Photography help?

Hi, could someone tell me what kind of camera I could take to SOI on Saturday? I am 4 rows from the ice on the west side. I would appreciate any advice.

angie

last year I was 3 rows from the ice and my 35mm still didn't do very good. I'd also like to know the same for when I go to skate america. Only thing is they don't like you to use your flash.

You don't need flash. There's plenty of light most of the time. It's plenty bright. I have never been able to get a picture when they are moving. I use 35 mm.

Some things I've learned while figuring out how to get the best pics at a skating show....

1. A 35 mm camera CAN do the trick but you need to have 800 speed film in it. I tried that ONE time last year and I got awesome pictures. I haven't gone back to slower speeds since then. You need the faster film in order to really get the shots you want while they are skating. I have even gotten pics of skaters spinning by using 800 speed film!

2. Don't turn your flash off, use black electrical tape and put that over your entire flash. That will trick your camera into thinking the flash is still on and take the pictures at your normal faster speed. The lighting at the shows will give you plenty of light to get good shots. I took some pics at a skating show back in September and did this for the first time there. Those pics are some of my FAVORITE shots I have ever gotten at a show. I also did this at US Nationals for every phase of the competition and got wonderful pictures that way as well.

3. Don't try to get too many pictures from far away. Wait til they are a bit closer to you because the pics from far away don't turn out all that great. They will be kinda fuzzy and blurry and the skaters are pretty small.

I hope this helps you out a bit. I was in the third row last year and had some great shots available to me but I hadn't learned that lesson about the black electrical tape yet and all my pics turned out like Chevy Stromotion videos for ABC. I hope you have better luck!!

I agree, 800ISO is perfect, since if you use anything faster, like 1200 or 1600 your camera will maybe freeze the movement, but the photos will not be high quality, since this film is too fast, and photos turn up "foggy", though you didn't do anything wrong. I use only 800.

then, I don't know what sort of camera you have, but on my camera I can choose it to focus automatically, with a "sport button" that allows the camera to work fast, and take photos of people moving past in high speed (ie skating LOL)

and....if you have an expensive camera...use a 300mm lens or more....if you want photos up a little closer....

I have a Canon EOS 300 camera, and I've been able to get good photos on several events.
Like someone said, the trick is to not shoot when the skaters are far away, it'll never be fab anyway, wait until they are close, and don't mind taking photos when they're jumping, cause it never works out

My friend from Japan brought a really high tech digital camera to Euros...but I don't know much about digital photography, so I'm not the one to give advice there

i always use 1600 speed for spotlighted shows (35mm), when i went to four continents, i used advantax 800 speed film and the pictures came out wonderfully. always without a flash too of course

As to the TYPE of Camera, I prefer digital when photographing "motion shots" If you have a digital camcorder ( most are now, that is to say that "capture" the vidio digitally, but record it on tape) you can also freezeframe the still pic or most have a feature that let you use the camcorder like a digital camera.

With both these devices you can adjust the "speeds of the camera", however the camera often times does this automatically.

The type of camera I am speaking of is expensive, though. I do know that if you live in large metro areas you can rent them at fairly reasonable prices and just like with a car, they most times require a credit card to rent and will only rent to folks over 18.

One last thing...if you decide to go the "digital route" look closely at the "Lux" settings of the camera. This is alledgedly a measure of how well you can capture images in darkness, however in truth, it is a measure of how well the device handles the light. Choose the highest "Lux" that you can find..."it's a good thing!) This roughly correlates to the speed of the film you use...the better the camera adjust to the light exposure of your subject, the clearer the image will be. Hope this helped

thanks for tips on film speed.

I have used 2 different 35mm cameras and a digital camera over the years at ice shows. I've taken photos from as far back as row 23 and as close as on-ice, which was this year with a digital camera for the first time.
I've gotten mixed results. It's still a lot of fun trying to get pics, tho.
One way to get fairly decent photos is to wait til the skater is bowing under the spot lights at the end of their performances, or catch them doing some sort of "posing" when they're near your area of the ice.
Altho many people do NOT obey the NO FLASH rule, PLEASE, do not use a flash.....it is annoying to the other audience members and can be dangerous to the skaters.

That is precisely what I keep telling my mom and sister haha. Yet they refuse to believe me, but just wait till I get the photos even if they are simply mediocre, it's better than nothing.

I did not know about the reason for no flash when I went to COI 01, and I feel absolutely terrible cause it flashed right in front of Evgeni Plushenko's face during a spread eagle right in front of me.

Go here to see my few pics from that.

anya_angie.tripod.com/evgenyplushenko click My COI Photos..

you could, if you had the manual and not point and shoot type camera, get 3200 film and pull the film to 800 and then let the developers know that that's what you did... it works... I do it all the time in black and white...