Shooting Through Glass at Night

Say you’re walking down Main St. in Disneyland and a simple yet intriguing window display catches your eye. It’s late morning and the sun is already strong. You notice that people, gas lamps, signs, and even the wooden Indian statue you’ve dubbed Tecumseh because you’ve seen “Cheers” a zillion times, are reflecting in the glass. The only camera you are armed with is a point and shoot so there’s no circular polarizing filter for it to cut out the glare. You tell yourself that you’ll return later when it’s dark outside and then skip off to Adventureland reciting one-liners from Jungle Cruise and laughing like a hyena.

As you and your friends make your way out of the park you pass by the window again and stop to take a photo of the entire display. What you see is this…

Using a Canon Powershot SX 100 IS, I put the camera on a night setting. This disables the flash and slows down the shutterspeed. Normally we recommend using a tripod but I didn’t have one and I’m fairly good at hand-holding. The camera set the following: ISO 400, f2.8 at 1/50

Again, without a circular-polarizer you have to deal with reflections but at least there aren’t as many, so you pick and choose which merchandise you want photos of the most. You like the logo on the sweatshirt so you begin with that. Using the zoom lens will offer more detail in the design. Be sure to get the lens as close to the glass as possible as this can also cut down on glare.

The other merchandise you want to photograph are the frosted glasses. You set up the shot, take the photo and upon playback, realize that the lights from the theatre across the street are ruining the picture. Phooey!

By changing your stance, you are moving the reflections, so to speak. Sure you might look odd walking back and forth in front of your subject as you check out the lighting but that’s all part of being a better photographer. Look at the difference it makes just by changing your positioning.

Sure, the lights are still in the shot however they add a dramatic effect and you can tell which bulbs have burnt out and need to be replaced.

No flash was used in the making of these photos.