3 quick tips for taking pictures through glass

Do you suffer problems with glare and reflections when you shoot at your local wildlife park or museum?

It’s a common problem (see this guide to 99 more common photography problems – and how to solve them), yet thankfully easy to remedy. Below we offer three quick tips for helping you get clear, sharp images when taking pictures through glass.

1 The wrong way
Dirt or smudges on the glass will be visible if you shoot too far away from it, so get as close as possible  to the surface. Try to shoot straight at the surface – reflections crop up when shooting at an angle.

2 Get parallel
Rest the front of your lens hood on the glass and shoot with the camera back as parallel as possible to the surface of the glass. Check your images carefully, especially if the animal’s not right in front of you.

3 Shade the lens 
One solution is to wrap a piece of dark cloth around the front of your lens (a neck gaiter from outdoor shops is ideal). You should still get close to the surface, but the cloth will minimise reflections when shooting at an angle can’t be helped.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2012 at 7:00 am and is filed under Photography Tutorials, Wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.