I always use a hood. Every shot. Unless it gets in the way of movements
I never use a hood because my type of photography doesn’t require one
I always have a hood available – but use it only when I need it
Use a hood? If I have to, I’ll just use my hat, or grey card, etc.
Too often, hoods “take away” the movements I need for me to carry one
I’ll attach a hood when direct sunlight falls on my lens
Direct sunlight? My hood blocks all stray light from all directions
I use a hood to control flare/protect contrast & concentrate more on my shot
No hood for me – my rucksack (or case) hasn’t the room to spare
Hostile light is so often “part” of my composition, why use a hood?
I use a hood to protect my expensive lens
The conditions under which I shoot typically don’t “need” a hood
I walk too far & carry too much equipment to add a hood to the pile
The “right” hood for me is just too darn expensive!
Other (please share!)
I fall into the “always use a hood” category. Maybe that’s a majority position, I’m not sure. Certainly, plenty of good reasons exist for not using one. Depends on your aims and objectives – and plenty else besides – right?
In any case, I’d enjoy hearing more about why you use a lens hood – or why there’s little significance of using one in your work.
Vote for as many as you like, and please share more with us if you can.
The hat works just fine for me. One hand on the hat, and one hand on the cable release.
Hood?
...This survey looks like it was put together by someone who does 35mm or Medium format photography (and don't interpret that as in any way disparaging).
Most LF photographers would say they use a compendium, dark slide, hand, hat, piece of cardboard, as a gobo but very few would say they use a (rubber or metal lens-) hood (which implies it is directly attached to the lens itself).
Blocking stray light is needed when a light source is falling on the lens, including time you might not think of it -- such as during John Sexton's "quiet light" time just after sunset -- then the entire sky is your light source and will cause problems if you don't block it. Many times you can see contrast differences in the negativeif you compare two negatives: one with and one without.
As has been posted before on this forum, there's a tremendous difference from using a proper compendium to a hat or darkslide:
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...29&postcount=2
In the field I always follow the KISS dictum-hand or darkslide.
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
Having just set up a Lee system, I go for "always unless it gets in the way of movements" but we'll see how long that attitude lasts.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/drew_saunders/
heh, I don't really have a hood, but do use a compendium when I have it with me and stray light looks to be a problem. Much more often though, I just end up shadowing the lens with whatever is at hand, including a hand.
Just for illustration, below is Lee’s wide-angle lens hood, which has been a delight for me to use.
The compendium design makes it a lot easier for me to “always use the hood” because its convenient flexibility allows a variety of camera movements. For example, you can compress or extend the hood, even while moving any of its corners independent of the other three. If you “check the corners,” and discover some vignetting, correcting the problem is easy.
If you don’t need a filter, the hood can attach directly to the lens (w/ an adaptor ring that screws onto the lens’ front threads) – or, if you need filters, a filter holder would go onto the adaptor ring instead, and the hood’s two back rails would slide into the front-most slots of a filter holder. (Lee makes another hood w/ filter slots already built-in – so you wouldn’t need a filter holder.)
Usually, the hood doesn’t “get in the way” unless I’m using a filter or two, plus the hood, and need to apply generous movements to a wider-angle lens. It will, however, reduce the amount of potential movements you can make, so don’t forget to remove it if it’s best!
There will always be some small percentage of situations where a lens hood won't help - but the same could be said of a tripod, or a light meter.
This is Large Format, where every piece of equipment is a link in the overall chain of Quality. Break one and the whole chain becomes no better than... a digital point and shoot (just kidding).
To put it another way: We don't often see serious cinematographers without a serious lens shade. Spending as much as they do for equipment, and for every 1 second of shooting time, it's no surprise.
Last edited by Ken Lee; 21-Apr-2010 at 14:43.
the Lee system looks just fine for many lenses you might be using.
But if you are using a Big Boy* Lens (such as those with 105/122/132mm/135mm objectives, you are going to use a hand, hat , clip on gobo, or even the 8x10,7x17,11x14/12x20 darkslide as a shade(Maybe Sandy King can tell us what he uses with his 20x24?). Even the compendiums available from Arca and Canham are too tiny for these lenses.
*that's what a train enthusiast friend called some of these lenses recently...For those of you that might not be train enthusiasts, "Big Boy" was the name chosen by Union Pacific Railroad for the group of the biggest steam engines ever made. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Big_Boy
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