Camera advice

[just wondering]

I have a fancy new camera that can adjust for possibly everything but the mood of the subjects.

Being a novice to all these photography settings, I thought I would check with you all to get some tips on taking pictures in rink settings.

My two main environments will be:
1. dimly lit rink for shows
2. typical rink conditions for competitions [my old images have a heavy yellow cast to them]

Any tips or advice is GREATLY appreciated. Of course, should I learn to operate this thing successfully, I will be happy to share any worthwhile pics.

Thanks,
JW

 

[Tonichelle]

what kind of camera is it? Make, model...is it a 'point and shoot' or is it an SLR?

first guess is look at your manual... as it will be the best source unless you're lucky enough to find someone with the exact camera you have!

 

[just wondering]

Thanks for answering Tonichelle.

It's a Canon EOS Rebel XT 350 Digital. [No doubt, far more camera than I need, but fun nonetheless.]

I've been working through the manual and have some settings I think might work. I just didn't know if anyone had tips on white balance or ISO - or any other tip - that might shorten my likely steep learning curve.

Again, thanks!!!
JW

 

[SeaniBu]

It's a Canon EOS Rebel XT 350 Digital. [No doubt, far more camera than I need, but fun nonetheless.]

That is exactly the camera that my neighbor has and was looking over 2 days ago. What a coincidence. And I have always heard good comments about them.

The regular comps being yellowie would make me think white balance, so I want to know as well. Please give the results, please.

And on the white balance issue during a comp, what is the best "white thing" to be "aiming" at when white balancing? there are so many different "whites" in a rink, would it be an unmarked section of the ice, the boards, Sasha's neck - Sorry , bad Seani bad (I love her porcelain complexion btw). Or stick with the balance sheet?

 

[Tonichelle]

I have that camera as well I LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEE that camera

first off do you plan on going fully manual or are you going to use the automatic features (they don't work well in low light situations...)

for competition lighting you can get away with 400, 800 is better... I wouldn't go with 1600 ISO speed because of the noise - while Canon is good at cutting it down the less noise the better when it comes to editing your photos later.

I recommend shooting in RAW - yeah that takes up the most space, but it gives you the most leeway later on. Invest in some memory cards, and an extra battery or two.

as for white balance... even if you get the wrong balance you can fix it in the zoombrowser's editing software (IF you shoot in RAW)... I did not understand white balance as my camera was extremely new to me when I went to my last skating event so I can't recommend a good one... I would leave it on automatic for the most part... unless someone else knows...

for low light, you obviously can't use the flash - again shoot RAW and bump it up to 800 or 1600 (you may or may not get noise)

best thing - don't delete anything until you get it into the computer... the display screen is very deceiving as to what looks good and what doesn't.

and the best advice I can give - trial and error before you go... lots of it... in both lighting types...

if you are planning on going all mannual I can help you out a bit more. I don't use the automatic settings at all on my camera.

 

[just wondering]

Wow, Wow, Wow

These are just the how-tos I was hoping to discover.

I presumed I would need to go manual on settings to compensate for the irregular lighting & movement conditions, so your advice is very much appreciated & welcome.

Tonichelle, you have given me so much to get started. I can't wait to go to the rink to practice this week. At least I can get competition lighting down before one comes around.

And yes, I totally LOVE this camera. After years of trying to fix stuff once its in the computer, it will be nice to start with some decent images.

Again, my sincerest thanks & feel free to share your wisdom whenever you're feeling inspired.

Seanibu, your neighbor has one fine camera. Borrow it whenever you get a chance.

JW

 

[SeaniBu]

Seanibu, your neighbor has one fine camera. Borrow it whenever you get a chance.

Funny you should say that, we were just talking outside - my lady don't want to go out 'til late so kill some time, good though Mom is hungry and Dad is tiered - and she was saying she wanted me to help her figure it out. I told her of our discussion here and our wonderful Toni gave some great pointers. I then brought up COI and she said she would love to go. Adding that she knows a reporter for the Denver Post and will ask if we can get some "passes" - wouldn't that be peachy - and I mentioned bringing the camera and .... so please come back with Pics. The beauty of this Digital age when I don't need to swap film to adjust for speed and lighting. Oh happy day - wish me luck on the passes.

