The Truth About Lens Hoods

The use of a lens hood is absolutely essential to photography. Professionals, amateurs and consumers alike should all use lens hoods.

The functionality of the hood is enhanced by its size or complexity. The best type of hood to use is either a petal-shaped hood used on large-diameter wide-angle lens, or an extra-long hood on a very long lens. Faster lenses tend to use larger diameter objective lenses, and the larger diameter of the required hood also enhances its functionality.

Bayonet hoods are best, as they can usually be reversed to fit over the lens for storage in the camera bag. This ensures that you will always have your hood with you, but even more importantly that you will use it, since it usually needs to removed prior to using the lens, which means that you’re only one step away from flipping it around and putting it back on.

If there’s no bayonet hood available for you lens, you may choose from the many third-party hoods available. I would recommend the rectangular, expandable bellows-type, which in many instances may be larger than the camera and lens itself. You cannot go wrong with an enormous lens hood.

There are many practical reason why you need to use a hood; here are just a few (please note that these are not necessarily in order of priority)

1. You are shooting toward the sun or some other bright light source.


2. Your height is less than 5'-10".


3. You are single, and in the proximity of one or more attractive females.


4. You are in the company of fellow photographers.


5. You have low self-esteem.

Some professional photographers however choose not to use a hood. Instead, they use their hand to block the light source from creating a flare. This technique works best if you are left-handed and shooting hand-held with a very long telephoto lens at f/8 or above, using a heavy camera (for stability) that is fitted with a battery grip (for extended battery life). The extra length of the lens combined with the battery grip compensate for the lack of the lens hood.

Seriously?
While many may debate the technical benefits of using a lens hood, none can dispute its coolness factor. Happy April Fools’ Day! Seriously, like coatings on filters, lens hoods can help to avoid flares under certain, but not all, shooting conditions. Like filters, they can protect your expensive lenses; in fact, they can protect your expensive filters.

I remember it was always a challenge to find a bayonet hood for a used lens, but a nice bonus if I could. So far, all the Nikon lenses I plan to purchase will come with bayonet hoods. Judging by the outside diameter of the lens, and the fact that the hoods reverse over the lens barrel, I should still be able to use the hoods with 67mm filters and a step up ring, even though the filter sizes of these lenses is 52mm and 58mm. Here’s how I’ll do it:

1. Mount the bayonet lens hood.


2. Install the 67mm filter on the required step-up ring.


3. Attach the pinch-type lens cap to the 67mm filter.


4. With the lens facing down, screw the filter/step-up ring comb onto the front of the lens, using the lens cap as a “wrench”, since I can’t grip the edge of the filters which is blocked by the hood, and I don’t want to get fingerprints on the filters.

If I don’t screw them on too tightly (and how could I) I should have no problem getting them off.

So remember, lens hoods are our friends. Let’s all use them for the right reasons.