BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Using Flash in Sunlight/Lens Hoods

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May 25, 2004

Flash outdoors.
In very bright /strong sunlight particularly around mid-day people tend to get shadows in their eye-sockets leading to a very unpleasant 'morning after' look, this is accentuated if they are wearing a hat which could throw the whole face into shadow. Answer, use your on-camera flash to fill in the shadow and give a more natural look. If you have power control on your flash you can experiment with more or less fill, too much can make things worse particularly if the shadows are not actually very deep. The instructions for your camera / flashgun will tell you how to reduce the power (if you can of course). Some wildlife photographers use flash well outside the normal range to just add a catchlight to the animals eye for a more pleasant look, try it with cars as well to add a glint to the chrome. If you are shooting digital, play, it costs nothing.

For more comprehensive discussions try a Google search on 'fill flash'.

Lens hood indoors
The purpose of the lens hood is to prevent/reduce 'flare'. Flare is caused when light enters the lens off-axis and is then reflected off internal surfaces causing those (sometimes nice) coloured sparkles on the pictures. Normally you don't want flare so use the lens hood all the time outdoors.

When indoors flare is less of a problem so the hood is not really necessary BUT it does add extra physical protection to the lens reducing the possibility of bumps and damage to the front element. I leave my hood on at all times, beware however that if you use the on-camera flash the hood may cause shadowing, experiment to see if you get problems and take the hood off when using flash if you do.

Easy eh??

Keep the questions coming, loads of good advice on this forum.

Cheers

Dave C.

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May 25, 2004

One quick followup-I do see a lot of pro photographers (red carpet stuff) using the lens hood for some of these types of situations. The spotlights can vary a lot in direction and intensity. Not sure when/if to use. If you have any additional advice, let me know.

Janet

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May 25, 2004

As a rule, keep the hood on (it can't hurt). But like I said previously, watch out for shadowing of your on-camera flash (this manifests itself as dark areas at the bottom of the picture, usually more visible at the wide end of the zoom).

Cheers

DC

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May 26, 2004