Thursday, August 25, 2011

Tip 2: shooting through fences

 This is the backstop fence at Fifth Third Field. String is medium thickness. 



    Tip 2: Did you know you can shoot through a fence as if it wasn't there? It's not a miracle; you just have to consider the following things:
  1. It depends what lens length you're using. Wide lenses, like a 35mm, won't work, even at 2.8. Long lenses are the key. I recently shot these photos to illustrate this point:
16mm lens shot @ 2.8, 1/2700 of a second, 400 ISO
300 mm lens @ f3.2, 1/1600 of a second, 800 ISO

   2. It also depends on the aperture. Using a long lens, set your f/stop to around f2.8 and put it right up against the fence and focus on the subject on the field. The closer you are to the fence, the more invisible the fence will be. (Don't forget to set the shutter speed accordingly.) If the lens is not close to the fence, you will end up with faint lines, like on the photo below:
      This was taken with a 300 mm lens at f2.8, but the fence was about 20 feet or so from the pitcher.
   3. It also depends on the thickness of the fence. A thick fence might not be completely invisible, so you'll have to look through the lens and place your subject in the middle of the fence lines.
   So, next time you think a fence is an obstacle, experiment with different lens lengths and f/stops to solve this problem.
  



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