On Ice Hockey Team Photo

[eriseman]

Hi All,

Looking for suggestions as to what lens to use (Using D100) for taking a High School Hockey team photo while on the Ice?

Do I use a standard lens (50MM) and crop the picture or do I use a wide angle lens? how many MM? How many degrees on the wide angle?

When lining the boys up (multiple rows), what is the farthest they should be from end to end (how many feet)?

I want to be sure that faces can be seen and that the boys don't look 10,000 miles away.....

Thank you
ER

[TCav]

What lenses do you already have?

The most important thing to remember is that the faces mus be properly exposed. The ice will actually help with that, but the uniforms might make it more dificult. So meter on the faces.

And I'd prefer a longer lens than a wider lens, but sometimes you can't back up as far as you'd like.

[JohnG]

First - make sure you have a good external flash. You're not going to want to do a team photo with available light.
Second - how many players? You should be able to do 3 rows without problems with front row kneeling on one knee. The key is to get things as square as possible - the longer the lines the more dead space in the photo. I wouldn't go wider than 22mm if you can avoid it - wider than that and you'll distort players on the outside.

[eriseman]

Team size is about 18 kids and two coaches. Lens I have to use are either a 28-75MM F2.8 lens or 70-200 VR.

If I take the picture with the longer lens, would I just crop it down? Would I not loose image clarity going this route?

[JohnG]

Why would you even want to use the 70-200? You'll want to have 3 rows, and want to shoot at f8. Use the 28-75 and external flash.

[StevieDgpt]

Shooting with a 70+ mm lens doesn't make much sense unless you got the maneauvering room to play with.

Once you have positioned the kids for best the best ambient lighting (watching for reflections off the protective glass), then position the kids so a support beam is not seen rising behind Little Johnny's head and the advertisement banner for Bubba's Bail Bonds can't be seen behind the goalie, you might not have much choice in your position to take the shot.

Besides it is easier to control the flash if you are within the range of the flash.

Take the shorter lens.

Originally Posted by eriseman

If I take the picture with the longer lens, would I just crop it down? Would I not loose image clarity going this route?

Did you mean "If I take the picture with the shorter lens, would I just crop it down?"

Yes you can crop it down. And yes you can loose some clarity.... if you are pixel peeping, crop the photo too far down or printing posters. But for the real world, snipping the ragged edge or whatever is NOT going to affect clarity of a normal printed photo one iota.