Photographing Main St Windows

[cap'njack.]

Hiya all.

I've bought my fiancee a DSLR camera for her birthday (her first one) and she has been using it for about a week.

We went to a museum in France yesterday and mosy of the objects were behind glass. A lot of the photos came out brilliantly but a few have some bad glare on them. Does anyone have any tips to cut down glare?

We are looking to get it right for the window displays on Main Street in December. Thanks

 

[nbaresejr]

I have never used it for this but I have read a circular polarizer filter helps.

 

[HPS3]

Yep, pick up a circular polarizer.

 

[cap'njack.]

Thank you. I will get one and try it

It's all so new and confusing...especially to me.

 

[PaHunter]

also try shooting thru the glass on a 45 degree angle, sometimes this will help.

 

[xlxo]

I have never used it for this but I have read a circular polarizer filter helps.

• Remember to rotate the filter ring each time to maximize the anti-reflections
• a polarizer may make the image blurry without a tripod. Not all museams allow tripods.
• avoid flash (especially the built-in flash)

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

What everyone has said is correct. The reason for the blurriness while shooting with a polarizer is, if you are shooting in an automatic mode it can slow down the shutter speed. Another factor is your lens. With a combination of fast glass and raising the ISO, you can achieve better results without using flash. If shooting the Main Street windows at night, I would also change my light meter to a spot metering. The area around the window may be darker, but the camera will meter the lighted window better. I have used flash, but you have to be careful of flashback and sometimes be a little lucky. When you are shooting in difficult conditions, getting the photographic triangle of shutter speed, aperture and ISO correct is paramount. I don't know her photographic knowledge, but if it is limited then I would suggest picking up a copy of "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It is one of the better books on explaining the triangle.

 

[PaHunter]

I recently picked up the book above and it is well worth it, even for a veteran photographer. It really gets one thinking.

 

[manning]

If you are using flash you don't want to shoot directly at the glass. Flash bounced in the same direction as it hits the glass.

If you shoot directly at it the flash is going to bounce directly back at the camera.

If you stand to the right of the glass say at a 45 degree angle the flash will hit the glass at a 45 degree angle and bounce 45 degrees to the left.

 

[seashoreCM]

Also, if you are not far enough out to the side and the camera "sees" its own reflection in the glass then the glare of the flash will be in the picture.

If it is not too crowded you might be able to put the camera on a trash can across the street and use zoom to frame the subject store window in the camera field of view with no flash. It will help if you can press the shutter button without shaking the camera because using the self timer adds another order of magnitude to the luck needed that nobody walks into the field of view at the moment the camera clicks by itself.