I spend a lot of time photographing animals at zoos and aquariums. Knowing and capturing the subject is obviously the most important part. Some technical challenges often arise, however, when you have to shoot through glass windows or aquariums. It is not always easy to produce clean images. I have accumulated a few tricks over the years, and I thought I would share them. If you have tricks of your own, then please share them as well. I am always interested in learning anything that will help me improve my own images. To see my work, head to and check out the “animals” section of the gallery. Here goes…
1) Beware of reflections on the glass. A reflection can make the image look washed out, even if no discernable details are visible in the reflection. For best results, bring the lens all the way to the glass, so that the front of the lens or hood makes a seal against the glass. That way, the only thing reflected will be the lens itself or the black inside of the lens hood.
2) Beware of diffraction from the glass. Diffraction blurs the image or can even create a ghosting effect. It increases with the thickness of the glass and the angle of the shot. For best results, shoot exactly perpendicular to the glass. If you are tracking a moving subject, try to move your entire camera in the plane of the glass, rather than tilting the camera. This takes some getting used to, but produces good results.
3) Beware of wide-angle lenses when shooting right up against the glass. The center of the image will be taken perpendicular to the glass and will therefore be fairly sharp. The edges of the image, however, will become increasingly blurred, due to shooting through the glass at more of an angle. This blur will be circular in nature, and can be pretty distracting, even in out-of-focus areas.
4) If you can’t get the lens or hood all the way to the glass, or if you need to shoot at a slight angle, then shield the opening between lens and glass. Use a dark cloth, sweatshirt, specialized glare hood. If nothing else, use your hand.
5) Beware of double pane glass. Even if you block all reflections on the front pane, light may seep in from the sides. Such light will wash out the image and may introduce distracting reflections. The only real solution is to block the reflections with in a wider circle around the lens. Your hand will not always be enough. Use a larger black cloth, sweatshirt, or glare hood. It is important that the “hood” be solid black, because it will be reflected into the image. Solid black will have the least impact on the exposed image.
6) Beware of dirty, cloudy, or scratched glass. Try to find a clean patch if you can. I often carry a few paper towels and a small spritzer bottle of glass cleaner. Sometimes I can clean a patch to shoot through, but often the problem is on the far side of the glass.
7) If outdoors, try to avoid shooting into the sun, even at a glancing angle. The glass may produce a distracting flare effect. The light may also illuminate dirt or smudges on the glass. This will result in some combination or washed-out colors, loss of shadow detail, and soft white dots. You can avoid most of these problems by making a seal between camera and glass with the sun behind you.
8) When shooting outdoors, it is not always possible to bring the camera all the way to the glass. For example, there may be a fence or railing between you and the glass. In this case, try to find a portion of the glass that is in the shade. If you find such a place, you will have less glare and smudges or particles on the glass will be less pronounced.
9) If you must shoot through dirty or scratched glass, then try to find a subject that is farther back and use your lens’s largest aperture. That will at least blur the defects. It may result in some loss of contrast, but you may be able to get some of it back in PP. When the subject is right on the other side of the dirty or scratched glass, it will be difficult to remove the distracting artifacts.
10) If you must shoot through glass with reflections, you might try using a polarizing filter (circular for digital and linear for film). Rotate the filter until the reflected light is minimized. The filter may also modify the appearance of your subject, especially on reflective surfaces like the eyes or wet skin. The filter will also reduce the total available light, so a tripod or higher ISO speed might be needed to achieve the necessary shutter speed.
11) If you shoot straight at the glass with a flash, you will get a bad reflection. People often say that you should shoot at a glancing angle so that the flash does not bounce back into the lens. This can help, but it is not a perfect solution. The angle with the glass can increase diffraction (see above) and the flash will still illuminate dust and scratches on the glass.
12) Ideally, you want to prevent the light of the flash from passing through the glass that you will be shooting through. The easiest method is to make a seal between the glass and the lens (see above). If you have a long lens or a large lens hood, however, it may block the light of the flash as well. This can be solved in a number of ways. If you attach an external flash to the top of the camera, it may be high enough to clear the obstruction. If not, you could use a flash bracket to hold the flash higher above the camera. I often choose to hold the flash in my hand, connected by a spiral cord. In additional to solving the glare problem, this technique gives enormous flexibility for artistic control.
13) You can also prevent the light of the flash from passing through the glass in front of the lens by making a seal between the flash and the glass. This can be helpful if it is impractical to make a seal between the lens and the glass. For example, if you need to track fast moving subjects with the lens, it could be difficult to maintain that seal. In this case, you could move the flash up to the glass and position it to bounce off part of the environment, thus illuminating a large area. Unfortunately, you may get glare or reflections from the glass (independent of the flash), so this technique is less commonly useful.
14) Sometimes it is not possible to move the flash nor the lens all the way to the glass. For example, there may be a fence or railing between you and the glass. In this case, try separating the flash from the camera as much as you can. I often do this by holding the flash in one hand and stretching the cord so that the flash is a few feet to the side or above the camera. This will reduce the risk of flash light bouncing directly into the lens. Unfortunately, the light of the flash may still pass through the glass in front of the lens, causing smudges and particles to flare up. Another option is to angle the flash away from the direction of the lens so that the light bounces off a wall or ceiling.
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