when to use a hood ?

wooders

wooders

Suspended / Banned
Messages
73
Name
Si
Edit My Images
No
This might sound a daft question to many of you but im new to the dslr camera, when should the lens hood be used ? .Ive read that many people use it to protect the front glass but if you do that will it affect the picture quality on a dull / cloudy day . Can anyone advise on what weather conditions they should or shouldnt be used in .
thanks.
 
It will only ever improve picture quality. I don't know where you got the idea that they're unsuitable on a dull day.
 
Always use a hood :thumbs:

Unless you are confusing a hood with a 'protector' filter. A hood will provide a degree of impact resistance as protection and can potentially improve image quality by keeping extraneous light from entering the lens.

A filter will keep dust, spray, grit off the front element but can introduce ghosting and flare.
 
As said, always use a hood. It improves contrast too. Only time I don't (other than a lazy snapshot) is when using a macro lens up close as it shield too much light from the subject.
 
phil , not to sure on my thinking of it it not being used on overcast days , just thought i had seen it somewhere .For some reason i thought they were for sunny days ,dont ask me why.As i said im new to this and look up to you people for great advice and help .
You dont use them indoors do you ?
 
wooders said:
phil , not to sure on my thinking of it it not being used on overcast days , just thought i had seen it somewhere .For some reason i thought they were for sunny days ,dont ask me why.As i said im new to this and look up to you people for great advice and help .
You dont use them indoors do you ?
Click to expand...

Use them all the time. They offer physical protection for the lens and protection from flare.
 
gnirtS said:
Hoods are useful but usually completely prevent a CPL from being used properly.
Click to expand...

Why? The hoof doesn't fit on the filter thread, although I ll give you makes it harder to rotate them
 
Hood always- lens protection is first and foremost in my mind and as a bonus it can help prevent lens flare and un-wanted light entering the shot


Les :thumbs:
 
Always use a hood - unless you're being all arty and hoping for more lens flare

I know a well known tog who teaches Pros to not only NOT use a hood but that having a dirty lens can help; most of us would cry/die in shame at the state of his front element on his 70-200 !!!

But for 'normal' people - use the hood - pretty much always

Dave
 
Ohhh boy. I have been here 5 minutes and already have learnt something. I have been reading this thread with interest re lens hoods and I thought, and believe many others think the same that lens hoods are only used when the sun is causing serious problems with a picture. I would go as far as saying in the 2.1/2 years I have had my EOS 500D I have only used the hood 2 times. I am not even sure if it is in my camera bag and may well be stuck in a drawer. I will certainly dust off the cobwebs today and keep it with me from now on.
 
A bit of repetition :)
A hood is most useful when there is direct sunlight about, which can cause flare.
When the light is more diffused, stray light (that is light which is coming from areas that are not in the framed picture) can still reach the front of the lens and can cause a drop in contrast.
The only times that a hood is detrimental to a picture is if it is too long and causes vignetting (darkening of the corners) or if it causes a shadow when using the in built flash.
The only other times that sometimes I do not use a hood is when shooting through glass or mesh as I want the lens as close to the glass or mesh as possible.
 
As above. I see someone has now pointed out that they can cast a shadow with the built in flash. That's about the only time when I don't use one.
 
Hood. Always. Only caveat is make sure it's the right hood. It has to be the correct one for the lens or may cause vignetting.

Re CPL - it can be impossible to adjust one of these on a long lens with hood fitted.
 
Even for lenses that don't come with hoods it's worth buying a hood for it. You can get 3rd party hoods off ebay for only a few pounds and as long as you get the right one they work as good as the OEM ones. I used to have UV filters for lens protection on all my lenses but they made the photos very soft, so now I use the hood for protection and no filters.

The only times I don't use the hood is when I'm using a CPL, which is very rare, and when I'm shooting macro and then I have a ringflash attached so I cant use the hood anyway.
 
thanks for all the replies .Im glad im i asked the question which i thought was daft at the time but after reading all the replies i now no at least 1 other forum user has gained some good advice .
 
jon ryan said:
Hood. Always. Only caveat is make sure it's the right hood. It has to be the correct one for the lens or may cause vignetting.

Re CPL - it can be impossible to adjust one of these on a long lens with hood fitted.
Click to expand...

The other caveat is the hood should be matt black inside, and some of the cheaper ones can be a bit shiny and could, in strong side lighting, make things worse by reflecting light straight into the lens.

Line with self-adhesive black felt, 79p from Hobbycraft :thumbs:
 
I never use my lens without the hood fitted. Wouldn't dream of leaving it off.
 
Mystery57 said:
Whats the benefits between using the standard hoods and the petal shape ones ?
Click to expand...

The ideal hood is rectangular, same shape as the image. If you look through a petal hood from the lens position, it appears rectangular.
 
boyfalldown said:
Why? The hoof doesn't fit on the filter thread, although I ll give you makes it harder to rotate them
Click to expand...

I have a couple of hoods that screw in rather than being bayonet fits but both are circular rather than petal hoods so it doesn't matter if they get rotated.
 
thanks Richard, hadnt given any consideration to that being the reason for different shapes.

Are the petal ones not prone to letting in light a bit more than conventional hoods.

Also I notice on my lens hood one of the pairs of petal shape are larger than the other pair, which should be at the top of the lens ?

thanks
Andrew
 
Mystery57 said:
thanks Richard, hadnt given any consideration to that being the reason for different shapes.

Are the petal ones not prone to letting in light a bit more than conventional hoods.

Also I notice on my lens hood one of the pairs of petal shape are larger than the other pair, which should be at the top of the lens ?

thanks
Andrew
Click to expand...

No, a petal hood is more efficient than a round one, that could only be as deep as the shallowest part of the petal, if you see what I mean. The petal design allows the hood to be made deeper further away from the corners. You'll notice that the petals are different heights along the sides compared to top and bottom.

Ideally the petals should not be squared off at the end, but they often are so that you can put the lens down and it won't fall over.

In terms of efficiency though, lens hoods for zooms are not very good, because they can only be at the maximum depth at the shortest end of the zoom, or they'd protrude into the image. Also, hoods designed for full frame lenses are not as deep as they could be for use on crop-format cameras (with their narrower field of view). Sigma makes hood extensions for some of its lenses for this reason.

The perfect hood should be rectangular to match the image, and as deep as it can be without intruding into the picture. It should also 'zoom' with the lens, like this one I made earlier :D It makes a very noticeable difference in really difficult light, eg sun just outside the frame, or for studio work where there's a lot of bright white background outside the image area, which is what I use it for.

Standard hood
untitled-9653.jpg


Hood set at 80mm
untitled-9656.jpg


Hood set at 160mm
untitled-9655.jpg
 
Last edited:
Either use a hood on proper, or not at all, never reversed! ;)

There is nothing wrong with not using a hood btw.
 
Last edited:
I just mine on out of habit... never actually thought there could be a negative from it...
 
Perhaps don't use a hood if you want more discretion whilst doing street photography :)

Other than that and the already mentioned removal for some macro shots, I always keep it on for protection & flare prevention as I don't use any filters for protection.
 
I always use a hood unless doing macro shooting. It provides the glass with a lot of protection.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top