# Do you use your lens hood when shooting indoors?



## lance70

Hi, I was curious if there is an advantage of using your lens hood indoors or just use it for outdoors? Thanks.


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## GDHLEWIS

My lens hood barely ever comes off any of my lens, not only does it help protect the front of the lens but will make sure you don't get any nasty flare from the lights you may be using inside. But it is up to you in the end, if your sure you will not get any flare then you may not need it. If the hood is going to get in the way then take it off, if it is not then your better just leaving it on just as a protective aid.


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## Tailgunner

GDHLEWIS said:


> My lens hood barely ever comes off any of my lens, not only does it help protect the front of the lens but will make sure you don't get any nasty flare from the lights you may be using inside. But it is up to you in the end, if your sure you will not get any flare then you may not need it. If the hood is going to get in the way then take it off, if it is not then your better just leaving it on just as a protective aid.



Ditto


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## KmH

+3. Use the lens hood both inside and out.
The lens hood offers protection to the front lens element, helps control lens flare, and aids image contrast by preventing light from entering the lens at a shallow angle from the sides, top, and bottom.


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## 480sparky

I use the hood regardless of the setting unless there's a very compelling reason not to.


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## Josh66

Always.  I only have one lens that I don't have a hood for - the 40mm STM.  The hood for that one is so tiny, I didn't really see the point of getting it...


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## nola.ron

Never comes off any of my lenses


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## tecboy

Of course, all the times.  Len hood makes your dslr attractive and sexy!


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## runnah

Never use one. Find them incredibly cumbersome when out in the field and swapping lenses frequently. Haven't noticed anything detrimental from not having them.


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## manicmike

I always use one. It's just become a habit.


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## hirejn

My lens hoods are always on. The reason is when there's harsh light I never have to think about putting them on, and the rest of the time they help protect the front element. I never use UV filters for shooting. I use them only when I can't find a lens cap.


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## Bulb

I always use a lens hood. It offers a bit of extra protection for the front element.


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## DougGrigg

Only on my telephoto lenses when I'm using the zoom,  other than that the majority of lenses I have are used in studio which I never touch a hood.


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## Robin_Usagani

The only time I dont use one at weddings is when I shoot macro.


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## runnah

I guess I am missing the "why" of using a hood inside. Outside on a bright sunny day, maybe but in a dark room it just hampers light if anything.


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## maxwellmcauley778

I use it all the time on my 50-500, too many elements too much chance for image corruption


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## Overread

Indoors there are a 10001 things that can hit, bump, nudge, fall, lick the front of your lens. A hood helps protect your lens from these contacts. Yes the front element is pretty thick on a lens and will take quite a hit before it chips or marks; but you don't want to encourage such things. 

A lens hood indoors gives you a good protective barrier against such things. It gives you something firm that can bump or nudge things without your front element coming to harm. When you've a big 70-200mm suddenly all that space you have indoors is very very tiny! 


Hoods also generally help reduce reflections from bright light sources from causing rings or other abberations on your photos; it won't work every time but helps to counter them. 

In general I the only lenses that I don't use my hoods on are:
Sigma 70mm because the front element is already recessed into the lens itself so the outer barrel acts like a small hood already
MPE 65mm macro because you can't find the hood to buy in the UK easily - and it costs a fortune (for what it is)- and the working distances are already TINY! 

Everything else the hood is always on


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## 480sparky

runnah said:


> I guess I am missing the "why" of using a hood inside. Outside on a bright sunny day, maybe but in a dark room it just hampers light if anything.



Any light it is hampering is a source of flare.  If it's hampering any light that is part of the image, then it's installed incorrectly.


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## robbins.photo

lance70 said:


> Hi, I was curious if there is an advantage of using your lens hood indoors or just use it for outdoors? Thanks.



People shoot indoors?  Huh.. who knew?

Lol - but seriously, yes.  It's a rare occasion when I remove my lens hood.


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## Josh66

480sparky said:


> runnah said:
> 
> 
> 
> I guess I am missing the "why" of using a hood inside. Outside on a bright sunny day, maybe but in a dark room it just hampers light if anything.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Any light it is hampering is a source of flare.  If it's hampering any light that is part of the image, then it's installed incorrectly.
Click to expand...

Also, just because it's indoors doesn't mean it's dark.  What about flash?


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## 480sparky

O|||||||O said:


> Also, just because it's indoors doesn't mean it's dark.  What about flash?



Many hoods will cause a shadow when using a built-in flash (especially wide lenses), and even with a shoe-mount flash.  But I'm either shooting with a shoe-mount and bouncing off a white wall/ceiling, or using a Rogue.


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## CherylL

O|||||||O said:


> Always.  I only have one lens that I don't have a hood for - the 40mm STM.  The hood for that one is so tiny, I didn't really see the point of getting it...



I like the hood on the 40mm. Yes very tiny, but it adds just enough to pull focus without touching the lens.  Maybe it is just me and clumsy.


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## runnah

I shoot a lot inside with nasty bright work lights and have never had an issues with flare. The two hoods I have for my primes are both less than 2 inches so I doubt they do much.

Besides I can always use my hand to block light.


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## Overread

A hand over the lens isn't helping to steady the lens and is likely increasing the instability in your holding setup.

The only time, that I'm aware of, where a hand over the top of the lens helps stability is when shooting larger lenses from a tripod; where pressing down is increasing the weight of the setup and helping to steady by increasing the influence of the tripod legs (often its a method used in stronger winds where the wind itself might be reducing the hold of the legs on the lens and thus the stability of the setup). 

So why use your hand when the hood is right there ready to use. Though I will agree with many typical shorter primes the hoods are not that bi


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## runnah

Overread said:


> A hand over the lens isn't helping to steady the lens and is likely increasing the instability in your holding setup.  The only time, that I'm aware of, where a hand over the top of the lens helps stability is when shooting larger lenses from a tripod; where pressing down is increasing the weight of the setup and helping to steady by increasing the influence of the tripod legs (often its a method used in stronger winds where the wind itself might be reducing the hold of the legs on the lens and thus the stability of the setup).  So why use your hand when the hood is right there ready to use. Though I will agree with many typical shorter primes the hoods are not that bi



No I hold my hand above, not touching my lens. Kinda like when you are in the car and you don't have a sun visor and you use your hand to shade your eyes. It works better because you can move it more.


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## Josh66

480sparky said:


> O|||||||O said:
> 
> 
> 
> Also, just because it's indoors doesn't mean it's dark.  What about flash?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Many hoods will cause a shadow when using a built-in flash (especially wide lenses), and even with a shoe-mount flash.  But I'm either shooting with a shoe-mount and bouncing off a white wall/ceiling, or using a Rogue.
Click to expand...

I actually had off-camera flash in mind when I posted that.

With the flash on a lightstand, you could get some flare in some situations.  Hell, or even just Sunlight coming in through the windows - we have a lot of South facing windows, so it's usually pretty bright inside unless the blinds are closed.


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## Steve5D

The lens hood offers physical protection for a very expensive piece of glass.

That's all the reason I need to use it...


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