Shooting High School Hockey: I’m an amateur shooting high school hockey on a Z8 with a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 GII lens. I shoot shutter priority setting my shutter speed at 1250 and iso on...

Moomoo48 Loc: Boston

I’m an amateur shooting high school hockey on a Z8 with a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 GII lens.
I shoot shutter priority setting my shutter speed at 1250 and iso on auto as high as 5000.
When i edit my pictures the lighting varies and in LR it shows my F stop will vary from 3 to 7.4. How can I stop the F stop from fluctuating ?

rcorne001 Loc: Cary, NC

Try shooting in manual mode.

mnmark Loc: NE Minnesota

Manual mode will help, set it for a proper exposure on the players and leave it. The light bouncing off the ice can easily fool the meter.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Moomoo48 wrote:

I’m an amateur shooting high school hockey on a Z8 with a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 GII lens.
I shoot shutter priority setting my shutter speed at 1250 and iso on auto as high as 5000.
When i edit my pictures the lighting varies and in LR it shows my F stop will vary from 3 to 7.4. How can I stop the F stop from fluctuating ?

Suggestion:
Use pseudo manual:
Set your aperture
Set your speed
Set ISO as a range (You set the high/low value ISO and let the camera decide within this range).

Bill_de Loc: US

Moomoo48 wrote:

I’m an amateur shooting high school hockey on a Z8 with a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 GII lens.
I shoot shutter priority setting my shutter speed at 1250 and iso on auto as high as 5000.
When i edit my pictures the lighting varies and in LR it shows my F stop will vary from 3 to 7.4. How can I stop the F stop from fluctuating ?

Is bracketing turned on?

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larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Moomoo48 wrote:

I’m an amateur shooting high school hockey on a Z8 with a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 GII lens.
I shoot shutter priority setting my shutter speed at 1250 and iso on auto as high as 5000.
When i edit my pictures the lighting varies and in LR it shows my F stop will vary from 3 to 7.4. How can I stop the F stop from fluctuating ?

What metering mode are you using? And when the f/stop changes, does the exposure become "incorrect?" Depending on your metering, I would very much expect that exposures containing mostly ice would be made at a narrower aperture than one filled with players wearing dark uniforms, especially if you are using either matrix or center-weighted metering.

I would not be doing metered exposure in this situation, unless experience told me that the lighting was very uneven in different areas of the rink. Instead, I would arrive early, find the exposure combination that would place the ice a couple of stops over metered exposure, lock everything in, and shoot the game with those settings. Of course you need to do a quick visual check during warmups and make sure that you have chosen wisely...you might need to adjust slightly to get faces correct.

This is an example of a situation in which the lighting shouldn't change. Once you know the exposure, it should be good for the evening. Give it a try for a period and check your results.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Bill_de wrote:

Is bracketing turned on?

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Worth checking. Also use anti-flicker mode (and shoot in manual mode using settings that expose for the players).

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Moomoo48 wrote:

I’m an amateur shooting high school hockey on a Z8 with a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 GII lens.
I shoot shutter priority setting my shutter speed at 1250 and iso on auto as high as 5000.
When i edit my pictures the lighting varies and in LR it shows my F stop will vary from 3 to 7.4. How can I stop the F stop from fluctuating ?

Shoot in manual with the shutter speed and aperture fixed to your selected values and let the ISO 'ride' in Auto ISO.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

CHG_CANON wrote:

Shoot in manual with the shutter speed and aperture fixed to your selected values and let the ISO 'ride' in Auto ISO.

Letting the ISO float will not necessarily solve the problem that the OP is seeing (and which he has not yet fully explained). It will just move the changing from aperture to ISO. Right now, we don't know if that changing is a preference or a problem resulting in undesirable results.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

larryepage wrote:

Letting the ISO float will not necessarily solve the problem that the OP is seeing (and which he has not yet fully explained). It will just move the changing from aperture to ISO. Right now, we don't know if that changing is a preference or a problem resulting in undesirable results.

Huhh??

Moomoo48 wrote:

I’m an amateur shooting high school hockey on a Z8 with a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 GII lens.
I shoot shutter priority setting my shutter speed at 1250 and iso on auto as high as 5000.
When i edit my pictures the lighting varies and in LR it shows my F stop will vary from 3 to 7.4. How can I stop the F stop from fluctuating ?

What part of the OP question is unclearly stated?

What part of the solution - manual w/ AUTO ISO - will not address the fluctuating aperture??

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

CHG_CANON wrote:

What part of the OP question is unclearly stated?

What part of the solution - manual w/ AUTO ISO - will not address the fluctuating aperture??

I missed that part. In that case, I reiterate...turn all automation off.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Moomoo48 wrote:

I’m an amateur shooting high school hockey on a Z8 with a Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 GII lens.
I shoot shutter priority setting my shutter speed at 1250 and iso on auto as high as 5000.
When i edit my pictures the lighting varies and in LR it shows my F stop will vary from 3 to 7.4. How can I stop the F stop from fluctuating ?

Shutter priority means that the aperture will change. For low light, I would either use aperture priority to shoot wide open, and have either the shutter speed or ISO change, or just shoot full manual with the aperture wide open.

Moomoo48 Loc: Boston

Ok will try thx

Moomoo48 Loc: Boston

Thx

Moomoo48 Loc: Boston

Anti flicker is a good thought thx