Lens hoods

[ignatiusjk]

Be honest, how many of you use a lens hood when you shoot outdoors? I really don't use one but feel maybe I should. What are your thoughts?

[Emrehan Zeybekoglu]

I sometimes use a collapsible rubber lens hood. Otherwise, holding the dark slide over the lens is sufficient for shading.

[Daniel_Buck]

I generally don't. If my lens is catching direct light from the sun or other bright light source (which is rare), I use a darkslide/hand/hat. But other than that, I usually don't do anything to shade the lens. I'd say 80% of the time, I don't make any attempt to shade the lens.

I'm sure there would probably be a little bit of contrast increase in alot of the situations if I had a barndoor shade, but I don't notice the problem enough to make me want a barn door setup.

[Ron Marshall]

I use one about 25% of the time, mostly with lenses that have a large image circle, or when the sun would otherwise directly strike the lens.

Otherwise I use the darkslide.

[timparkin]

If anything within a frame distance away from my picture is greater than two stops higher than the contents of my picture or the sun is shining on the front of my lens/filter I'll use a lens hood.

This typically means about 30-50% of the time. However I take quite a few detail shots that crop close to the horizon line. I also like side/backlit subjects.

Tim

[Robert A. Zeichner]

Be honest, how many of you use a lens hood when you shoot outdoors? I really don't use one but feel maybe I should. What are your thoughts?

After a lot of investigation and experimentation, I never leave home without one.
http://web.mac.com/razeichner/iWeb/RAZP%20large%20pix/Shade%20pg%201.html

[Darren H]

I always made do with using a hat to shade the lens since most compendiums (especially like the one for my Arca) are way too much ($600). However when I found a used one for $100 I bought one. I carry it but only use it sometime.

The biggest thing I find is you cannot use grad filters with it as a Cokin P and Singh Ray filters are too big :-( and since I use those alot outside I am back to the hat. Needless to say it became a little bit of a dissapointment. If you use grads I'd check to see if it is big enough. So maybe a Lee type hood that can use a grad is a better bet as more practical.

Or just do not worry about it.

[Rick Moore]

I always use a compendium. Used properly, it significantly reduces bellows flare.

[Eric Leppanen]

I use a standard Lee hood whenever possible; I can't prove that this always helps, but I lug my big ol' LF camera around to get maximum image quality, so why skimp on this last step? For wide angle lenses where the Lee hood would vignette, I shade the lens with either my hat or dark slide.

[john collins]

I'm with Eric, a standard Lee hood is my choice also. I've used some form of shade on
cameras for so long I don't really know what exactly the effect would be without one.
I'm not going out of my way to experiment, either.

[neil poulsen]

I HATE flare, so I always carry a lens hood. As to whether I use it, I consider the situation. If I suspect flare, or if I care about the image and want to be careful, I use it.

The one that goes with my camera is a good one-size-fits-all. It also has four adjustable baffles, so I can trim right to the edge, if I want. My camera has extra territory around the 4x5 format, so I've got some leeway before light significantly reflects off the sides of the bellows onto the image.