09-27-2024 07:01 PM - last edited on 09-28-2024 09:06 AM by Danny
Hello! I’m an amateur and new to digital photography.
I have an EOS Rebel T7 with a lens 75-300mm without stabilizer. I’ve been taking ice hockey pictures with this camera for 2 years now but I’m very frustrated because the images are very blurry and dark. When I see them in the camera they don’t look as bad as when I pass them to the computer or my iPhone. I’m thinking on updating the lens but I’m not sure which one would be the ideal to help me get decent images. Please, recommendations for the lens and the right software for editing. Thank you in advance!
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09-27-2024 09:11 PM - edited 09-27-2024 09:14 PM
Thank you for following up so quickly with the "shooting" information because a lot of people don't.
Those parameters seem reasonable and that is not a bad image. A big part of the difficulty of shooting hockey is you generally have to shoot through the protective screen and it kills contrast. A good way to combat this is to capture images in RAW instead of JPG which gives you far more ability to make adjustments in post over a JPG file.
Canon's DPP software does a good job of editing and conversion of JPG to RAW files. It is simple to use and free to Canon camera owners so download it if you haven't already. You can adjust brightness, contrast, relative levels of shadow and highlight, color temp (aka white balance), etc. in post after you capture in RAW. Just doing that will help a LOT and I think you will be amazed at what you can do with a bit of contrast adjustment and adjusting the overall gain along with shadow and highlight level.
The four images below are when my daughter was playing in an indoor 3V3 soccer tournament and the combination of the semi-translucent gym building giving the lighting a really odd "ambience" and rapidly dropping air temperature created a very hazy set of captures but they cleaned up nicely in DPP primarily with color temp adjustment and a bit of added contrast, prior to some editing they were pretty bad. All were captured with a 1DX III and EF 200 f2 lens.
Before investing in another lens, try shooting a game in RAW and see how things look post-edit. And then given your seating location close to the ice, I think the 70-200 f2.8 would do a great job for you.
Rodger
10-19-2024 11:37 AM
No adapter needed! An EF lens mounts directly to your camera!
Enjoy what will be a great lens for you 🙂
Rodger
09-27-2024 07:29 PM - edited 09-27-2024 07:30 PM
A stabilizer won't be of much help for hockey (and most sports photography) because the required shutter speed to freeze action is more than fast enough to avoid issues of camera shake.
Please post a sample image with the exposure information or if not an image: what shutter speed, aperture, and shutter speed are you using? 1/1,000 is the preferred minimum for hockey but you can try dropping to as low as 1/500 and that will be fast enough for some action shots but a lot WILL have motion blur. But ultimately your chosen shutter speed, aperture, and ISO have to in combination provide a "standard" exposure so with a lens that has a limited maximum aperture and your ISO capped at 12,800 (6,400 preferably), then shutter speed is the only free variable left to get to the standard exposure and that may result in a shutter speed too low to avoid blur.
With the limited ISO range of the T7 (6,400 maximum in normal mode expandable to 12,800 which introduces a lot of noise), a wider aperture lens would help but those get quite expensive in the telephoto range. The EF 70-200 f2.8 is a natural for sports if you are reasonably close to the action but if you find you are currently staying at the 300mm end of your current lens and cropping then you are too far away for the 70-200 to be effective. Unfortunately, longer fast glass gets really expensive in a hurry. I use 400 and 300 mm f2.8 primes along with a 200 f2 prime in certain situations but those are very costly. So hopefully you are within the range of Canon's excellent 70-200 f2.8 design which will provide far more light to the camera sensor (and focus much faster) than your current lens.
Rodger
09-27-2024 08:28 PM
Thank you Rodger. I completely forgot to mention the settings on my first post. I usually just select the sports mode and go with the default settings.
For the picture below, I was considerably close to the action, so I didn’t zoom in as much. The ISO is 2500, 1/800, 4.0.
Thank you so much for your help.
09-27-2024 09:11 PM - edited 09-27-2024 09:14 PM
Thank you for following up so quickly with the "shooting" information because a lot of people don't.
Those parameters seem reasonable and that is not a bad image. A big part of the difficulty of shooting hockey is you generally have to shoot through the protective screen and it kills contrast. A good way to combat this is to capture images in RAW instead of JPG which gives you far more ability to make adjustments in post over a JPG file.
Canon's DPP software does a good job of editing and conversion of JPG to RAW files. It is simple to use and free to Canon camera owners so download it if you haven't already. You can adjust brightness, contrast, relative levels of shadow and highlight, color temp (aka white balance), etc. in post after you capture in RAW. Just doing that will help a LOT and I think you will be amazed at what you can do with a bit of contrast adjustment and adjusting the overall gain along with shadow and highlight level.
The four images below are when my daughter was playing in an indoor 3V3 soccer tournament and the combination of the semi-translucent gym building giving the lighting a really odd "ambience" and rapidly dropping air temperature created a very hazy set of captures but they cleaned up nicely in DPP primarily with color temp adjustment and a bit of added contrast, prior to some editing they were pretty bad. All were captured with a 1DX III and EF 200 f2 lens.
Before investing in another lens, try shooting a game in RAW and see how things look post-edit. And then given your seating location close to the ice, I think the 70-200 f2.8 would do a great job for you.
Rodger
09-28-2024 09:05 AM
Thank you so much for your recommendations. I will definitely give it a try. Your daughter’s pictures are perfect! That’s the quality of images I would love to achieve for my kids pictures.
Cheers,
Kenia
09-28-2024 10:00 AM
Thanks Kenia and I look forward to seeing your future photographs!
Hockey is not the easiest sport to photograph but at least it isn't volleyball (which is the most challenging for me!)
Rodger
09-28-2024 09:38 AM
Rodger one word, intense.
09-28-2024 09:59 AM - edited 09-28-2024 10:15 AM
A great summary Ernie 🙂
And Anna texted me last night that she made the club soccer team at the University of Portland so maybe I will get a chance to photograph her on the soccer pitch again sometime. She originally intended to go out for the university team when she started her undergrad but realized that her academic path on the way to a doctorate combined with her continuing internship with Los Alamos National lab and ongoing research for the Department of Energy wouldn't allow time to be a D1 student athlete.
So my days of quick trips to the west coast with no checked luggage may disappear because I don't think a 400 f2.8 or 200-400 f4 extender is going to fit well in the carry-on category. I will be fine with that!
And on edit, Anna's soccer skills and my sports photography skills have both come a long way from when I was coaching her youth soccer team while simultaneously doing photographer with my Canon 1D Mark II. But her intensity has always been there!
Rodger
10-19-2024 10:41 AM
Hi Rodger!
I think I’m ready to buy the lens. I just have one little doubt before I place the order. Do I need an adapter for Canon EOS Rebel T7 to use the lens you recommended 70-200 f2.8?
I’ve been trying to get an answer from the seller but it has been almost impossible to get it from him.
Thank you so much in advance.
Kenia
10-19-2024 11:37 AM
No adapter needed! An EF lens mounts directly to your camera!
Enjoy what will be a great lens for you 🙂
Rodger
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