Bird under glass

[CherylL]

Well technically bird behind plexiglass. I visit a senior care center weekly and there is a large bird case with plexiglass sides. There are about 30 birds & babies. I placed the lens up against the glass & had to find a clean area. First bird photo, does it count? Sorta like shooting fish in a barrel.

T4i, 40mm STM, 1/100, f2.8, ISO 400


Bird1w by Cheryl3001, on Flickr

 

[grafxman]

That's a good shot CherylL. I take a lot zoo photos as well as wildlife photos. Photographing zoo animals is a LOT harder than photographing wildlife. Every shot is through plexiglas, window glass or wire mesh. Plexi and glass invariably softens the image to certain extent. You can't eliminate reflections in plexi or glass unless you can do as you did, put the lens right up to the barrier material. Even then you have to deal with dirty barrier material.

 

[IceCanAm]

Well done.

 

[CherylL]

That's a good shot CherylL. I take a lot zoo photos as well as wildlife photos. Photographing zoo animals is a LOT harder than photographing wildlife. Every shot is through plexiglas, window glass or wire mesh. Plexi and glass invariably softens the image to certain extent. You can't eliminate reflections in plexi or glass unless you can do as you did, put the lens right up to the barrier material. Even then you have to deal with dirty barrier material.

Thanks! I have a lens hood on the 40mm which is only 1/4" so it did give the lens some protection. The lens does move slightly when focusing so I had it just barely away from the glass to focus and then up against the glass to shoot. I'll have to find out when the cage is cleaned and try again. The residents really enjoy watching the birds and some have claimed a bird as theirs. I thought about getting more photos and printing for the residents.

 

[grafxman]

You might consider getting a rubber lens hood if you find yourself shooting through glass a lot. They screw in and, being rubber, should allow you to get right on the glass if necessary. They're only about $6 or so. I think they screw in like a filter.

 

[tegeltka]

Wouldn't using a polarizing filter and wider apertures help a bit against the plexiglass glare? I recently went to a local zoo (first time with my camera!) and I agree with shooting in a zoo being difficult; half my shots had glare in them.

 

[grafxman]

Polarizing filters are generally useless on plexi. I emailed Hoya a few years ago about this problem. IIRC they replied that with plexi you get reflections from both the outside and the inside. Plexi isn't a medium like glass. The plastic material causes light bending and scattering so as to render polarizing filters practically useless. Those filters can have some effect with glass but they work best on still water. The bad thing about them, as I discovered from experience, is that they greatly degrade the image. I never use them anymore. About the only thing that comes close to eliminating reflections is to stand off to one side and use a flash. You need to to get just far enough so the flash doesn't reflect off the plexi. That's if you can't stick the front of the lens right up against the plexi.