How to Control Reflections -Shooting into glass

[Matthew Romanis]

I have shot a lot of projects in recording studios, some of them have angled glass which will be of benefit to you as outlined above, some did not.
In these situations you could use two pieces of black cloth, one with a horizontal slit cut into it (the front one), the other black cloth with no slit placed behind the front one allowing room for the camera and dolly if required. Don’t so much as poke the lens through the slit, but shoot through the slit, this will cut ambient light form the front of the lens and reduce the possibility of seeing reflections of lights on the lens in the glass window. Have the crew draped in blacks to help with reflections. Place props and objects in key spots to offer practical reflections in the glass if you feel you need them, you could even dolly through them creating layers.
I use rolls of black velvet from a retail fabric supplier, generally comes in 1.5m wide by 7m long, around $5 p/m.
Matthew.

[Steve]

This is great info! Thank you! It makes total sense – I can see why this would work. I really appreciate the input. Sounds like you’ve done this before.

Steve