# Shooting through a window



## astroNikon (Mar 30, 2017)

About a month or two ago someone tried to take some photographs through their truck window of a landscape image (pond, birds) and wondered why the camera couldn't focus and the image was fuzzy.

While taking some baseball photos I walked past a Window and decided to try to shoot through the window just for fun.  The Nikon D500 has an awful problem trying to focus.  So I manually focused and got a better shot than the camera's AF would have done.  But still, you can tell the difference in detail/IQ between which one was and wasn't shot through a window.

Of course I knew looking through the window with my own eyes that there was a difference.  Thus when people ask about their filters I mention to put it up against a book/newspaper and compare the image before and after.  

These example will show you the loss in IQ.  Keep in mind I *had* to manually focus the shot through the window for the best image vs the camera's which was a lot more OOF.

SOOC - D600 JPEG set to Vivid.


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## jcdeboever (Mar 30, 2017)

Yup. But there is that warm safe feeling of a being a goldfish.... immmmmm such a beautiful day in the neighbor hood.....


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## vintagesnaps (Mar 30, 2017)

Tell me about it... try shooting hockey thru gunked up glass that has had sweat, spit, and other assorted goo splattered on it and hasn't been cleaned in years... lol Manual focus, absolutely, or probably the camera would try to focus on the stick marks on the glass. 

But I have actually gotten some nice shots thru the car window, if _____. (Fill in a number of conditions and hope the stars align and the photography gods are smiling and that kind of thing. Or maybe it's just dumb luck.)


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## DanOstergren (Mar 30, 2017)

Sometimes you can get really beautiful results with portraits when shooting through a window, but I can see it being an issue for event and sports photography.


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## pixmedic (Mar 30, 2017)

^^^this is why you dont put cheap filters in front of  your good lenses.


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## Derrel (Mar 30, 2017)

Shooting through glkass at close range is one of the situations where it;'s good to use the focus limiter switch, if the lens offers that feature. "Lock OUT" the close ranges, and leave the limiter set to the Infinity to 5 meter range, and it will often help when shooting through chain link fencing or glass. Limiters are found mostly on high-end tele zooms and high-dollar primes.


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## Scoody (Mar 31, 2017)

DanOstergren said:


> Sometimes you can get really beautiful results with portraits when shooting through a window, but I can see it being an issue for event and sports photography.







This is a shot I took a couple of years ago.  I had met with some clients in a conference room of a local Holiday Suites Hotel and liked the look of the doors.  When this young lady and her family left the church after her mass and were on the way to the event hall I asked them to stop there on the way for a couple of quick shots.  Just my camera, 50mm lens and my assistant holding a remote triggered speedlight.


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## goooner (Mar 31, 2017)

I find the dehaze function in LR works pretty well to get rid of reflections/glare. Of course not as good as shooting through air...


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## astroNikon (Mar 31, 2017)

DanOstergren said:


> Sometimes you can get really beautiful results with portraits when shooting through a window, but I can see it being an issue for event and sports photography.


windex for glass preparation helps a lot too.


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