flower petal hood or standard??

[Ms Monny]

Hi all

I am desperately needing a lens hood as I have noticed the autumn/winter sun is lower and I am getting sun flaring in the lens ALL the time and it is really annoying me....

the question is - what is the difference between the 'flower petal' lens hood or the standard hood apart from the shape?

Thanks
MM

[rwg717]

Any lens hood is an essential no matter what time of the year or time of day you are shooting. They serve to keep "stray" light out of the lens barrel which destroys the contrast and sharpness of your images.

The "petal" types are used on a lot of wider angle lenses because they help to prevent "vignetting" in the photograph because the image circle from the round lens will sometime project out into the rectangular image frame and produce blackened corners. If you are using fixed length (or prime) lenses, vignetting is not usually a problem but it is with some of the zoom lenses with a fairly wide zoom ratio. :D
Richard

[Ms Monny]

Excellent! I will buy one right now....just the standard! :D

[etherial]

As I read this, you are looking for one for landscapes. Now I'll assume you shoot these with your 18-55? You will want a petal type lens hood because if you don't you will get vignetting at 18mm up to who knows what. Have a look at this lens chart (http://www.usa.canon.com/app/pdf/lens/EFLensChart.pdf) which tells you which hood is suitable for which lens. for the 18-55 they recommended a EW-60C.

The 55-250 isn't listed but I think the right one for that is the ET-60.

Also there is a great section in this page (http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html)that talks about lens hoods. Just over half way down, it talks about what they do, how Canon name them etc. Great page worth a read from top to bottom actually. Lens hoods are great and I wouldn't be without one. It also serves as a very good protection for your front lens element and as opposed to UV filters, hoods actually improve image quality!

Hope that helps!

[Ms Monny]

Thanks Mic

I have ordered both the EW60C and the ET60 for my lens. I didn't realise that there were specific lens hoods for different lens until I went to order one from Quality Camera Sales. I can't wait to get them....I have alot of ruined shots from the other week when I was photographing rock n roll dancers at a car show. They were outside and the low sun was murder!! :(

[peterb666]

The hoods will help but if shooting into the sun, not only use a hood but make sure you remove any protection or UV filters et al as these just provide additional reflective surfaces.

[Ms Monny]

oh? UV filters or similar can make the sun flare worse? Didn't think about that!

[peterb666]

Yep, sure can. I do a lot of shooting into bright light sourcse, sun, street lamps, lights etc. and throwing away my UV filters (including my hideously expensive B+W filters) helped quite a lot. Unfortunately, I still need to use grads under some situations so that's a running battle with flare.

[Ms Monny]

Thanks for letting me know about this! I've actually put off a shot that I KNOW I am going to be shooting into (or close to) the sun....waiting patiently for my lens hoods!

[peterb666]

If you are shooting into the sun, the lens hood won't really help either (but get one anyway).

It is light coming from the side where lens hoods come into their own. I would still do the shoot but make sure you take off your filters.

By shooting into the sun, this is what I am referring to...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5188/5649260626_a51439229e_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/23034038@N05/5649260626/)

If the sun is off to the side (or just outside the frame) like the next, then a lens hood can work wonders...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5024/5649257012_7f0eb23550_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/23034038@N05/5649257012/)
Long Reef Panorama (http://www.flickr.com/photos/23034038@N05/5649257012/) by peterb666 (http://www.flickr.com/people/23034038@N05/), on Flickr

I am not a big fan of lens flare, but I have also seen it used to very good artistic effect.

[Ms Monny]

I do believe it will be on my left side, not actually shooting into it, so the lens hood will really help me.

This is what really stuffed up all my photos from the other week ....(plus they were blurry but that is another story which I figured out what i was doing wrong ;))

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5222/5660684029_2c66a20899_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/36941020@N04/5660684029/)
IMG_1312 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/36941020@N04/5660684029/) by Miss Monny (http://www.flickr.com/people/36941020@N04/), on Flickr

[peterb666]

That's not exacly endearing lens flare. A lens hood would certainly help.

They look as though they are having a great time.

[Ms Monny]

haha - NO! Not endearing AT ALL! This is what is on most of the photos of this couple! :eek:

[rwg717]

I do believe it will be on my left side, not actually shooting into it, so the lens hood will really help me.

This is what really stuffed up all my photos from the other week ....(plus they were blurry but that is another story which I figured out what i was doing wrong ;))

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5222/5660684029_2c66a20899_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/36941020@N04/5660684029/)
IMG_1312 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/36941020@N04/5660684029/) by Miss Monny (http://www.flickr.com/people/36941020@N04/), on Flickr

The lens "flare" that Peter is talking about here, would almost certainly be avoided in this shot with a hood attached, the shot destroying light I had in mind is that ambient light which has to exist whenever a photo is taken, enters from the sides of an un-hooded lens and reflects back and forth right down into the mirror box where either the sensor or film picks it up and prints it!
It isn't possible to totally elimenate it altogether but with a lens hood attached you get rid of as much of it as you can.
Another advantage of a lens hood is that when you have the camera over your shoulder and your camera hits something solid, or it hits the camera lens, the hood flies off and hopefully the lens escapes damage:confused013
Richard

[peterb666]

Another advantage of a lens hood is that when you have the camera over your shoulder and your camera hits something solid, or it hits the camera lens, the hood flies off and hopefully the lens escapes damage:confused013
Richard

Plastic and rubber lens hoods have saved my lenses from damage a couple of times.

[Ms Monny]

I could see the flare in the lens as I was taking the photo but they were just in the wrong part of the dance floor and no matter which way I was positioning the camera IT WAS THERE.....if only they weren't so fantastic at their dancing; they drew me in like a moth to a light! :D

Could have chosen someone else to take a photo of but then I wouldn't have realised how important a lens hood is....something good out of something bad ;)

But like I said, i stuffed up with the whole blurry thing anyway!! :(

Good point on the protection factor too! :th3:

[I @ M]

If you are caught in the same situation again, and sometimes your lens hood won't stop all the flare, where you can see flare occurring simply use your left hand as a shield to block stray light. If you are using a short lens you should be able to hold the camera with your right hand and still get good sharp shots if the shutter speed is high enough.
Otherwise if you can support the lens at the very end with your thumb and still use the rest of your fingers to block the flare ( keeping your fingers out of the pic though :D ) you can improve the image under adverse conditions quite easily.

[Ms Monny]

Thanks Andrew....I was thinking about that afterwards but I usually feel too wobbly with one hand only holding the camera. Will remember this in the future though. :th3: