How to use a lens shade properly?

[MikeN]

Hi Guys, Perhaps you may help out:

Recently I bought a compendium lens shade with vignetting mask for my Linhof TK 4x5. In general I know how to use it but in detail not. My question is regarding the vignetting mask. How can I get the mask into the optimal position? I may either look on the ground glass and shift them until light fall-off or I look straight through the lens shade and through the open lens to see, if a vignette-mask would be between light to be taken and ground glass (?).

What are your experiences? Is there a quick way to get the lens shade and its vignette-mask into optimal position?

Thanks!

[BrianShaw]

I'm sure there is a science to setting comendium shade up optimally, but I just set up the compendium shades so they don't infringe on the image area... and then shoot film.

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you have a groundglass with cut corners, you can look with the lens at the shooting aperture and make sure you can't see the blades of the mask through the corners. Alternately, you can look through the lens and make sure you can see the corners of the groundglass without the blades of the mask obstructing the light path.

[sanking]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwWW_cT9yx4

Or, you can watch this guy and learn how to use a lens hood. He seems dead earnest?

Sandy

[MikeN]

Thanks all for the feedback

If you have a groundglass with cut corners, you can look with the lens at the shooting aperture and make sure you can't see the blades of the mask through the corners. Alternately, you can look through the lens and make sure you can see the corners of the groundglass without the blades of the mask obstructing the light path.

Sounds reasonable. I also tried the second option but this highly depends at what angle I would look through the lens. I'll go trying the first one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwWW_cT9yx4
Or, you can watch this guy and learn how to use a lens hood. He seems dead earnest?
Sandy

Yes, but with a view camera it's a bit more complicated than just attaching a hood to the lens

[David A. Goldfarb]

Sounds reasonable. I also tried the second option but this highly depends at what angle I would look through the lens. I'll go trying the first one

Look through the lens at the widest angle you can at the shooting aperture, and if you can see the corners of the groundglass, then you're good. That angle is a function of what the lens can see.

[sumo]

With any shade, whether it be a dedicated hood or my darkslide, I try to shield the lens from the offending light source (i.e. get it in the shadow cast by the light source from the shade) and keep it out of the imaging area by checking the GG. This is easy if you have a helping hand flash shoe clip thing to hold your shade.

[MikeN]

Look through the lens at the widest angle you can at the shooting aperture, and if you can see the corners of the groundglass, then you're good. That angle is a function of what the lens can see.

I tried it and it works fine . Thanks! ...I've again learned a few things

[Cor]

It is surprisingly easy to mis-judge the extend of moving the compendium out when looking through the ground glass I found out the hard way. It's not that you see a solid black boundary of your compendium moving into view on the ground glass when you move the compendium forward simultaneously. It's more like a gradual greying at the edges. You will be better of watching from the lens side in towards as suggested above

Best,

Cor