HELP! DSLR Questions

[hockeymum]

I have the Sony DSLR A100K with the 18-70 lens. I am using it to shoot my daughters hockey games. However, as you can imagine shooting inside an ice rink is nearly impossible. I am pretty "camera stupid" but any help that anyone could give me would be GREAT!!!! Please use small words and talk slowly!

[SMcEvoy]

Hockeymum, grab your instruction manual and figure out how to change your ISO setting. If you can jack it up to ISO 1600, you will probably be able to get half decent shots handheld and with your lens extended to 70mm - especially if you're not up in the 'nosebleeds' of a major stadium.

Hockey rinks are often well lit which helps a lot. (In normal lighting conditions, if you used ISO 1600, you might get a lot of graininess in the background.) I actually took this shot of our Calgary Hitmen with a Nikon D50 DSLR, handheld with telephoto lens at full 300mm extension in the Calgary Saddledome. http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/s...cat=500&page=4 Because the arena has great lighting, it comes out really well. Increasing the ISO to 1600 let me get the speed up to 1/500 which is good for freezing the action.

ISO tells how sensitive the image sensor is to the amount of light present. The higher the ISO, more likely you'll be able to take pictures in low-light situations. ISO speed affects the shutter speed / aperture combinations you can use to obtain correct exposure. I don't want to kill you with technicalities here, but with fast moving subjects like hockey players, you probably want your speed to be at least 1/320 or higher (1/400...). Once you've figured out how to change ISO, you can set your camera to a speed setting , switch it up to 1/320 or higher then point and shoot and let the rest of it do the work for you.

If you find a lot of greenish/yellowish glow to your shots, it might be because your rink is lit by flourescents. In that case, try to track down a 'white balance' setting on your camera. If it has one, there's usually one that helps counterbalance fluorescent lighting.

The joy of digital is that you can 'play'. Shoot a few shots with different settings and see which ones you like. When you upload them to your computer, you can right click over the files, choose properties and advanced, and all your technical data should appear attached to each file. That will help you see what settings worked, and what didn't for future shots.

Have fun playing. I'm sure you'll get some good shots. (And if you want to be a sports photographer, start saving for a big zoom and a good monopod!)

Hope that helps and wasn't too techie (which trust me, when it comes to cameras, I'm not. I've learned a lot here!). Welcome to byte!

[hockeymum]

Thanks for the help! I have an adult beer league hockey game to play with tomorrow and I will be the only one in the stands, so it should get me started with some of your suggestions. I have found the book and printed out your reply. I also managed to pick up a Minolta 75-300 lens for super cheap and I am hoping that will give me an ability to shoot above the glass as well. My daughter is 5 and started her first year of hockey. Unfortunately my season tickets to our WHL team is not really camera friendly since I am in the corner!!

I will take some tomorrow and see what happens!

Hockeymum

[Sambo]

Hockeymum,
I have a Konica Minolta 5D that is the preceeding model to your Sony. I routinely shoot at ISO 400 and above without too much noise. I also have a 75-300mm lens that I LOVE!

Shoot all you can, whenever you can. Great thing about digital, it costs nothing for mistakes!

Sam

[SMcEvoy]

Keep us posted on how it went!

[hockeymum]

I went on Tuesday night to like the worst rink every that is surrounded completely by plexiglass or net....so you have to shoot through the glass....and this is just beat to junk, but still got some good shots that would have been great. This Saturday my daughter has hockey practice in a arena that has great shooting ability so I will check it out and then Sunday another hockey game in a better rink to try and shoot so I will see how it goes.... !!! Thanks for all your help!

[Sambo]

hockeymum,

Please post some of your photos, I'd love to see them! The contest is the best place to get the most exposure. If not, put them in your gallery for us to see. You've got us dying of curiosity to see how this turns out!

Sam