Today I’m going to share with you a photo accessory that’ll help you improve your images. It’ll increase contrast, remove glare and flaring. Your images will look clearer and sharper. As a bonus, it actually helps protect your equipment! Many, many pro photographers use this device, in fact I can’t think of any right now that don’t: That’s how important it is. It’s simple to operate, very portable, lightweight, doesn’t use batteries and here’s some good news: The off brand models work JUST as good AND cost a fraction of the price of those made by the camera manufacturers. They’re not expensive, the street price for one of these devices? I’ve seen them as low as $8. Alright let’s get started.
So you’ve probably guessed that the miracle photo device that I’m talking about is the humble lens hood or lens shade. It’s such a simple concept really: Shade your lens from stray light coming from the side. Attach it to your lens to make it nice and portable.
Here’s why shading your lens is so important: A camera lens is actually made up of many glass lenses or elements. Each one is cleverly designed to bend light to help you get your nice, clear, sharp images. They use carefully designed curvatures, special coatings and other tricks to give you the clearest image possible. But even with all of these new fangled, high technology designs, there are some things, that even the best lenses still have difficulty managing. One of these is stray light from the side.
A lens intentionally bends light in a good way, but since it’s glass, it naturally does a couple of unintentional things that can degrade an image. It acts like a prism, separates light into colors as well as bounces and reflects light. Because of these characteristics, light coming from the side of your lens can unintentionally get pulled in, then bounced around and finally land on your sensor along with all of the intended “good image” light.
What does this look like? It looks like glowing spots, or circles. It looks like flares. It looks like a haze over the entire images which results in lower contrast and colors which are not well represented.
Check out the 2 images of my ukulele on a couch. One shot with and one without a lens hood. Light was coming from the upper left through an open window. That light, without the hood, fell on the front or “objective” element of my lens. It was bent in, bounced around and caused the effects that you see.
Even if I took the same image and cropped in to exclude some of the more obvious offending spots, the haze and loss of contrast is still very noticeable.
So why don’t more people use lens hoods? Here are some of my thoughts:
Some cameras / lenses can’t mount a lens hood. Many point and shoots have a lens that retracts when it’s off and then expands out when you turn the camera on. Just like smartphones, there’s no easy way to attach a lens hood. Sure you could always block the stray light with your hand, but will you always notice or be fast enough to do so? Imagine trying to photograph a dog running by. Can you effectively get your hand in the right place and not get it in the picture? It’d be tough. Or what about the situation where you’re shooting at night and there are multiple sources of unwanted stray light sources say from street lamps?
Another reason I don’t think lens hoods are used as often as they should is, advertising. Every time you see a sexy ad for a camera, a product shot, you never see it with a lens hood. Lens hoods can be large and might detract from the image of the camera that they’re trying to sell. Pay attention the next time you look in a photo magazine. Anytime there’s an ad for camera, you rarely, if ever, see it presented with a hood on. Because of that, some people don’t shoot with a hood, because it doesn’t “look” right or look good. Maybe they think it makes the camera look bigger and awkward. I dunno. Personally I think a camera looks more pro with a hood on. Why? Because all the pros I see are using hoods.
Another reason might be the inconvenience and overall increase in size it adds. Now since I shoot mirrorless, this is where I have a nice advantage. It’s not inconvenient for me at all because I leave it on all the time, even when I tuck it away in my camera bag or sling. My mirrorless system is so small that I just keep the hood on, no lens cap and put the whole kit and kaboodle in it’s designated, padded compartment. When it’s go time, I pull the camera out, hood and all, turn it on and I’m ready to shoot.
Maybe the biggest reason that people don’t use a lens hood is that they simply don’t know. They have no idea the benefit it can provide. They get disappointing shots that are flarey, hazy or lack contrast and don’t know that, with a simple hood, they could’ve done better. I’ve seen SO many people shoot with their lens hoods on the lens, but backwards. Maybe they’re too lazy or didn’t think to flip it around the correct way, or maybe they really have no idea what it’s for. Here’s what I think: When they first got the camera and took it out of the package, the lens hood was put on backward for storage and they just kept using it that way because they figure that’s how it’s supposed to be.
One final bonus and another reason why I always keep my lens hood on. Protection. I never use a clear or UV filter just to protect my lens. I question the amount of protection it really provides, (there are youtube videos that show that they really don’t) and it adds more glass that can, again, bring in and bounce unwanted light. A lens hood provides a nice defensive guard for that front objective lens element. There very little chance that anything will ever touch the front element of your lens once you’ve mounted your hood.
So get on your hood, and get out there and shoot! You’ll be glad that you did.
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