Whats the benefit of having a lense hood on your lense?

Question

does it benefit the picture in any significant way?

Answer 1

it stops you getting lens flare - so thats a major benefit

a

Answer 2

A lens hood will shade the lens from light hitting it and causing glare and flare on the lens that would show up in the final image. Flare is usually a circle of light that "just hangs there" somewhere in the image. Some people call these things "orbs" and say that they are caused by ghosts, so maybe you have seen this before. Glare is just a general wash out of the image that robs it of color and detail. You might compare this to the way sun glare makes it hard to see through a car's front windshield.

I have posted an example on Flickr to show what flare and glare are. In the top image, you will see that there is very little color or detail and there are a couple of "ghostly" looking artifacts that are visible between the sun and the corner of the picture. In the bottom image, I useed a lens hood and tried to aim the camera in the same direction. There is still some evidence of flare over the left end of the main building, but some of the color and detail is better in this shot. If I had turned to the right enough, the lens hood would have eliminated much of the glare and flare and there would have been a lot more color and detail in the image.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1478663087/

Answer 3

Not the best example I am afraid.

Took this today. The sun was just to the left, and just right above me (just off the frame) and basically was shining right on me.

I think if I had not had a lens hood in place, it would have had nasty flare.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c317/wtin/156b43a2.jpg

Canon 5D with Canon 24-70 mm f 2.8 with fill in flash.

Answer 4

Not only does it prevent lens flare, it looks cool as heck!

Answer 5

it keeps the sun from shining directly into your lens

Answer 6

it reflects light that would glare your pictures