Photographing birds through a window (1 Viewer)

First of all, I apologize if this is in the wrong forum.

I was wondering, what is the correct way of photographing birds through a window? I have tried on several occasions to take snapshots of the birds at my feeders, but in all cases the subjects end up blurry.

In the attached pic, I had tried moving the storm window out of the way, so that I was shooting only through one layer of glass, but it didn't seem to help. If I remember right, I was using 400-speed standard film.

It is possible to get reasonable shots through a window. The original of my avatar http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/1852 was digiscoped through double glazing.

I am sure experts will have a better idea but I think it is important to shoot straight through the glass. I think there is more distortion when the shot is at an angle.

Are you using autofocus? If so, the IR is sensing the window as the focal point. Try manual focus. Let us know if this helps

My tips for what they are worth - as Robin says it is posible to get decent results but best to shot through an open window.

I used to shot alot through glass. The biggest problem is flare

1) the window must be spotlessly clean on both sides.
2) kill all light in the room.
3) don't shot if you have any sun directly on the glass from the outside. i.e window should be in the shade.
4) keep the camera parallel to the window.
5) keep fairly close to the window so any effects on the glass are out of focus.

see if any of this helps.

Robert

Looking at your photos, it doesn't look to me as if the glass is the problem - all good points though about making sure the window is clean, moving within a few inches of the glass and looking straight through rather than at too much of an angle.

In your photo looking in the distance the camera autofocus seems to have picked up larger area of grass and the river in the background rather than the small sized feeders and birds. Even a camera with spot metering / focus zones would have trouble picking up narrow feeders. You could though try positioning the feeder a bit more to the right in the viewfinder to give the camera sensors more chance of picking up the feeder rather than the background.

You don't mention the type of camera in use. If it has manual focus then swap to that and focus on the birds and if it has a spot metering function - use that with the spot over the bird feeder. If no manual focus then a simple way to get around the problem is to focus on something the same distance away as the feeder such as the lawn and half depress the shutter but to lock the settings and then re-compose the shot so the feeders are in view whilst holding the shutter button - then complete the press and the birds should be in focus. Even better to do is to at some time actually measure the distance from where you stand at the window to the feeders and then place say a plant pot or stone on the ground the same distance away in view from the window in similar lighting to the feeders ie sunlight - being a bit larger the camera should be able to lock focus better - then do as suggested before locking focus on the plant pot and then repositioning to the feeders to photograph the birds.

Hehe, I guess it would help if I told what type of camera I use! It's an Olympus Stylus 120, with a 38-120mm zoom lens. It does have a spot-metering feature, I'll have to look over the manual again.