Why Are Camera Lens Hoods Used in Photography?

Most lenses arrive with a lens hood included in the box. So, it can be confusing to see some photographers using lens hoods while others never use them. In this article, let’s examine lens hoods and demystify their usefulness.

So what exactly are lens hoods trying to achieve? Well, their primary purpose has always been to minimize stray or ambient light from hitting the lens, thereby reducing unwanted flares and ghosting in your image.

Prevent 'flare'

Flares are those blobs of light that appear in your image, usually caused by light hitting the front element of your lens. The light bounces around or reflects, hitting the other glass elements within the lens. This is why a lens flare, when shooting in exactly the same conditions, can look different from lens to lens. The inner part of the lens can determine how the lens flare behaves. Flares can sometimes appear as a single flare, or sometimes as multiple flares—one below the other, usually diagonally.

Reduce 'ghosting'

Ghosting can be closely related to flares. You could get both in the same image, but not always. Ghosting creates a reduced contrast effect in an image so that it looks flat. This usually happens when a bright light source, like the sun, hits the lens’ front element at a specific angle.

Regardless of what you might read online, a lens hood will not solve all of your ghosting and flare-related problems. Sometimes, these unwanted objects are the fault of cheap UV filters with poor coatings, which undo all the hard work your expensive lens is doing for you. The quality of the coating on your lens elements is equally important. These two points are important to remember when you are having some difficulty controlling light spillage and can’t quite get the results you need.

To test the hypothesis that lens hoods aren’t always needed, we used a vintage M42-mount lens—with minimal coatings on the glass—to see if we could get it to flare. Although it did flare easily, we found the flare was easier to control by using our hands to block the light path of the sun hitting the lens, then the lens hood. 

The issue is that the lens hood doesn’t know what you are shooting or the positioning of your camera at your subject. If you want to frame in a specific way, light can hit the front element at an angle you can’t control. Using your hand means you can keep the camera centered on your subject to stop flare and ghosting effects.

There are options to position yourself differently, which can sometimes yield a better result, but not always. Here, we used the lens hood, and we found it successfully reduced the flare's effects.

Things can get a little trickier when the sun is low—unlike the previous shots, which were taken around midday. The evening sun is less powerful, but ghosting is still possible. We found the lens hoods to be very effective here. But then, so was using our hand to block the sun's rays hitting the lens. 

So what have we learned? We were glad to have conducted this test. Especially as the first time we tried it with Fujifilm GFX lenses, we really struggled to get any form of flaring or ghosting—a testament to how far coatings have come in modern lens design.

Protect your lens

However, not all lenses are modern. Some are fantastic, even if their coatings are a little older. But the crux here is the lens hood itself and the fact it’s doing much more than simply blocking out stray light. It also protects your lenses should you drop them. Sure, a decent UV filter will help deflect some of the force a little, but a lens hood will likely take much of the brunt. Learn more about UV filters.

While lens hoods can be effective at blocking out the sun, they aren’t going to do the job every time. But there’s no reason why you can’t use both the lens hood and your hands. So, next time you’re out shooting on a bright day and you get unwanted light, remember the lens hood is there to help.

Read more tips and techniques and camera gear guides on the MPB Content Hub.