I’m addicted to hockey. I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m fully self aware of my disorder. And for me, the greatest collaborative hobby that I can have is to combine my love for photography and my passion for ice hockey. Now I’d like to preface this post with the disclaimer that much of this is still new to me. I’m simply passing on a few tidbits of information that I’ve had to dig up for myself as the internet is a little light on hockey photography information.

Also, I don’t take pictures for a living. I write software. When I’m not coding, I’m rink-side. I have an 11 year-old goaltender and that’s been the catalyst for my new addiction. I’ve also had the opportunity to take hundreds of pictures during the home games for Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And thats ultimately the key to learning this particular field of photography. Repetition. Take A LOT of pictures!

In this post we’ll cover a few starter tips to help bring your images up a notch or two.

Ok…on with it…

White Balance

So maybe you’re taking a ton of pictures and you’re like me, sitting at the computer later wondering why they’re all orange or blue? These are two of the biggest issues that I see when looking at other amateur hockey photographs across the internet.

The primary reason for these discolored images is the White Balance settings on your camera. The lighting in most rinks (outside of NHL and NCAA) is generally not photo-friendly. And the type of lighting is a tungsten based light source and tungsten has an orangish hue to it. You can accommodate this by setting a custom white balance. On most DSLR’s, you’re able to set a custom white balance by taking a test image of something white. I like to get a clean shot of the ice and use that as my base white balance. If you’re not able to do that, try setting the WB to tungsten and see if that gives you a balanced image. The blue hue is generally the result of flash photography mixed with an inappropriate ‘Scene’ mode. Some Auto settings will pop off a blue image as well. Your best bet, if possible, is to set your custom white balance.

The Glass

I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to shoot from a ladder just above the glass. For rinks with trivial lighting, this is huge. If you’re not able to do that and you find yourself shooting through the glass, understand that you’re going to lose 1-2 f-stops of aperture shooting through the transparent puck stopper. Assuming that you can find a spot that’s not riddled with puck marks, try to get your lens as close to the glass as possible. That cuts down on the lighting glare that will force your camera to try focusing on the glass in front of it. If there’s not a clean spot – make one! I keep a small container of ‘goo gone’ and a small container of windex in my camera bag. I hit the glass with the goo-gone first to remove the scuffs and then the windex for a good clear shot. Depending on the rink’s layout, you might luck out and get a chance to clean the glass on the inside of the zamboni doors while he/she is driving laps and flooding the rink. With the gate swung in, you can hit both sides of the glass and get a fairly clean portal to the action. After you’ve scrubbed out your spot – stay there! somebody will undoubtedly camp your fresh window to fun and you’ll have worked for naught.

Camera Modes and Settings

I shoot in Shutter Priority. Depending on the lighting, I try to stay as close to 1/500th as I can. 1/500 will stop a puck mid-air (shown below), but speed comes at a price. Setting to Speed priority will force the camera to maintain the Aperture settings on its own. On my Nikon, I also set the ‘ISO sensitivity auto control’ to ‘On’ and let it max out at 3200. What this does, is free the camera to moderate the ISO on the fly.

Now keep in mind that this is a balanced trade off. As I said, most of the rinks I shoot at have horrible lighting. Less light means that the camera has to compensate by adjusting the inbound image settings. Since I’ve told the camera that I want a set camera speed, the only other settings that can be moderated by the camera’s brain are the ISO and the Aperture size. If the lighting is moderate-to-bad at 1/500th, the computer will open the aperture as far as it can go. On my lenses that means 2.8. Once it hits 2.8, if the image is still under-exposed, it will start dialing up the ISO. Unfortunately, dialing up the ISO introduces grain to your images. Once your ISO hits 1600 to 3200 (depending on your cameras sensor), you’ll start to see the grain when zoomed in at 100%. Don’t despair over the grain, however. There are free tools out there that can help immensely with the grain. My tool of choice is Noiseware from Imagenomic. You can find a free version here:  http://www.imagenomic.com/download_nwsa.aspx

Shutter Mode

I shoot in Continuous Shutter mode. As long as I’m holding down the trigger, the camera will keep taking sequential  pictures and hopefully one of those is a keeper. Depending on your camera, you should be able to rip off a good series of images before the camera has to stop and buffer the shots. I also keep the camera running on breakaways and close quarter shots. You’ll have to follow the action with the camera and anticipate the big shot, the big save or the big deke. Anticipating the shot is more of an experience thing. Knowing your sport helps a lot. When you have a feel for the action that’s about to take place, you’ll know when to go trigger down on your camera. The downside of this, is having 800 images that you’ll have to go through when you get home.

Its in your best interest to keep your camera card clean of bad shots. What I like to do during period breaks is sit down with the camera and delete the pictures that are obviously bad. I’ll delete hundreds of out of focus, poorly exposed shots during a single game. I’m sure that as I become better at this, I’ll have fewer duds and more prints.

Metering Mode

This is going to sound crazy, but I’ve tried them all and I always come back to spot metering. When trying to get the shot of the goalie through traffic, I don’t want the camera to assume that the lighting on the defenders jersey in front of the goalie (the guy that doesn’t have direct lighting) is the light metering to use and then the goalie is shadowed in the picture. With spot metering, I’m telling the camera that where I’m centered is where it should be metered.

Autofocus Mode

On my Nikon I have a few different Autofocus modes. I primarily use ‘AF-C’ which is Autofocus – Continuous. For hockey, having the autofocus motor hard at work keeping the image in focus is key for me.

