Don’t Let That Chain Link Fence Get In The Way Of Your Photos

February 4th, 2009 by Dan Bodenstein

There are probably been many occasions when you wanted to take some photos of your child playing baseball or soccer and the field was surrounded by a chain link fence. Or, the times when you were visiting a zoo or animal park and wanted to take some photos of the beautiful animals that were on the other side of the chain link. These fences are usually put up to keep everyone safe or to protect property. But, you don’t have to use the fence as an excuse not to get great photos, because there a few easy things you can do to get the great shoot without anyone even knowing that were shooting through a fence.

Your photos will turn out better if you use a lens that has a long focal length. Or, if you are using a zoom lens, zoom out the lens as far as it will go. This will give you the opportunity to get the composition you need. Wide angle lens make it very difficult to get the shot without the fence being in the way because of the large viewing angle that they create. You have a better chance of avoiding the fence if you use a 70mm lens or greater. Select a larger aperture to control the depth of field. If your camera has a depth of field button (DOF), you can preview your shot to make sure that the fence isn’t in the way. Hold your lens as close as you can to the fence. Sometimes it may be possible to fit your lens in between the chain links. By doing this, you keep the fence at a longer distance from the depth of field range.

Try to stay away from using your built in flash. The bright light from the camera’s built in flash will more than likely bounce off of the fence and will create bright white spots on your images. If you need the flash for the extra lighting, try using a detachable flash attached to a flash bracket. Focus your lens on the subject behind the fence and not on the fence. If your auto focus feature seems to be getting confused, set your camera to the manual override mode and manually focus on your subject.

The most important tips to remember when shooting through a chain link fence are to get as close to the fence as is legally allowed, use a minimum of a 70mm zoom lens, focus on the subject behind the fence and use a larger aperture. If you are able to do these four things at the same time, the fence will disappear.

Here are some photos I’ve taken through chain link fencing.