Railfan Technology > Canon 30D-Indoor shot question

Just purchased a 30D and wanting to take some actions shots inside a hockey rink. Any tips on shooting indoors with lower light and still getting the faster shots? What set-up would work best? I will be using a 28-135 & a 100-400 lens.

crank that iso up to 1600. thats the beauty of digital, you can "change film" in between shots.

Yes, use the higher ISO values your camera offers. Also keep in mind the idea that if the ice fills most of the viewfinder the camera metering may underexpose the shot to make the ice grey and not white. The newer cameras metering systems do a better job of keeping that under control but you may want to use spot metering or crank in an overexposure value and stay with the matrix metering. Try a few test shots beforehand to see what works best. Tv priority where you set the shutter speed and the camera picks the aperture will allow you to choose a shutter speed which stops the blur to keep those blades and sticks sharp.

I followed several threads on a D200 site on shooting indooor sporting events.
Obtaining "quality" shots like you might sell to families, make prints etc is fairly difficult.
If you just want something to email friends or make a casual print, yeh just crank up the ISO and shoot and have some fun

If more serious.-
Location, Location, Location. - where you are situated is most important. If it is just practice and you have free reign then you have some good opportunities.

Determine the type of shots you like. Are you after a particular player, study the game to figure out where you need to be. Look where other photogs are. Then pick your lens. You are probably going to be looking for shots where the speed slows unless you are panning.
You are also looking for the critical moment. Only experience will help you there.
You probably will need several outings to start getting a feel for the right combination of location, ISO, shutter speed and lens. Have lots of gigs of cards as you will need to shoot and shoot on continuous mode.

Bob

I agree... Set the ASA up and remember that you can get more out of a dark digital image than a dark negative.

I certainly hope you have fast lenses, especially that telephoto you have. Just last Monday I took some photos of my friend practicing hockey. I had never shot him playing before so I didn't know how difficult it would be, I had to be really fast and getting him in focus was difficult at times. I shot at ISO 400, 500, and 640. If I were you I'd shoot all manual, my camera was having a hard time metering with both aperture and shutter priority underexposing a lot of the time. I shot 3GBs worth of photos (180 photos) and about 35 were keepers. Here are a couple of examples.

1: 1/60th at 3.5 iso 400
2: 1/13th at 10 iso 400
3: 1/200th at 2.8 iso 500
4: 1/250th at 2.8 iso 640

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Dang Alex,

You're gonna have to bring your friend out here to Wisconsin to play for the Badgers hockey team! They are hockey crazy here in Madison. Lots of photo ops for ya.

I really like the exposure on the first shot--not washed out on the ice and lots of detail in the shadowy area.

I think you have a future as a photographer. Have you ever shot pictures of railroads?

wink,
Chico
http://www.heartlandrails.com

Indoor (fast action sports) even the 2.8 zooms are to slow. A lot of people in the DP forums have very good luck with the canon 85mm 1.8 prime and I have seen some very nice pictures from this lens. it's under $300 bucks to.

Nikon has one also. What I like is they are nice and small unlike the fast zooms. Lots easier to hand hold.

Bob