I love to go to places like the zoo and the aquarium.   Many of the animals (and nearly all of the exhibits in the aquarium) are behind glass, or more likely plexiglass.   But those aren’t the only places where you often want to shoot through glass.      Even shooting through my kitchen window into the backyard, I want to create images that are as lifelike as possible, so I need to take specific steps to make sure the glass isn’t a factor in the image.

Natural light allowed me to step back from the glass for this image. Lost a bit of sharpness perhaps, but there was no glare or reflections

The purple light in the exhibit reflects nicely in the colorless jellyfish for this image

This photo was taken through the glass window in our kitchen. The telephoto lens is focused so far in the distance that any imperfections in the glass close to the lens are lessened or not noticed at all

Here are a few tips to help you take some good photography in this environment.

1. For Natural Light:  The closer your object is to the glass, the closer you’ll need to be to to the glass to eliminate any glares.   
2. For Flash:  You’ll literally want your lens against the glass.   Take along a rubber lens hood that has enough length on it that it can be against the glass and then you can position the lens at an angle other than 90 degrees to the glass
   

   Collapsible rubber lens hood

    

   

   Use of a rubber lens hood prevented the flash from glaring on the glass

    

3. Arrived prepared.   Take along some Windex wipes to clean the glass where you want to shoot.   This will eliminate all the little fingerprint smudges and body oils that are on the surface of the glass. 

    

   

   Foregoing the flash and using a higher ISO gave me this nice naturally lit image. Used the noise reduction features of lightroom to remove noise from the background. The cleanliness of the glass was important for this image

    

4. Look for areas in the glass that are not scuffed or scratched.   Sometimes cleaning just doesn’t fix it.  If the glass is actually scuffed or scratched you need to move on to another place for your photo.

The glare highlights the scratches and dirtiness of the glass and detracts from this image. Notice the reflection of the flash in the lower right corner.

I’d love to take any of these photos in their natural environment and not have to worry about the glass….but that isn’t always possible.   Don’t be afraid to work with the glass, just be prepared and think through the shot before you take it.