Photographic solutions can be mindlessly simple.
Recently, I borrowed a beautiful 500 mm Mirror lens from a friend. For its type, the lens takes excellent images. However, there is one problem. The lens does not have a hood.
Paper Lens Hood – © John Neel
Shooting towards any bright light source produces a tremendous amount of glare. This actually happens with any lens that is not protected. This particular lens is highly susceptible to extraneous light rays.
Glare is generally not a good thing in photography. It kills contrast, dulls color saturation, causes unwanted reflections, and creates a slew of other problems. Flare sucks and should be avoided whenever possible.
Well, it really is not a difficult problem to solve. It can be easily resolved with a piece of heavy black paper and a couple of rubber bands. The simplest things can make all the difference. Most people may think that this is a no brainer. Anyone can think of this!
Yet, it seems that few people actually understand the problems in photography and how to avoid them. A good photographer anticipates the problems ahead of time or at least understands how and why they might happen. A good photographer will usually be able to solve the problems confronted with simple makeshift solutions.
This solution works with nearly any lens. The trick is using something to add shade to the side of the lens that is facing the light. If your paper is large enough, you might wrap it completely around the lens with some overlap. This will make it possible to focus the lens without the need to rotate the paper.
I purposely made the illustration to show that all you really need is to protect the lens from the sun or other source hitting the glass. The longer the lens, and the closer the lens is angled toward the light source, the longer the paper required to protect it. This lens shade solution can also be made from a thin piece of flexible plastic or similar material. For instance, the rim of a ball cap can be strapped in the same way.
The idea is to use what you have as best you can. It is called improvising. And it might just allow you to get the image that you need to get.
For the most part, as long as you watch that you are not shooting towards bright light sources, those petal shades are probably OK for 90% of the work you need to do. However, if you think about it, they are only really protective for the widest focal length of the zoom range. As you zoom to a longer focal length, the hood is much less effective to stray light.
Those petal shades that come on most lenses these days, can be modified by simply wrapping the paper around the shade instead of the lens to create an extension to protect the longer focal lengths when using zooms.
I always carry black paper and a handful of rubber bands in my camera bag for this and other purposes. Paper clips and small clamps are useful too. I pack a number of small items that can be useful in a pinch.
If you don’t have anything, either shoot from under the shade of a building or a tree, or use something to cast a shadow over the lens without infringing on the image seen through the viewfinder. A large leaf, a hat, or your hand can also be used to save the day.
Please have a look at some of my other posts here.
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