Devil's Hockey

[geoz]

I had a chance to go see the NJ Devils play the Florida Panthers yesterday. I took my camera to try to get some action shot. This is the first time I've tried action fotos so wasn't sure what to expect. Basically, set the camera to sports action mode where it decided on the speed and exposure. I needed to set tracking focus then take bursts of continuous shots and hope for the best.

I shot raw and, except for the first panorama, most of the fotos are f5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO250. They needed lots of PP and cropping. Here are some. C&C very welcome, especially about the PP. Best if viewed in the viewer.

Thanks,
George

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6.


7.

[Geoff F]

Fast sports need fast shutter speed, George. So in an ideal world I would have shot around 1/1000 even if that meant having a high Iso.

An alternative is to pick slower action periods which you seem to have done here. However, I would still want to use at least 1/500.

I would shoot in shutter priority mode to achieve this; but was that option available on your camera?

Shooting from behind a net is always going to be limiting but you obviously didn't have any other option.

A white background is also going to be problematic but you have coped with that well enough.

You have managed to nicely isolate the action without losing context of the overall scene.

[Dave Humphries]

They are a very good 'first attempt' George.

I think I would have tried to bring down the rink exposure in #1.

#6 and #7 work best for me because we can see the puck.

Well done,

[geoz]

Fast sports need fast shutter speed, George. So in an ideal world I would have shot around 1/1000 even if that meant having a high Iso.

An alternative is to pick slower action periods which you seem to have done here. However, I would still want to use at least 1/500.

I would shoot in shutter priority mode to achieve this; but was that option available on your camera?

Shooting from behind a net is always going to be limiting but you obviously didn't have any other option.

A white background is also going to be problematic but you have coped with that well enough.

You have managed to nicely isolate the action without losing context of the overall scene.

Thanks for the advice Geoff and I will put it into practice.

I used the scene mode like training wheels. Not very satisfying. I do have shutter priority and will use that the next time with the faster shutter. I think it worked here because the arena is very well lit for TV. In the first pic the white was blown out since I can't control panorama mode.

I took about 120 fotos all told in bursts of about 6-8 at a time, about a dozen were good enough to work on in PP. I guess this is a shotgun approach, given enough attempts something is bound to stick. A couple are heavy crops to remove a lot of empty ice.

George

[geoz]

They are a very good 'first attempt' George.

I think I would have tried to bring down the rink exposure in #1.

#6 and #7 work best for me because we can see the puck.

Well done,

Thanks Dave,

This is the first camera that I've had that has continuous shooting mode and I don't usually take action fotos. I did try to tracking an eagle once with limited success since the camera only has a fixed 28-100mm lens.

I initially used a lower exposure in PP but thought the whole effect was too gray. I tried again on the last foto using the adjustment brush in Lightroom on just the ice and then stepping down a half stop. Here's the combination. I think it works. What do you think?

George

[Dave Humphries]

I initially used a lower exposure in PP but thought the whole effect was too gray. I tried again on the last foto using the adjustment brush in Lightroom on just the ice and then stepping down a half stop. Here's the combination. I think it works. What do you think?

Hi George,

My comment about exposure only related to #1 - where you have lost the delineation between the sides and floor of the rink - not the rest, which, while some are close to being 'over', were just about OK - this latest/#7 is a bit dim in my view.

HTH,