I will be taking some hockey/wrestling photos again this winter but I will not be using auto settings all of the time this year.

For hockey, do you think I should be up at the top of the stands or rink side? I’m relatively new to sports photography (almost 1 1/2 years) so any feedback is appreciated.

  • RugbyGuy@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Shooting through the glass can be problematic. The glass is DIRTY. smudges, streaks, black marks from pucks. Depending on auto-focus style you may end up with more pics of the glass in focus than players. I shot rink side for 3 or 4 games and never liked it.

    You can get reflections of what’s behind the glass in your photos.

    I got high enough in stands so the goalies and the far side of the ice were unobstructed. It limits some shots but you can still get plenty of good ones.

    The biggest issue is lighting. In older rinks there can be one or two stops difference between the center ice and the corners. My local AHL rink installed LEDs a few years ago and it is nice.

    I shot with a Canon 1D MkIV, 300mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 2000, f/3.2 and 1/1000 shutter.