Where should I shoot from?

Does anyone know if there is an optimum distance to be behind a net or fence when shooting through it? Sometimes I have no choice other than to shoot from behind the net, or even worse a chain link fence painted dark green, at a baseball game. Under such circumstances I always focus manually; however, how far behind the net/fence should my lens be -- almost touching it, back a foot or so or is it best to be back a few feet? I shoot with a 200 or 300mm lens @ 2.8 to 5.6 and the subject is between 60 and 120 feet from me.

Are you getting sharp focused images currently?

Ryan

Best Lab www.NationsPhotoLab.co​m

Not from behind the net/fence. I've always shot with the lens almost touching them tho.

I think that you should be as close to the fence / glass as possible, that way the fence will be so out of your DOF you won't even notice it in your pictures (well, maybe a little). See in this image - the bright horizontal blur is actually a part of the fence, but it's barely noticeable. This image was shot through a fence with very small holes - but it's completely unvisible because of the DOF. On the other hand, this image shows the fence bars very well because I was farther away from the fence.

And don't forget to use the hood so that when you bump into the fence, you won't damage your lens!

Thanks guys. I conducted a little experiment in my back yard this afternoon -- 300mm lens, f 5.6, and target @ 75 feet shooting with the lens hood 1) against the fence, 2) one foot away and 3) two feet away. If there's a difference in image quality, I can't see it. So it would appear, at least for my purposes, that the optimum is anywhere inside of two feet.