What are some nice techniques to shoot through a glass??

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dealrocker

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Last week, I visited at a expo center to watch a reptile show. When I was trying to shoot a small lizard trough an aquarium glass. Pics were not pretty much clear, all blurry, due to the focus was made on the glass and not on the lizard.
Please share any technique for making good pics of subject trough glass.


Thanks in advance.
 
Don´t know how to shoot through glass so i try to include all the reflections into the frame..works sometimes
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dealrocker said:
Last week, I visited at a expo center to watch a reptile show. When I was trying to shoot a small lizard trough an aquarium glass. Pics were not pretty much clear, all blurry, due to the focus was made on the glass and not on the lizard.
Please share any technique for making good pics of subject trough glass.


Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Manual focus, for one thing. Your auto-focus is being fooled by the glass. Second, if you have enough light for it (or are using flash), try a polarizing filter. When rotated correctly, the glass will virtually disappear.

Another method is to use a rubber lens hood, the kind that look sort of like a small toilet plunger. If you are allowed to, put the rubber hood right up against the glass, forming a soft seal. That will also cut the glare out.
 
In addition to focus, make sure that you're reading the light or metering the value of the light on the other side of the glass.
 
1. Glass must be CLEAN. It rarely is clean enough.
2. Put the lens up on the glass.
3. Use manual focus or a passive autofocus that works well. Active ones like on the hexar af will never focus through glass.

my friend shoots through aquariums and terrariums regularly (he has a yearly zopo ticket:) ). He always uses a tripod and manual focuses the (macro) lenses.

http://www.tomlizard.com is his page.

cheers
 
One of my best shots ever was photographing a Middle Ages Bible thru a glass case. I shot it with my M4-P/35mm (vIII) fairly close up not knowing what to expect. When the Kodachrome returned I was amazed at the richness of the Bible's reddish cover. I didnt know it was a Bible at the time, only an old manuscript; when translated from Latin, it read, " In his path there is light."
 
If there is a glass between you and the subject,

1. Roll down the car window or open the building window before shooting.

2. If there is no way to get the glass out of your way, clean the glass before you shoot through it. Some photographers carry in their camera bag a few sheets of paper towels and a small bottle of glass cleaner.

3. To reduce window reflections from your clothing, wear dark clothing.

4. To avoid a reflection, turn off the flash before you shoot through the glass.

5. To eliminate reflections on the glass coming from light sources behind your camera, turn the lights off. If you cannot turn the lights off, block the lights with a dark jacket. Some photographers carry a 4 x 4-foot piece of opaque fabric for this purpose.

6. If you must use a flash, use a rubber lens hood so that you can put the lens right up against the glass. Also try to put the flash up against the glass.

7. To avoid image distortion, do not shoot at a sharp angle to the glass.

8. If you have an auto-focus camera, you can prevent the camera from focusing on the glass instead of the subject by either turning the auto-focus off and focusing manually or setting the focus to infinity.

9. If you have a polarizing filter over your lens, remove it before you shoot through an airplane window because the polarizing filter may display the stress in the Plexiglas window as a rainbow pattern in your color photo.

10. If you are shooting on a commercial airline, the best shots are usually just after take off and just before landing because the plane is closer to the objects on the ground.

11. If you are shooting through aquarium glass, be aware that the glass on the other side of the tank may cause a reflection.
 
On a side note I often enjoy the distortion that can be had by shooting thru glass. When I realize that there are reflections or distortions in the frame I will then sometimes look to emphasize these as a part of the composition. Check these out.......
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This can sometimes be quite effective ----Although I realize its not what you are asking.
 
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dealrocker said:
Last week, I visited at a expo center to watch a reptile show. When I was trying to shoot a small lizard trough an aquarium glass. Pics were not pretty much clear, all blurry, due to the focus was made on the glass and not on the lizard.
Please share any technique for making good pics of subject trough glass.


Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
If your camera does not have a manual focus or you are not comfortable with manual focus then you can try this technique:
Auto-focus, an object which is outside the glass and at a same distance the object on the other side of the glass by half press. Now turn the camera to bring the desired object into the frame and complete the shutter click.

Another aspect you should also look out for this, is the exposure. The lighting conditions could be different for the one which is inside the glass w.r.t. to the one outside.
 
I tried it by pressing the lens against the glass. Unfortunately, with a marginally good lens, Kiron 24/2.0 shooting in dim light wide open through the added distortion of another imperfect glass surface, the best I could get was this. But since the subject was a one room school house, it kind of worked anyway. Kind of.

 
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