5 Reasons You Should Use a Lens Hood

What is a lens hood?

Also known as a lens shade, a lens hood is a rounded piece of plastic that fixes onto the end of a lens. The lens hood is designed to stop direct light from the sun hitting the lens, and stoping unwanted glare and lens flare.

Lens hoods come in a variety of shape, size and style, depending on the lens. Lens hoods vary from a simple cylinder shape to a more complex petal shaped cut and even square shaped.

Many popular travel photography destinations have harsh sunlight. It really is must to get your lens tooled up with a lens hood.

Here are 5 reasons you should use a lens hood;

1.To Prevent Lens Flare.

The primary purpose of a lens hood is to reduce or eliminate lens flare. Make sure the sun is not in view as the lens hood will not eliminate lens flare if the sun is actually in the field of view. As a travel photographer you will undoubtably be battling with harsh sunlight at some point. A lens hood will help your battle with lens flares created by the sun.

2.Protection

The secondary purpose of the lens hood is to help protect your lens. Damage to the lens may include, finger prints, scratches and dust. Lens hoods are usually made of strong plastic and stick out from the lens some way. Potential damage to the lens is reduced simply because the lens is harder to reach.

3.Richer colour and better saturation

Photographs taken with a lens hood are generally more rich in colour and appear less washed out. This is because your reducing the amount of harsh sunlight from getting to the lens. A lens hood will help the overall quality of your photograph.

4.They are not as inconvenient as you may think

Lens hoods are designed so that you can fix it on the lens the wrong way. You don’t have to store it separately to the lens, you just turn it around and twist it back onto the lens.
The majority of lens hoods are also very light, you wont really notice its there.

5.Gives you something to lean on

If you need to steady your camera the lens hood will give you extra length to rest on. For example if your resting your camera on a wall, the lens hood will add more stability to the camera.

So, a lens hood will cut out unsightly lens flare, increase the quality and richness in colour and even protect your lens. They are brilliant little things and a must in travel photography.

Going against everything in this article you can on the other hand get some really interesting effects from lens flare. Read more about this and get some great tips about creating and using lens flare.