Hi jle,
We went with the obscure glass... however, we also went with a wood frame and painted it with marine paint and made sure it didn't have too many horizontal spaces. Link to the photo below....
We also used a rain shower head.
I think it works well.

My previous house had a large window in the shower as well. I used obscured glass, and you're instinct is right....you get nowhere near the same amount of light as from clear glass. (As an aside to this question, I opted for a vinyl window in the shower and was glad I did...NO question of rot).

In my current kitchen remodel, I had a sort-of similar issue...windows looking directly out onto a sort of light well between row houses...a very unattractive view. After exploring the options, I opted for cascade glass. Most window companies offer it or smoething like it...sometimes called rain glass...and a whole slew of other textured glass options. Many of them are much clearer than the obscured glass and let a lot more light in, while still blocking the view. You might find that you're still not comfortable standing in the altogether in front of some...I would think someone outside might be able to guess that the blur they see is a body in a shower...but others could work well. I'd check out the options available.

Make sure it's tempered glass. A building code requirement.

In person, someone also suggested glass block. Not sure what I think about that idea either.

Hmmmmmm.

I was worried about this too and wanted clear glass for the natural light even though there is a porch outside the bathroom window (a big step down but right outside the window). We decided to go with a Pella fiberglass double hung window with clear glass in both halves and put obscuring film on the bottom half ourselves. Unfortunately, even just putting the film on half of the window did cut down the light but it seemed worth it for privacy. The film was easy to apply and looks just like obscure glass.

I'll try and attach a picture but if I'm successful please ignore the ugly porch roof visible outside the window. That is next spring's project - until then I'm just glad that when you stand in the shower, the roof is less noticeable and you can see my green and private backyard.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bathroom window with obscured bottom half

marysdottir, I'm curious to see your picture -- I've read online about the film but haven't seen it in person, etc. But your photobucket wants info from me -- can you help me out? Thanks!

Hi jle,
Scroll down on the photos in this link. I think this is a somewhat similar use of the film to which marydottir refers.
Good luck

Here is a link that might be useful: link to photos of french door with film

Sorry, jle. I accidently made the picture private. It's public now and you should be able to see it.

And I think mine is just like Southerngal's. It comes in all kinds of patterns but we wanted simple so went with the plain obscured.

I'm starting to see this film in a lot of places now that I have used it myself. My sister-in-law's new home's front door faces her neighbour's windowed stair well. The neighbour has applied this film in a bamboo pattern on both stairwell windows and it looks stunning with their Asian inspired westcoast home.

We replaced the acrylic block window over our jacuzzi tub with a more opaque glass block window for our shower. It faces west, so we get lots of afternoon sunlight. I tried to maximize privacy and retain as much light as I could since this is the only window in the bathroom.