Lens Hood or no Lens Hood

CdnAvSpotter

In bright sunlight I have always used my lens hoods on my 18-200mm, 70-300mm and 100-400mm lenses and the pictures I get are dull, not very sharp, and sometimes darker. A month ago I was shooting in the early morning light without the lens hood and every picture was crisp, bright and clean. Yesterday I was out in the bright sun-light and did not use a lens hood, and again all the pics were crisp, bright and clean.

Anybody have an explanation?

Dean

Bluedharma

Hi Dean,

Lens hoods should increase contrast and reduce glare and flares.

They are only bad when you use a flash indoors.

The best part is that they protect your lens from the bumps and scratches that may happen.

This could be a lot worse without a hood.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotosniper2000/2305311004/

Not sure why you are getting dull, blurry images with it on. With a hood they may be darker, but not blurry. Strange.

Best Regards,

JohnLittle

Lens Hoods cause two thing:

1) It will reduce spurious light from entering your lens, reducing flare

2) It can reduce the reflected light from the object your trying to photograph

Sounds goofy, but depending on the light surrounding the object that you are taking a picture of, your in camera light metering system may be defeating you.

Try this out and see what happens:

1) Set Camera to Matrix Metering (or whatever your camera calls full frame metering), take a photograph in a bright sky with a plane in it, both with and without the lens hood.

2) Set Camera to Spot Metering, take a photograph in a bright sky with a plane in it, both with and without the lens hood.

My D300 works completely different in each case......

CdnAvSpotter

Hi John

I am using a Canon Rebel XT(350D). The next time there is a bright blue sky, I will try your suggestions.

Thanks

Dean

max_wedge

I use lens hood and spot metering all the time. My pictures are sharp enough, and usually contrast is fine, though I do usually tweak curves in photoshop to add a bit of punch to the image (increase contrast by boosting lowlights and highlights).

CdnAvSpotter

Well since my initial posting, I have changed my camera from a Rebel XT (350D) to an EOS 40D. This camera has more of the pro settings and offers many more features than the XT...

As for Lens Hoods.. I use them only really bright sunny days where the sun is near to or directly overhead. On partly sunny days, cloudy days, during sunrise, late afternoon, or sunset shots, I remove the hood to get more light into the lens. I also bought some F2.8 tele-photo zoom lenses which make a huge difference in lower light situations.

Thanks for you replies

RonStreetenberger

I always use a lens hood. Makes people think that I know what I'm doing.