It took me a while to figure out that taking pictures through windows can be at least almost as good as if the glass wasn’t there. In fact, provided your shutter speed is fast enough, you can even get pretty good pics through the windows of a moving train. But there are a few things to keep in mind, so here are my top tips for photography through glass.
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Block the reflections
The main thing is that you want to block any reflections or dirt on the glass. To do this put your camera up flat against the glass, preferably, and cover the area around the lens entirely with a dark scarf, or sweater. I have found an awesome fleece neckwarmer from Uniqlo like this one that is ideal as it is not to heavy or wide, and it fits all around the camera. It has a drawstring to go around the lens and it is what I used in the shot above, which was actually taken from the Uniqlo Chicago Store. If your lens is close enough to the glass it is unlikely to pick up on the dirt as you are focusing in the distance. You may want to tilt your camera for composition, which might be fine, just make sure the scarf is blocking any light.
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Turn off the Lights
If you can turn off lights in the room, do it. Wearing plain dark clothing helps. I am usually in a public space, so turning off the light, or changing my clothes is not an option, so if you are having difficulty blocking the shadows look at the window to see where there are the least shadows. Sometimes behind a pillar or a shaded area might naturally be blocking a lot of the light reflections for you.
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Live View Mode
Use live view mode to see what is going on in the back of your camera. It will probably be easier and more precise to use manual focus. Zoom in on the live view mode to make sure your subject is in focus that way,
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Check your Histogram and Bracket
I always check my histogram to make sure I am getting the highlights and lowlights in my shot. If it is a very contrasty scene where my camera is struggling I will bracket 3 shots or more shots so I have the option to fill in the details in post production, which I do manually with layers most of the time. I set up automatic bracketing on my camera. I also do this so that my camera will choose an even slower shutter speed that I think I can handle in case it works out. I always check by zooming in on the playback the back of my camera to make my picture is sharp.
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Shoot in Manual
Because your camera is flat up against the glass, it will act as a sort of stabilizer, so you can probably use a slower shutter speed and lower ISO if you are careful not to move the camera. This is where the lighter neckwarmer also comes in handy. I shoot in manual mode, so that I can maximise my settings with the lowest possible shutter speed that my hands can take and the lowest possible ISO that corresponds for correct exposure. Of all the settings, the f stop is the least of my concerns for a shot like this, when everything is pretty far away and I had a main point of focus, so I shot is a f.3.5, 1/30 ISO 3200. ( I used a full frame camera where I find ISO 3200 to be an acceptable amount of noise for my. On my T3i I would have lowered it to 1600, or even 800 if I could avoid camera shake). To get light streaks you may need to use a tripod
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White Balance
At night time scenes I like to generally set my white balance to tungsten to balance out the orange cast from the street lights as I am shooting, although since I always shoot raw this is less of an issue.
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Composition
In the shot above, I knew I wanted a square composition to post on instagram. Because I could not get further away from shot without reflections, I decided to do a vertical stitched panorama, with each shot flat against the glass. The shot below is two shots, one for the lower half and one for the top half, which was stitched together via Photomerge in photoshop. I also took vertical and horizontal shots to have for my portfolio or for sharing elsewhere on social media
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Lenses
Because your camera lens is pushed up against the window, with enough force to stabilize it at night ( not that much force, dont go breaking any windows) if you are using a zoom lens, it is going to want to stay at the widest focal length, so you many need to change your lens for a longer zoom, or prime lens, or rethink your composition. During the day you can hold your lens up very lightly so it does not push your lens
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Clean Up
For night photography I always use my lens cloth to make sure my lens is completely clean, as this will affect the clean shape around the lights in the picture, if there are fingerprints on the glass I might give it a wipe too.
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Using the Window
If it is raining or the window has a cool pattern it might be great to use the glass as a texture or as part of your composition, so move your camera back a little from the glass, shut off any lights in the room, I think it helps if you are wearing plain dark colors, and focus on the window. If you want a bokeh background use a shallow depth of field.
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Tools
At a polarizing filter helps to block reflections on the glass, however I have never used one, and I am sure all the above steps would still be needed if the lights inside are significantly brighter than the outside scene and the reflections are very obvious. However it would be useful when you can’t put your lens up to the glass or shooting through store windows etc. I have never tried the Lens Skirt, which is expensive and looks well thought out if you bring it with you whenever you think you might need it, I have contemplated cutting up a cheap mini on- camera strobe softbox to put around my lens, but I have my neckwarmer to be good enough for now.
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Gear
When I want my composition up high or down low the movable screen on my T3i is invaluable, it’s much tricker with the D600, for this reason I would never buy a camera without a swivel screen again, and sometimes choose my t3i over my D600, especially for shots where I can do a long exposure.
My guerilla pod is fantastic for these sorts of situations as I can bend or manipulate the legs to get into some tight spaces and have the flexibility to get the lens right up against the glass, and it is much more subtle in places where tripods are not allowed or appropriate.
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Sharpening
In post processing you may find that more sharpening is needed than usual, as the quality if the glass in front of your lens has been diminished, don’t overdo it though, or things can start to look, one mistake I usually regret is over-sharpening an image.
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Moving Vehicles
For taking a picture from a moving train or the passenger seat of a car, where you are trying to create the illusion you are standing in front of the scene, i.e without glass or movement, it’s all about the shutter- get that up as high as you can, and follow all the above tips. For the highest possible shutter speed you many need to increase your ISO and use a larger aperture ( which is a smaller fstop number) depending on your lighting conditions