Question for the zoo shooters out there!

[Adam Hicks]

I'm hitting the zoo tomorrow with my brand spankin' new just out of the box 100-400L on the digital rebel, and was wondering about shooting through fences.

A guy mentioned that if you stop down past F8 or F11 or something you could shoot inside the standard chain link fence area without seeing the fence itself. When I got to thinking about it I am assuming you're only allowing the light to enter through a smaller opening, which would leave out the surrounding fence 'ring'? Is this correct? Is there a method for shooting through fences with minimal impact on the image?

Any help is appreciated!

Adam

[DocFrankenstein]

I shot a few pics with my 70-200 wide open

If the fence is close enough it's gonna be heavily blurred and almost won't noticeable. But if you have enought light to stop down to f/11, then by all means :lol:

[Adam Hicks]

Well between a monopod and IS I can probably swing a pretty tight aperture :) I'll see how it goes tomorrow. It's been mid-70's and sunny here in North Texas lately... California weather at Texas prices ;)

Adam

[tommykjensen]

Get as close to the fence as possible. At the same time the subject may not be too close to the fence.


Following shot has been shot through a fence with small 1 cm masks.

http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/photohtml.php?n=latterfugl.jpg

[Olegis]

The fence sometimes produces nice effects, see the following image -

http://www.pbase.com/olegis/image/27799783.jpg

It was shot at f/2.8, 135mm, so the DOF was extremely narrow. Just make sure that the distance from the lens to the fence is much shorter than the one from the fence to the photographed subject. Personally, I set my 70-200 f/2.8L to focus at 3m-∞, so it won't be confused with the fence.

[Scottes]

Yep, get as close to the fence as possible, larger apertures though - wide open on that lens, and don't bother if the subject is close to the fence. I've gotten many great shots through fences. I'd rather shoot through a fence than a dirty glass window, that's for sure.

[tommykjensen]

I've gotten many great shots through fences. I'd rather shoot through a fence than a dirty glass window, that's for sure.

Same here, I have not had good results in the past shooting through windows.

[Adam Hicks]

Cool thanks for the tips guys. Looks like another beautiful day in North Texas, so I'm gonna take the new lens out for a spin and shoot through some fences! 8)

[DocFrankenstein]

The funny thing is that the bokeh seems to be affected the most when you have the fence close and the subject far away.

Like in that bird shot, the bokeh shows vignetting where the fence should be. Barely noticeable though. :?

[Adam Hicks]

Well I spent a few hours at the zoo... awesome day. I haven't gone through the shots yet, but towards the end of the day a guy came in with a 400mm f2.8! He popped his 1D off and let me shot it with my Digital Rebel. How funny did that look... a Digital Rebel shooting through that BEAST of a lense! Amazing bokeh and definitely a nice lens, although the size and weight is just insane. I don't know how much I'd use it if I DID buy it!

Anyways I'm going to compare between my lens at 400mm 5.6 and his at 2.8 and see how things look.

Adam

[tommykjensen]

Cool 8) Be sure to show us some photos :D

[Adam Hicks]

Well took these through the fence with my 100-400L... came out pretty nice as far as blurring the fence goes IMO (resized only)...

http://www.golilm.com/DSLR/eaglehead.jpg

http://golilm.com/DSLR/bigcat.jpg

Unfortunately when I was shooting with the 400mm prime the lighting was really harsh so I didn't get much worth showing off, but I had a great day and I'm really pleased with the performance and image quality from the 100-400L!

Thanks for the tips guys,
Adam

[12345Michael54321]

A guy mentioned that if you stop down past F8 or F11 or something you could shoot inside the standard chain link fence area without seeing the fence itself. When I got to thinking about it I am assuming you're only allowing the light to enter through a smaller opening, which would leave out the surrounding fence 'ring'? Is this correct?
Nope, it's not correct. In fact, it's the exact opposite of what to do.

When shooting through a chain link fence, you presumably want the fence to "disappear," if possible. To accomplish this, you want to use as large (which is to say, "small number") an aperture ("f-stop") as possible, so as to minimize depth-of-field. Large apertures provide a narrower depth-of-field than do small apertures. Think of your objective to be the blurring of the fence so far out-of-focus that it's not even visible.

Additionally, you'll want to get relatively close to the fence, and try to go for shots where the subject (the animal) is some distance away from the fence. For example:

Imagine a tape measurer running from your lens, to the animal -

If you have lens at zero feet, fence at 3 feet, and gorilla at 35 feet, you'll generally be better off than with lens at zero feet, fence at 30 feet, gorilla at 35 feet. Since with your lens focused at 35 feet, a fence at 3 feet falls way outside the zone of reasonable sharpness for a telephoto lens used at a large aperture. Whereas with your lens focused at 35 feet, a fence 30 feet away is pretty close to the zone of sharp focus.

I enjoy zoo and aquarium photography. Fortunately, summer's almost over, so crowds at the zoo and the aquarium will soon thin out considerably. Particularly on weekdays.

[Adam Hicks]

yeah the two shots above were taken wide open. It definitely made a difference. I checked the view at various aperture settings and found as you said, that the larger aperture and shallower DOF made all the difference in the world in losing the fence!

Thanks,
Adam

[tommykjensen]

Very good shots, I like #2 best.