How to take photo of an object inside the "Glass showcase"?

[JohnPeter]

Hi friends,

Connect has been a great help to learn and share knowledge. I thank all the contributors and Google team.

I have been finding it very difficult to take pictures of an object behind the glass or glass showcase using dslr or mobile cam. How to take clarity photo and avoid reflections.

My few recent poor photos

[StephenAbraham]

@JohnPeter I can suggest 3 things can may help.

1. Turn on your DSLR level meter so the composition is straight and level.

2. Use a circular polarizing filter and adjust the polarizer to cut out as much as the reflection as possible.

3. If the outdoor lighting cannot be avoided via curtains etc, then take the photo during a better time of the day where the outside lights are not too contrasty, maybe towards the evening/dusk time.

Others can share their thoughts as well.

[JohnPeter]

Thanks, dear @StephenAbraham for the guidelines I will try surely try and get back to you. Thanks for being a great help.

[KlaudiyaG]

Hi @JohnPeter ,

I’m happy to hear that you found Connect helpful for improving your photography skills! Regarding your question, I was thinking the same thing as @StephenAbraham , which is using the help of a circular polarizing filter. The prices for this handy tool varies. There are some inexpensive ones, but it’s best to look into it.

Probably @PoliMC and @PaulPavlinovich can add some additional information regarding this topic, as they are more experienced than me in this area of expertise.

[JohnPeter]

Thanks dear @KlaudiyaG , I will definitely give a try to circular polarizing filter, also thank you for the appreciations and tagging more professionals.

[KlaudiyaG]

The pleasure was all mine @JohnPeter ! I’m actually very glad that you’ve started this topic, because I would love to learn a new useful method that will help completely eliminate the reflections in my photos, so I’ll be definitely following this thread.

[rajuroyal]

**Hello @JohnPeter **

Thanks For Shearing Recently i try to my Best

Clean the Glass and Change the position of the camera and Mounting a polarizing filter, As you are composing and focusing, you rotate the polarizing filter for maximum reflection mitigation. If the reflections remain, select another viewpoint. Rotating the polarizing filter as you compose is the key to finding a setup with minimum reflections.

[PoliMC]

Hi @KlaudiyaG ,

Thanks a lot for tagging me!

Well, I am not so experienced exactly in these photos as well but when I visited last summer the Photography course I’ve learned as @StephenAbraham said that the circular polarizing filter can help for the reflections but unfortunately didn’t try it and don’t have such photos. I will follow this post to learn more interesting techniques as well.

@JohnPeter thanks a lot for this post! I am sure it will be very useful for the other Local Guides as well.

[JohnPeter]

Thanks dear @PoliMC for once again giving emphasis on circular polarizing filter. Definitely I will give a try. Thanks for your openness

[PoliMC]

Hi @JohnPeter ,

Thanks a lot for your reply and you are welcome!

I am sure your photos will be amazing! I will wait for them!

[JohnPeter]

Google map contributions helps me in many ways especially in writting skills, technologically and photography.

Indeed I wish and strive forward to produce best photos. Surely I will tag you

[PaulPavlinovich]

Thanks for the ping @KlaudiyaG

Great question @JohnPeter and this is one that vexes many people from show cases, to shooting through a window, perhaps out of a highrise to get a skyline view of a city.

The challenge is not the glass, it is the reflections from the outside of the glass and the refraction from the inner face - both introduce unwanted glare or artefacts.

Shooting through glass is a painful experience usually. I see that @StephenAbraham already gave the excellent advice of using a circular polariser filter (a linear polariser) would work too). Fun fact: You can get the same effect shooting through polarised sunglasses.

There are some other things you can use, I often use a beast called a LenSkirt which fits over your lens and effectively blocks all light from around your lens. To shoot into a show case and get the whole case you’re going to need to pair it with an ultra wide lens such as 7mm. With a view through a window you can use whatever lens meets your needs.

You don’t necessarily need to buy any camera tools though as many post processing tools (including Adobe Lightroom and Skylum Luminar) have an awesome “dehaze” feature. It is designed to remove fog and other haze in the air but it happens to clean up artefacts from glass quite nicely. This won’t yield a perfect result but it will go a long way towards it.

Regards Paul

[JohnPeter]

Thanks, dear @PaulPavlinovich for the detailed information and thank you for presenting it in an easy to understand way.

Good to learn inner and outer reflections, lenskirt, polariser filter and photo editing tools like Adobe Lightroom and Skylum Luminar.

Surely I will give a try to all

Thanks

[PaulPavlinovich]

Here is an example of what the Dehaze function is for and what it is capable of.

The second image is from my phone. I was trying to shoot a concept car that was on display behind the windows of an art gallery but the results were awful. I fed it to the LR Dehaze function and while the result isn’t an amazing image it did at least make it usable.

[JohnPeter]

Thanks dear @PaulPavlinovich, your inspirations and guidelines helped me a lot.

Here is the result

Result after editing

I have just tried mobile Adobe Lightroom app ( free version so could not try many options), also edited with Google photo app and Android phone default app. Hope results are better, for me, it is far excellent.

I also increased “vignette” to darken the corners which had more reflections and not part of the main picture.

Thanks for dear @PaulPavlinovich @PoliMC @KlaudiyaG @StephenAbraham @rajuroyal and all the moderators, Local guides who helped me in this regards.

[PaulPavlinovich]

That looks so much better @JohnPeter well done. Richer colours and almost no glare.

[JohnPeter]

Thanks dear @PaulPavlinovich , I also tired “vignette” option to darken the corners which had more reflections and not part of the main picture.

Thanks again

[PoliMC]

Hi @JohnPeter ,

Thanks a lot for sharing your results with us!

They look really amazing and better! It’s great that you took the suggestion from @PaulPavlinovich .