[Kerioak]

I think photographers should be allowed to shout "freeze" and various sports competitors stop so we can get into position/clean glass/move members of the public etc for our pictures

Great set of action pictures and I especially like No. 3 with the flying ice particles

 

[Yv]

Great set, action well caught, especially in those lighting conditions, which I know are lousy.

 

[Darran46]

Took a few shots on Saturday night in Belfast but shooting with a 4.5 Lens really struggled in the light.

1

2

3

4

and this one I was going to get rid off until I saw what was happening in the crowd.

5

 

[GooGaBu]

f.4.5 - Phew.
You've done well to catch these images with that one.
Was it ISO 1600 and so on - and what sort of shutter speeds did you manage to get?

For me the third pic in the set is the one I like the most. You got the guys skating towards you, so you can see their faces (in comparison to the second image). Maybe you could clone the stick out of the top left of that image?? What do you think?

The first image you've caught the moment great, just a little tight crop IMO... I know many might disagree with me on that.

The last image really is about the person in the crowd - could maybe crop from the left, where the sticks are stacked...

Good set and very well done in those lighting conditions, with an f. 4.5 and as you've mentioned - from quite high up.
Just out of curiosity, which lens are you using for these shots??

Nice to see hockey images around here, will get to posting some myself on Friday. As the season starts proper on Thursday evening!

 

[Darran46]

Thank for you opinons, I am new to photoshop etc so have little clue on cloning etc but will sit down and look through it one night. I suppose I could crop the sticks out in the last one but it was just a quick job.

There are a few more here with the exif data

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrangilpin/page2/