Toni, do you know about using Halo in Photoshop? I am getting mixed results with pics that have similar quality and not sure why. What seems to work best is a image removed of background and then use it, then put it back on the image or another background. Not sure why but, should I have to go through that every time, and why the varied results? Ideas from you expertise

Also, for white balance, use the card or objects. Changing speeds do I need to rebalance?

As you can see I don't talk much with my brother in-law anymore. He has been really negative toward the parents and I just don't want to get into it with him.

 

[Tonichelle]

when I don't need to swap film to adjust for speed and lighting.

Not true! For COI - since it is stage lighting - I would recommend going totally manual which means you still have to meter/watch your shutter speed/etc...


as for white balance - I'm not a pro with it in the least. I would assume that setting the program on AWB would be best... but to meter for light, with show skating, it's basically a bit of playing around prior to the show starting

Granted I have never shot a COI show, the only show I've shot are the nationals exhibition so they bump up the lights (I assume) so ABC/ESPN can capture the shots in teh crispest form... but before the skating starts they do have the ice lit up with the colors... use that to meter...

The thing to remember about in camera metering - cameras are based on a black and white system. They don't see 'color' like we do. So when you are metering the camera meters to make it all average/medium grey. This is okay for just ok shots, but not very good for low light situations.

So how do you meter? I normally *sh don't tell anyone* don't worry about the metering because you just can't be sure with the lighting. But you can be sure there will be several spotlights on the skaters so that they can see... basically I just do the following:

you cannot go lower than 60 for shutter speed. Anything slower and you will get blur not just from the action but from any little bit of movement you have! I would even suggest bumping up to 90 for shutter speed to be on the safe side and to get some crisp detail on the skater...

Then make sure your ISO is at least 800... I believe I went to 1600 on my nationals stuff... just because I wanted to make sure I got something lol. Another trick is to open up your lens all the way (which is normally 5.6 aperture... though I'm not sure what lens(es) you will be using)

You camera will still scream "too dark" ignore it. It doesn't know everything, honest!

You're going to have to just play it by eye.. if the lights are bumped up, you can get a higher shutter speed (which is what I recommend as your pictures will have less blur this way)... but not every skater has teh same lighting...

it also depends how far away you are from the subject and how much of a telephoto/zoom you have on your lens.


Re: Photoshop - I've *gasp* never used it... can't afford it... *sigh* I use Zoombrowser and occasionally Jasc's Paint Shop Pro v.8.0 ... but most of my photos are barely edited... all I ever really do is resize lol I'm lazy


and a couple of skating photos of mine with the XT

surprise surprise... it's Melissa and Denis... this was during practice so I was close to the ice lol as for the tint of the photo I'm not sure if it's white balance or the fact that the card had not been formatted and so had a lot of noise from previous photos that were deleted...

And Emily during the exhibition...​

for whatever reason my exhibition photos have gone missing from the web, so I will upload some more later... stupid slow dial up.

 

[SeaniBu]

Thanks Toni, I'll keep winging the WB.:agree:

btw I meant only that the need to switch film to adjust for speed is eliminated - which is quite a big improvement of process, I have had 24 rolls with 4 pics on them. Of course I need to adjust the shutter speed. It was bad wording. I guess I had a "Kurt" moment.

 

[Alsace]

Tonichelle,

The Emily picture won't come through for me. I tried refreshing the whole page and just reloading the picture. I'd love to see it!

 

[PolymerBob]

I've had some success shooting skating with film. The thing to remember is that shows are very different from competitions. How so? In competitions, the entire ice is lit up like day. In a show, most of the ice is dark and there are spotlights on the skaters. If you have a spot meter there is no problem. But if not, your automatic exposure will try to balance out everything and overexpose the skaters. You will then have to set exposure manually. As for white balance, the ice should do nicely.

Three words: Fujichrome Natura 1600. From what I have read, it’s the best low light color film in the world and blows digital 1600 out of the water. Available in Japan, but you can sometimes get some off eBay.

 

[Tonichelle]

Bob -we're talking digital here, completely different ball game!

 

[SeaniBu]

Bob -we're talking digital here, completely different ball game!

I threw the whole thing off with my wierd comment.


HEY!!! Is you paper done? It better be!

 

[Tonichelle]

it's not but writer block is killing me lol... I'm going I'm going!

but the Emily photo really bugged me (it was eaten by the server again for - get this - being a professional photo and therefore it must be someone else's lol it's not even my best work! I feel insulted!)

 

[Tonichelle]

Here's the photo of Emily...
​