If you have to shoot through a window, you don't have any control over the quality of the glass. One thing you can do is shoot from a few feet back so it's obvious you're shooting through a window.
On my recent tour to Europe, mainly touring on a bus package, photographing through the dirty window glass became sort of a contortionist experience, literally. My free hand and my lens hood helped a bit to reduce glare. Obviously you learn to find the opposite side where the glare hits the glass less to somehow manage a decent shot. Post production helps. Europe countryside is gorgeous to be missed.
rehess
Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA
jerryc41 wrote:
If you have to shoot through a window, you don't have any control over the quality of the glass. One thing you can do is shoot from a few feet back so it's obvious you're shooting through a window.
If you can get very close to the window, its effects get wiped out as part of the "out of focus" 'bokeh'. Not as sharp as no glass, but if it is the best you can get .....
bridge seen while on trip to New Orleans
It goes by saying that anything in front of the lens to a certain extent deteriorates the image and the general recommendation is to never use a cheap filter in front of good glass. A windshield in a cold day is not necessarily made of Schott glass and the images by Boberic look great to me. I am always breaking the rules, I use linear polarizers instead of circular ones, single coated glass of the 70's and the results to my eyes appear spectacular. I have multicoated filters and they do not do any better, again, to my eyes.
Many people spend a fortune in a UV filter for "protection" although I have seen photographers that do not remove the filter to keep on shooting. Disaster is knocking at the door if the filter gets dirty. I try to avoid shooting through non photographic glass but if I have no other choice I get my camera against the glass and I have not seen distortions in my images. I guess others here have similar experiences.
camerapapi wrote:
..., I use linear polarizers instead of circular ones, ...
I don't use either very often, but I seem to recall that the reason to use a circular polarizer is that (at some time in the past) a linear polarizer would confuse auto-focus (or was it auto exposure?). Can someone refresh my memory on this and maybe tell me whether this is still an issue. I'm sure the technology has evolved since I read about this twenty or thirty years ago.
gvarner wrote:
This seems to be counter intuitive. How much distortion are we talking about here? Do we know? Is it observable? Aren’t we advised to buy the highest quality filter if we use a filter? 🥴🥴
I do it all the time. My hummer feeder is outside my kitchen window (double paned energy efficient) I get pretty good looking results. I have good light and fairly clean windows.
rehess
Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA
Some times you don't have a choice. I took this from the back of an Amtrak train going through Raton Pass, away from any other way of getting there.
tomad
Loc: North Carolina
gvarner wrote:
This seems to be counter intuitive. How much distortion are we talking about here? Do we know? Is it observable? Aren’t we advised to buy the highest quality filter if we use a filter? 🥴🥴
This was shot through a double pane glass window... with a small (so called 1") sensor bridge camera.
gvarner wrote:
This seems to be counter intuitive. How much distortion are we talking about here? Do we know? Is it observable? Aren’t we advised to buy the highest quality filter if we use a filter? 🥴🥴
My old original Victorian wavy glass windows it is impossible nearly to even get AF to work.
I took a shot through a window in a high-rise. The photo had good composition but I was disappointed when I got a reflection from an overhead fluorescent light from the ceiling. However. It was nothing that Photoshop couldn't cure.
rehess
Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA
pdsilen wrote:
I took a shot through a window in a high-rise. The photo had good composition but I was disappointed when I got a reflection from an overhead fluorescent light from the ceiling. However. It was nothing that Photoshop couldn't cure.
That sort of experience is why I said earlier that inside should be darker than outside.
Wearing a large black sunhat pushed back reduces reflection and depending on the subject a mask and running shoes might be handy?
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