Lens Hood Questions

Well, a friend of mine and I had a discussion about lens hoods. He thinks that they will affect lighting and he doesn't use them. I am still a newbie to photograhpy and would like to know...what is the pros and cons of using a lens hood?

Also, should one be purchased for every lens? Can a lens hood be helpful for all types of photography, i.e. macro, landscape, etc. And which brand lens hood tends to work best for you? Thanks for your help.

He's wrong. A properly-designed and fitted lens hood will only block unwanted, non-imaging, light from hitting the front of the lens and causing (image-destructive) flare. A rigid hood, like Canon makes for its lenses, will also provide a degree of protection from impact to the front of the lens. A soft, rubber, hood can be used to "seal" the camera to a window, keeping out reflections when you'ree shooting through glass. The only down-side is that many of Canon's hoods will make it difficult or impossible to rotate a polarizing filter and virtually all hoods that attach directly to the lens, rather than to a filter-holder, will make use of rectangular graduated ND filters impossible.

I have Canon's (or Sigma's, or Tamron's) hoods for all my lenses. I also have rubber hoods for my most-used lenses. And one hood or another is always on when the lens is in use.

There are VERY few instances where a lens hood is detrimental to the task of taking photographs.

Jon mentioned one above - the potential difficulty in adjusting the rotational position of a polarizing filter. There are ways around this issue, depending on the lens/hood design, that would let you continue to use a hood for the shot.

Another situation is when you are doing extreme closeup shots. It is possible with some lenses, using either closeup lenses (mounted like filters) or extension tubes, to focus so closely that the lens hood designed for the lens would block light from illuminating your subject. In a case like this the hood should be left off the lens.

Except for the extreme cases, I strongly recommend using a properly designed (for the particular lens) rigid lens hood whenever a lens is out of the camera bag. This means having hoods for each and every lens in your collection.

SkipD wrote in post #2437519
There are VERY few instances where a lens hood is detrimental to the task of taking photographs.

Jon mentioned one above - the potential difficulty in adjusting the rotational position of a polarizing filter. There are ways around this issue, depending on the lens/hood design, that would let you continue to use a hood for the shot.

Another situation is when you are doing extreme closeup shots. It is possible with some lenses, using either closeup lenses (mounted like filters) or extension tubes, to focus so closely that the lens hood designed for the lens would block light from illuminating your subject. In a case like this the hood should be left off the lens.

Except for the extreme cases, I strongly recommend using a properly designed (for the particular lens) rigid lens hood whenever a lens is out of the camera bag. This means having hoods for each and every lens in your collection.

Thanks guys for clearing things up for me. I will be purchasing a hood at some point now.

Also you guys mentioned rotating the polarizer filter? What do you mean by that? I purchased a filter and noticed a rotatable ring on the filter with a "white" line on the rotator ring. I know there is some siginificance to it, but not sure what. Sorry about the off topic noob question.

4mr4do4sho wrote in post #2437478
Well, a friend of mine and I had a discussion about lens hoods. He thinks that they will affect lighting and he doesn't use them. I am still a newbie to photograhpy and would like to know...what is the pros and cons of using a lens hood?

Also, should one be purchased for every lens? Can a lens hood be helpful for all types of photography, i.e. macro, landscape, etc. And which brand lens hood tends to work best for you? Thanks for your help.

Yup, your friend is right about hoods affecting light although wrong about not using them! That's the very reason I use them. The hoods aid in blocking the stray light that I don't want entering my lens and camera. If they didn't affect light somehow there wouldn't be a point in using them in the first place.

Light waves actually can vibrate all 360 deg. around the ray path. When light is reflected off a non-metallic object the direction of vibration is affected. The polarizer filters out light vibrating in specific directions, so it can cut down either reflected light or direct light, depending on its orientation; as you rotate a polarizer you'll notice a change in reflections off non-metallic objects, or in the colour of the sky. You generally want to rotate the polarizer to get the best colour from your subject.