For the Autofocus Area Modes, I use single or selectable. I have a little grid on my viewfinder that i can pick the focus spot on the fly. Why do i do this? On some shots, I’ll frame the goalie a bit to the right or left of center but I still want to capture the action in front. I’ll set my focus point to the left or right where the goalie is and wait for the shot. Regardless of who steps in front of the crease, I know that my autofocus process is still locked on the goalie.

RAW versus JPG

For my hockey photography I shoot RAW and not JPG. Why? RAW allows me the ability to make modifications that generally are done on camera during the shot. JPG shots will ‘dumb down’ the image and you’ll lose a bit of quality right out of the gate, just by shooting in that mode. Now when I get to Photoshop and edit the image, I’ll crop, modify and save it as JPG for the web. But the original is always there if I want to go back later for a printable shot. RAW, as you would expect, comes at a price. The file sizes are larger because more information is being stored on the card. Larger file sizes take longer to write to the card. So if you’re shooting in continuous shutter mode, your camera may need to pause and buffer the write process. High end cameras wont need to play ‘catch up’ on the file writing, but mid-low level cameras will need to pause after about 5-7 back to back shots.

NHL Quality

I envy NHL photographers. The shots they turn out are amazing! So why can’t we get those crisp, clear shots of little Billy during his Squirt playoffs? Three (maybe four) reasons:

The lighting at the NHL/NCAA rinks is insanely bright! Because they’re illuminating for the television cameras (they have lenses and apertures too), the rink has to be bright. If my son’s hockey team is traveling to play a team that uses a college rink, I’ll always take my camera. I already know the lighting is going to be great and I’ll get good shots. There are a few rinks that we play at where I don’t even put the camera bag in the car. It would be like trying to take pictures in the dark. Which brings me to a huge recommendation: Always ask the rink if the lights can be maxed out because you’d like to take pictures during the game. I know that our home rink will keep the lights around 70% for games and practices. Its enough light to play and honestly doesn’t seem that bad when you walk in. They keep a bank of lights off to conserve power. But if you ask, they just might bump all the switches up for you. On the flip side, when your game is over, let them know that you’re done and they can ‘dim’ the lights back to normal. If they see that you care about helping them save money, they’ll be open to you asking the next time.

Second reason why those NHL shots are awesome – Flash! The team photographer is wired to flash lighting that is mounted at the rink. Ever notice on the slow-mo replay shots (on t.v.) that you see the flash going off like crazy? Yeah that’s your NHL team photographer(s) ripping off a great shot of the big play.

Third reason: Camera holes. The big rinks have a hole cut in the glass for the camera lens. As mentioned above, shooting through the glass kills your pictures. Shooting through a hole in the glass is much better. Check the rink for holes. You just might get lucky and find a sweet spot!

Fourth reason but not really a reason but again…maybe it is. Its the camera! As much skill and intuition that you may possess, sometimes it is the camera that makes the shot. The higher end cameras will have less noise (or grain) on shots that are triggered at the higher ISO. I’ve checked NHL quality shots from a Nikon D3 that had virtually no noise at 3200, yet a Nikon D300s will have grainy shots for the same speed. Better sensors make better pictures.

Know your sport!

Anticipation is the best skill that you can have when taking pictures of little Billy’s game. Know where the play is going to go and have a feel for when the shot is going to be taken. If you’re really going to get that big shot, you’ll need to keep the camera up and on your eye during play. Follow the game through the lens as much as possible, peeking when you need to find the puck or the play. If you wait until the breakaway or the neutral zone forechecks to bring the camera up for the shot, you will have already missed the hit or the incredible deke. Make sure your batteries are completely charged and have back ups. My camera is up when the puck is in play.

Know your team. When I’m shooting Davenport games, I have 2-3 players that I always know when they’re on the ice and where they are. These are my shooters, big hitters and showboaters. Even when they don’t have the puck, I’m still glancing around to see what they’re up to. Behind the play shots are always exciting.

Know When to Duck!

If you’re holding $3-5,000 worth of photo goodies, a one dollar puck can destroy it in a second. I shoot from a ladder on the back end of the rink, opposite of the bleachers. It allows me to get just above the glass for the shot, but not so far above that I’m a distraction. This also puts me in the line of fire!

There are a few situations that I know are dangerous to me and my camera equipment and I’ll turtle behind the glass:

1: Power play kills where the puck is ripped down the ice. Sometimes that end of the ice is MY end of the ice. If the puck is at the other end of the rink, I’ll watch for the dump. I’d rather see it coming than feel it coming.

2: Goalies that are clearing the puck from the defensive zone. If I see the goalie come back to play the puck, I duck. Because they love to pop it out of the rink (when they’re not penalized for it), I don’t want to wear those shots either.

3: Stick checks below and in front of me. When two skaters come together on the ice directly in front of me and my perch, I duck. They’re generally too close to get a decent shot but the puck can pop up and over.

Generally speaking…be aware of the game, the flow of traffic and the path of the puck.

Conclusion

I can’t say it enough: “Take lots of pictures”! Its digital, the shots are virtually free so work that trigger. Try different settings to see what works for you. It will take a few times out for you to find your camera’s limits and what the best possible pictures that your DSLR can take for the lighting situations that you’ll find yourself in. And realize that some rinks are just plain ornery when it comes to getting a decent shot. Accept that there may be games when you simply can’t get the shot and prepare yourself for those locations where you can. Enjoy your sport and keep your eye out for those candid moments as well. Some of my favorite shots have had nothing to do with the big glove save or the hard hit at center ice. Sometimes its the skater riding off into the sunset after having been ejected from the game.