Tips for tonight please :)

Phate

Phate

Phate

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
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Location
Lisbon, Portugal
Hi Folks,

working has booked an ice rink tonight for a Ice Skating and Broomball event.

I've got my 350D with me and my 55-200mm Ultrasonic Canon lens.

I've already spoken to Fstop11 on MSN for any useful tips for the moving targets etc.

He kindly told me to set focus to AI Servo mode, :) (thanks dude)

I'm not sure what the lighting is going to be like, but I wondered if anyone else had some useful tips :)

Many Thanks!

EDIT: Will post the best results :)
 
Where are you going? I know that the Broadgate rink in london has good lighting (which you'll need - or a flash). I'd be tempted to use shutter priority and then play to see what shutter speed you need to get sharp photos. Though, without good lighting or a flash you might struggle unless you can borrow/steal a faster lense...
 
Shoot raw, so

1. you can recover underexposure caused by the ice

2. you can change the WB due to the lighting

You probably need a shutter speed of at least 1/500 if you want to freeze the action, which may mean bumping up the ISO to 800 or 1600.

For panning shots, try a shutter speed of around 1/250 and see what you get.

P.S I wouldnt use a flash as its not very considerate, especially with respect to reflecting off ice.
 
bigredshark said:
Where are you going? I know that the Broadgate rink in london has good lighting (which you'll need - or a flash). I'd be tempted to use shutter priority and then play to see what shutter speed you need to get sharp photos. Though, without good lighting or a flash you might struggle unless you can borrow/steal a faster lense...
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Its the Broadgate rink :)

Glad to hear it has good lighting :D
 
Cool, it's a good laugh the broomball there (office is about 2 mins walk), we played last year, dunno if we're doing it again this year sometime.

The lighting is very good though, you won't need flash or particularly high ISO at all. The rink is circular and pretty small (if you didn't know) so it'll be pretty easy to get good shots.

Given the shape and small size panning shots might be harder to get right but you should get decent shots no trouble.

The ice there isn't terrible reflective so you could get away with flash if you wanted, particularly with strong lighting anyway, might be handy for fill in but you probably won't need it.

EDIT: It's worth shooting raw if you have the time to do processing, it's not too hard to get to grips with, somebody else will probably have a better guide as I use aperture on my mac for all my processing so it's a little different...
 
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bigredshark said:
Cool, it's a good laugh the broomball there (office is about 2 mins walk), we played last year, dunno if we're doing it again this year sometime.

The lighting is very good though, you won't need flash or particularly high ISO at all. The rink is circular and pretty small (if you didn't know) so it'll be pretty easy to get good shots.

Given the shape and small size panning shots might be harder to get right but you should get decent shots no trouble.

The ice there isn't terrible reflective so you could get away with flash if you wanted, particularly with strong lighting anyway, might be handy for fill in but you probably won't need it.
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Thank you :)

If I shot in RAW would someone be able to help me in processing them?

I may shoot say 50 in RAW and 50 in JPEG - see how they come out!
 
Phate said:
Thank you :)

If I shot in RAW would someone be able to help me in processing them?

I may shoot say 50 in RAW and 50 in JPEG - see how they come out!
Click to expand...

You're camera may have a raw+jpeg mode so it saves shots in both, that might be the best way if you have a nice big memory card...
 
bigredshark said:
You're camera may have a raw+jpeg mode so it saves shots in both, that might be the best way if you have a nice big memory card...
Click to expand...


512mb :(

At Max res I can take about 130ish shots.
 
Phate said:
512mb :(

At Max res I can take about 130ish shots.
Click to expand...

Then best not to shoot in RAW, I don't know how many you'd get but I get 331 Max quality jpegs OR 90 RAW shots on a 2GB memory card (with a D200 - 10Mpixel) so i expect you'd only get 30-40 RAW images on that card... :(
 
bigredshark said:
Then best not to shoot in RAW, I don't know how many you'd get but I get 331 Max quality jpegs OR 90 RAW shots on a 2GB memory card (with a D200 - 10Mpixel) so i expect you'd only get 30-40 RAW images on that card... :(
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That's a pain.

JPEG it is then :)

I may shoot say 10 RAW shots and have a crack at processing them anyway :D
 
bigredshark said:
worth a crack, what do you use for processing??
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I've never shot RAW before, so err....nothing at the minute, I have photoshop on my machine which I hear can process RAW shots.
 
Phate said:
I've never shot RAW before, so err....nothing at the minute, I have photoshop on my machine which I hear can process RAW shots.
Click to expand...

photoshop is likely your best bet then, i'm sure somebody can give you pointers if you get stuck! I, on the other hand, can't, as I use aperture for all my raw stuff and just play in photoshop later i want any special effects.
 
I would be tempted to give your self a trial run of 10 or so shots in jpeg.. if your really struggling to achieve a good exposure then I would prob cut my losses and shoot raw for some futher flexibility.

I cant personally see the exposures differing much apart from when subject distance to you change.

I would be using a highish ISO like 800 (Your maximum aperture is going to be F5.6 so your gonna need to compensate with the ISO). Remember that 400 is a general film standard speed and 100 is regarded as low so don't always think that you HAVE to use 100. I would probably quite welcome some film grain/noise for these sorta shots but then again I would probably be shooting in black n white.
 
i'd be tempted to say whack up the iso to 800. and experiment with exposure. If its anything like taking shots in the snow (where you have a lot of white in the scene) you may have to adjust the exposure compensation by +1.5 to +2.

The camera will meter for mid grey, when actually the scene (ice) is white. As you dont have spot metering use centre weighted, zoom into a patch in the centre of the ice and work from there.

Overall, use your histogram. Its a new scenario so you must learn as you go.

Whilst you can use RAW as a safety net remember that its not the magic ticket.

flash - not sure what will do on ice - may get some crazy effects/nasty reflections.

your lens isnt the quickest thing on the market so you may have to work hard with it. Also whilst AI servo is great it only works on your selected focus point, it requires work to keep the spot on the desired subject.

overall good luck and post how you get on.
 
bigredshark said:
The lighting is very good though, you won't need flash or particularly high ISO at all. The rink is circular and pretty small (if you didn't know) so it'll be pretty easy to get good shots.
Click to expand...

You might be surprised at how little light there actually is at these places. I shave shot ice hoeck ya number of times, and although the place seems pretty bright I tend to end up with 1/400, iso 800 and f2.8. :)
 
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