Good reasons why photographers should use a lens hood

Apart from producing your equipment seem larger and getting you more attention from non SLR photographers, lens hoods do use a real purpose. From a technical viewpoint, lens hoods were invented to reduce flares that occur when photographing outside in daylight. For instance, anybody who has tried to photograph a sunset will at some time, have also noticed their fair share of flares.

However, it also serves to guard your lens against knocks and falls, which can conserve you a ton of money getting to replace it. I learned this the hard way lately when I fell over whilst viewing my LCD display when on the move. Yes, walking and viewing your digital camera's LCD screen in the same time isn't a great idea. Those pot holes and cracks in the path just appear to jump out in front of you in the worst moments possible.

When very first beginning out in SLR photography, it is also easy to forget that you use a lens that sticks out quite a bit further than the camera's body. I can't count the quantity of times I ran into the objects I was photographing with the glass from the lens in the first 6 months or so of utilizing a macro lens. Having a lens hood now protects my glass from these types of knocks.

Lens Hood – the combination of shooting outdoors, having restricted angles to shoot from (which means sometimes you will need to shoot in to the sun) and that at occasions you will be shooting via glass means that a lens hood may be handy to have. I really left mine in the vehicle and since it was a bright day my images suffered considerably being the end result.