Zoo tips – Make the cage disappear

For many of us who live in the city, the closest thing to wildlife is the Zoo. However, it does come with its bundle of challenges. As a matter of fact, the animals are in cages or behind fences and it can be very difficult to capture a great exposure without being ruined by the grid of cage appearing in the image. Is this inevitable? No and here is how you can over come this challenge. You might remember the episode The Creative Aperture: Depth of Field where we saw how the Aperture impact the Depth of Field, enabling you to prevent any disruptive background by simply blurring it. The Depth of Field (DoF) is the zone in focus in your exposure and therefore if you subject is in that zone and the DoF is shallow then anything that will be either behind or in front will be blurred. This is the very same principle this trick is about. By placing your lens as close as possible to the fence or cage and using the widest and most appropriate Aperture you will be able to blur out the grid. In the image below you can easily see how an average Aperture value such as f10 let you see the grid:

In this image you can notice how by increasing the Aperture and getting closer to the fence, the background is not only out of the DoF but also the grid is nearly gone. You can only see a white blurred vertical trail that can be treated in Post Production:

Applying this technic really enables you to get closer to your subject despite the cage and fence and you can achieve this type of appealing shot: