Nikon 500 poor oicture (Page 2): Flicker reduction filter - very important. https://nps.nikonimaging.com/technical_solutions/d500_tips/useful/flicker

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Moomoo48 wrote:

I take a lot of pictures of family at ice hockey r... (show quote)

Flicker reduction filter - very important.

https://nps.nikonimaging.com/technical_solutions/d500_tips/useful/flicker_reduction/

Moomoo48 Loc: Boston

Pistnbroke wrote:

leaded glass has a green tinge ...is that a clue

Funny you mentioned that because I thought there was a tint in the glass. As an amateur I need another obstacle like I need a hole in my head.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Adjusting the WB should help.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

CHG_CANON wrote:

You need more light. The lens is at the f/2.8 maximum aperture. 1/500 is unnecessarily fast for this slower motion skating. At 1/250 you'd have another stop of light. For when the action is faster, if the light doesn't improve, use a higher ISO or continue to adjust in post-processing. The Exposure Compensation is 0. Try EC +1 to tell the camera to up the AUTO-ISO while leaving the camera in shutter priority. Check your highlight alerts and back-off EC to +2/3 if indicated by the blinkies.

As usual CHG_Cannon gives good advice. I notice that the scene contains a lot of white. Light meters a calibrated for middle gray. As with snow scenes Auto -ISO with EC +1 or so is in order. You can always take a few shots before the action to get the white value right. Watch the histogram and blinkies. to get the whites right. I don't shoot hockey but I do snow scenes and white buildings. Getting the whites right is important. Auto white balance is also useful for the tinted glass. Even my storm door has a slight green tint. The lights may have a green tint as well.

If contrast is high the use if Active-D lighting can be helpful. You can change this with Capture NX-D in post if necessary.

Auto ISO, Auto white Balance. You should be able to go as high as ISO 6400.

ELNikkor

You are stifling your camera with that ISO 1600 limit, also, the white ice throws off the light meter. I set my flexible ISO upper limit to 12,800 whenever I shoot a mandatory 1/500 of a second. That way, I'm free to set my aperture preferred auto where I want. I disagree that 1/500 is to high, you need it to be at least 1/500th for any action sport. To fix the bright ice problem, try a few shots with a +1 or thereabouts exposure compensation.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Moomoo48 wrote:

I take a lot of pictures of family at ice hockey r... (show quote)

I put your jpg into LR and came up with the photo below. Took a slight white balance adjustment and about 1.5 stops of exposure increase.

Use a higher ISO this weekend. The D500 should be up to it. I used my old D3 up to ISO 6400 regularly and my D4 up to 12K. (I don't believe the ISO numbers are more accurate than about 2 significant figures).

Higher ISO does increase noise, but I don't find the levels I mention above to produce objectionable noise as long as the exposure is reasonable.

(Download)

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Moomoo48 wrote:

I take a lot of pictures of family at ice hockey r... (show quote)

I believe your meter read the ice, and your meter said "WOW, if this bright, better stop down". In other words, your meter got fooled because of the brightness of the bright ice.
You need to get a close up reading of a player, then use that setting. I am surprised that you did not check your exposures right away since you have a digital camera. When I shoot hockey I use manual everything, get the exposure right for the first shot and all of your other shots will be OK because the lighting is usually consistent.

photoman43

I agree that you need more light. I would increase the ISO and maintain a high shutter speed and try and use f 4.0.

Set Auto ISO and use it. I often have bird pictures taken in shade at ISO 12,800 on my D 500 with a 500mm f5.6 lens at 1/1000 or higher. Do not be afraid of raising the ISO

Steve Perry at Backcountry has a video on Auto ISO. I would look at it and consider using it.

https://backcountrygallery.com/all-about-auto-iso-nikon-cameras/

In addition the white balance looks looks like it needs to be tweaked for the lighting inside the arena. If you are shooting Jpeg, try Auto or try one of the flourescent settings. If you shoot in RAW, tweak it mduring post processing to get it to look more like daylight.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Folks, if you will carefully read the OP's original post you will see that he did use Auto ISO. The main problem is not exposure but color balance. First get that right and you will see how little exposure adjustment is required, if any at all depending on personal taste.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Moomoo48 wrote:

I take a lot of pictures of family at ice hockey r... (show quote)

This is your image with a couple of quick adjustments in Photoshop, using only the Camera Raw filter. It is underexposed by about 1.5 stops.

Noise is only a problem when you underexpose and try to adjust the exposure in post processing. A good exposure puts more data in the image, giving you a better signal to noise ratio.

For this I would use the camera's spot meter, measure the ice, and add 1-2/3 stops. You can also try adding 2 stops or even a little more, but 1-2/3 stops may work better with really high ISO - which would have to be at least 2500 or 3200 for this image in this light. If you shoot raw you will have more options and greater adjustment latitude in post processing.

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Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Moomoo48 wrote:

I take a lot of pictures of family at ice hockey r... (show quote)

I decided to post a quickly adjusted image to illustrate what I was saying about only needing a minimal exposure adjustment.
Only ACR was used for this. I first adjusted the color by taking a sample off the number 6 on the back of the players jersey. Next I bumped the exposure 0.3 stops and finally I applied a bit of dehaze to bring out the ice detail. That's it except for down sizing for posting. Except for color balance your camera performed as advertised.

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CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Rich1939 wrote:

I decided to post a quickly adjusted image to illustrate what I was saying about only needing a minimal exposure adjustment.
Only ACR was used for this. I first adjusted the color by taking a sample off the number 6 on the back of the players jersey. Next I bumped the exposure 0.3 stops and finally I applied a bit of dehaze to bring out the ice detail. That's it except for down sizing for posting. Except for color balance your camera performed as advertised.

If the arena was this dark, the parents would be on the ice saying their kids wouldn't be playing in these dangerous conditions. Why the refusal to accept the image is underexposed along with the WB issues that you did correct?

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

CHG_CANON wrote:

If the arena was this dark, the parents would be on the ice saying their kids wouldn't be playing in these dangerous conditions. Why the refusal to accept the image is underexposed along with the WB issues that you did correct?

Baloney, what is your screen brightness set at?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Rich1939 wrote:

Baloney, what is your screen brightness set at?

It would seem maybe that question is better directed at your monitor ...

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Kozan Loc: Trenton Tennessee

Moomoo48 wrote:

I take a lot of pictures of family at ice hockey r... (show quote)

This photo was easily fixed in Affinity Photo. I downloaded the picture and used a levels adjustment to increase the exposure. It's at least 1 stop too dark. And the WB needs to go towards blue, which is just a way of saying raising the color temperature. That's all that was necessary.