Hockey Shots

Hey Guys...


Here's the scenario - I have to shoot my high school's hockey game tommorow. It's going to be a big deal, our city final game (Toronto). I'd like to know what the rest of you would suggest for me to use, as this is basically my first time shooting hockey. I've shot hockey once, but it was for only 20 minutes at a neighborhood game.


My gear currently consists of:


40D


17-85 4-5.6


55-250 4-5.6


50 1.8


Tokina 12-24 f/4


420 EX Flash


I'm going to be grabbing a wide variety of shots - everything from the bench to the game to the group shots to individual pictures. And I'm bringing along my parents' Xti too, so I can use two lenses at a time. I'll also have my Manfrotto tripod with me, too.


Ideally I'd have two remote 1D Mark III's set up in the rafters with PocketWizards and a Mark III in a goalie box with the 15mm 2.8 fisheye... I wish! :)


Any help here would be great. What are your experiences with flash at hockey? The 70-200 2.8 IS will have to wait :), so I want to be able to use the lenses I have with good effectiveness.


Thanks Again.


- Alex

There are some tricks you may want to try indoors. Run your ISO as high as your noise tolerance will allow, but at least ISO 800. Try shooting in Tv mode and setting you shutter speed to freeze the action. I like at least 1/200-1/320 to stop wild motion blur. Shoot in RAW and count on being underexposed. When you get to DPP, fix the exposure and white balance and then move on to the image editing program of your choice. I never shoot in an indoor arena with great lights or one where my flash provides any real advantage.


At least with your 50 F/1.8, you can gather a lot of light and then maybe crop to the portion of the image you really want.