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Context

Looking at previous shots I've taken, I see that when I'm indoors and shooting outdoors with glass in between, I sometimes get glare. I know that realistically if I can get outside, the shot looks a lot better but sometimes that isn't an option, or it is inaccessible.

The only way I've found to reduce glare is to remove the lens hood and put the lens right up to the glass but I'm unable to get different perspectives except ones tangential to the glass.

Question

Are there ways to mitigate or reduce glare, before post production? Related when is glare most predominant/likely to occur?

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marked as duplicate by mattdm, Community♦ Apr 27 '16 at 19:57

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Rubber Lens Hoods are available to use when shooting through glass. You place the front of the hood flat on the glass window and can then move the camera at various angles. Just be careful not to move the camera to a spot so that part of the rubber hood folds into the lens' field of view.

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    One little issue with collapsible rubber lens hoods (which most available seem to be) is that they can do the collapsing in a very mousetrap-like manner when pushed against glass. I finally found an older Tiffen "wide angle" one on ebay that works well for this purpose, allowing for more variation of angle, and more apt to spring out of its collapsed state than into it, at the cost of being a little bulkier, for whatever that's worth. – junkyardsparkle Apr 27 '16 at 6:00
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    Running a strip of duct tape around the fold line on the outside of a rubber lens hood will help with preventing that problem. – Michael C Apr 27 '16 at 18:09
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The usual way to reduce glare is to use a polarizing filter. You mount it to your lens and rotate it until the reflection is much less intense. A quality polarizer makes an enormous difference but it still cannot remove all glare in all cases.

The approach you describe avoids reflection on the glass. It is restrictive the way you do it but you can also use a black cloth over the camera and tape it to the glass. That will create an area where you can move your camera and point it in different direction without reflections. This is often used when taking photos from a building where windows cannot be opened and access to the roof is restricted.

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