The white balance was set to Auto. I took about a dozen shots and some had a little bit of a pink cast due to the vapor lights. You can see it a little in the lower left corner of this one. Other areas of the ice are balanced correctly. The problem at TSC is that some lights are pink and others are not so you get spots on the ice that are pinker than others. Also the corner of the ice below the security booth is in shadow and about a half stop darker than the rest of the ice. Still this rink is way better than most. On the Olympic side they converted to fluorescent lights and the lighting seems very flat and not quite as bright. I have not tried shooting on that side yet since they changed.
When I shoot at TSC (my kid's hockey) I shoot manual and set the exposure off the gray brick wall and Stanley Cup poster. This gets me close. I also look at the histograms of my first couple shots. Sometimes I might also use a hand-held light meter if I have it with me and am close to the ice surface. The thing about hockey is there is so much white ice that auto exposure often makes everything gray.
I think the auto white balance on this camera does a great job. With my D200 it varied quite a bit. Sometimes I would balance off the ice and still get inconsistent results. I had a wedding photographer friend play with my D300 a bit and he too was very impressed with the white balance. The D300 focus accuracy on moving objects seems better too. |