Taking photographs through glass

As photographers, we have all tried it at some stage or the other… to shoot an image while being behind a sheet of glass. The greatest challenge when dealing with something like this is suppressing the reflections from the sheet of glass. This problem is particularly bad when shooting night scenes.

Attempting to resolve these issues in post-processing is time-consuming and does not always work. I’ve finally come across a means to be able to suppress reflections while shooting through glass, no matter what the conditions… and it is all thanks to a very simple but ingenious idea!

Enter the LenSkirt – a canvas tent with suction cups that you can attach to the sheet of glass through which you are about to shoot through. The LenSkirt has a drawstring-secured hole through which you can insert your camera’s lens through to shoot, while ensuring that light sources from behind the camera remain completely suppressed.

The LenSkirt is small enough to pop into your camera bag and take with you anywhere. It is particularly useful when shooting from a well-lit room into a dark area (such as a night scene from a viewing platform, or into an aquarium). I tried building something like this from scratch, and the materials alone cost me $70. After investing about 5 hours of my time, I had built a rag-tag contraption that didn’t even come close to the quality of the LenSkirt. If you do shoot through glass, this is a terrific piece of equipment to have in your kit.

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