In this post I am going to share a few tips for photographing Disney on Ice – Frozen at Izod Center, in case you are planning to see that show or a similar show.
Seat Location
We were seated not too close from the ice, but that wasn’t so bad for me since it gave me a vantage point. From the seating chart I had an idea that I would be using my 80-200 F2.8 lens only, so I did not have to worry about switching lenses or cameras and miss an opportunity of good action shot. Still, for some of the tight compositions, the distance was too far. However I was using a D800 body that creates big files, so I wasn’t worried about cropping the final image the way I wanted in those kind of shots. If you are seated close to the rink, it can be good, especially if you are not using a telephoto lens or a high mega-pixel camera or both.
Exposure
For this kind of situation, where the lighting remains constant, I always use manual exposure. After some test shots I set mine to f2.8/250 at 800 ASA. I was getting enough depth of field across the width of the rink, so keeping my lens open allowed me to get a high enough shutter speed to avoid motion blur and a low enough ASA to avoid too much noise.
Framing
Framing fast moving targets and getting well composed shots can be challenging. Yes, you can crop to your desire, however you got to have a general idea of how you will crop as you are looking through the viewfinder. Remember that the golden rule of composing by the thirds should be applied to the cropped image and not the image in your viewfinder. If you are shooting without your cropped framing in mind, you will find it hard to meet this rule.
Anticipation
Anticipation is an essential skill in photography, unless you are only shooting still life. It is even more important for action photography. You got to be tuned in with what is going on. The dynamics of the set is changing at fast face and unless you are well aware of what is going on at every part of the stage and what is about to happen, you will not get the best possible. The best soccer plays is the one who knows where the ball will be, not where it is now. So it is with photography.
Mood and Action
This is where things get more subjective and your approach and style will play a bigger part. I have used techniques of motion blur, panning for action shots etc but for this event I decided to use a high shutter speed consistently and freeze all action shots. You can use a continuous shooting mode, that will take several snaps each time you press the shutter. I did not do so this time as I like to challenge myself on my reflex. If I was shooting for a client, I would do otherwise just to be safe and sure. One of the things you will want to keep in mind is suggesting that the characters are communicating in your images. So if you have 2 people in frame, it will be more interesting if they are looking at each other than if they are looking at different directions. When there are many characters, it can be difficult to get a well composed shot, especially when movements are than much faster on ice. So you will need a quick eye and a quicker reflex to pull an effective composition from a fast moving group. You are likely to get a lower percentage of acceptable shots in this case.
I had a lot of fun photographing Disney on Ice – Frozen at Izod Center. Hopefully I was able to provide you will few useful tips. As with most things, you can rarely specify one single winning formula for any situation. It gets better with experience and your ability to adapt to a situation.
