Quick Tips: Shooting Hockey

Ice Hockey is a tough one to shoot because it is a very fast paced sport with action shifting from one end of the ice and back again within seconds. To accommodate this, I set up in the corner of the rink with a pair of cameras (Canon 5D Mk IV), one with a wide-angle lens (16-35 2.8) mounted and the other with a telephoto (70-200 2.8) to get shots on both ends of the ice. I had both cameras set to shutter priority (Tv mode) with a shutter speed of 1/500th and let the camera handle the aperture and ISO. The SUNY Broome ice rink is very well lit and the glass is pretty clear.

If you are going to do the same concept, here are a few tips for you. Start with your camera at 1/500th and see how your camera can handle the light levels. If your shots are coming out dark (camera and lens combo can’t get enough light) back down to 1/400th or even 1/320th. Any slower than that and you will likely get a lot of motion blur. Stand as close to the glass as you can handle, this will make the marks on the glass blur away to invisibility. If you are using some post processing software, like Lightroom, that can change the white balance, you can use the white of the ice as a white balance point for good color and skin tones after the fact.