Lisa and I made our annual trip to D.C. for easter to see friends. We decided with our limited time to see the sights that this year we would visit the National Museum of American History. The renovations to the building are nice but the museum was way over crowded. I had my backpack with all my photo gear and was hoping to get some neat shots of some of the treasures, in our nation's attic.
I got a couple of decent shots, however, with the prevalence of cheap digital cameras it seemed everyone in the museum had the same idea. As a result (i'll explain why in a bit) I wasn't able to get many usable images. Although I was able to get one of the few Lincoln Life masks, taken of the president's actual face.
I think it is strikingly personal connection to such a historic figure. the image had to be color corrected as it was yellowed by the light in the display area. Amazingly this bust was one of the few artifacts that oodles of people weren't taking oodles of pictures of, thus the nice picture. So now my rant, If you are going to take a picture in a museum DON'T USE THE FLASH if what you are photographing is behind glass. otherwise all you and anyone else trying to take a similar picture will get is the reflection of your flash and nothing else. As seen in this next picture (notice how every fingerprint on the glass and minor imperfection is now in the image).
As an example this next picture was taken in another part of the museum through 1/2 inch thick glass (no flash) and you can see the details nicely without fingerprints or nasty flare.
Well enough ranting, I hope my frustration will help some others to actually get the picture they want..
After the museum we went to dinner and on the way back, I had some fun with night pics and low light in the subway.
Similarly, I ran into this problem in a museum in London. Flashes popping all over the place so my pictures of the Rosetta Stone didn't turn out too well. The other problem was that if I tried to back up for a better angle, people would crowd in front of me thinking I was finished. My best advice for shooting through glass, especially in low light, is to cup ones hands over the front edges of the lens and bump up against the glass to keep stray light out and to get rid of reflections. Better than using hands is to have a rubber, collapsable lens hood that can mush up against the glass and keep out reflections, for only a few dollars.
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