*For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with David on Instagram and Twitter @DavidBergman. LATEST UPDATE: David opened up new IGTV episodes where you can ask him questions live! find out more at http://www.AskDavidBergman.com

What are lens hoods? When should we use them? In today’s episode with the photographer David Bergman and AdoramaTV we will learn why David always uses a hood and why it is so important.

David explains: “In certain  conditions you might see something  called lens flare on your photos. Flare  often shows up as random bright spots,  and it can also wash out your images,  making the photos look flat, with less  contrast.”

“The reason this happens is  because the front of your lens has a big  piece of glass, and if light hits it at  just the right angle, it’ll skim across  the glass and create flare.”

“To block the  light from doing that, you should use a  lens hood. Usually prime lenses have flat  ended hoods, while zooms have ones that  are petal shaped, to cover the entire  zoom range. How it works, is that you’re  effectively extending the end of the  lens barrel past the glass, just like  when you hold your hand out over your  eyes to block the Sun. You won’t see a  difference most of the time, but in those  situations where the light would have  hit the glass at just the right angle,  the hood will usually block it.”

“This will  get rid of those bright spots, while also  increasing the contrast of your image. So  you might only think it’s necessary to  use a hood in those specific conditions  right? But listen, I always have the hood  on my lenses! Why?  Basically protection. I don’t know about  you but when I walk around with a camera  on my side, it always bumps into things.”

“Whether you use a filter or not, the hood  is like a protective cocoon, covering up  that expensive piece of glass, and it’ll  keep you from bumping, touching, or  scratching it, so when I take the  hood off, one reason is that if I want to  create lens flare for effect, in these  tip videos we sometimes use flare  creatively,  so we take the hood off and  angle the lens just right, to get that  look. The only other time you would take  the hood off is, if you’re using a pop-up  flash. The bigger Pro lens hoods  sometimes block part of that light, and  create a shadow at the bottom of the  image. So I’d remove it for that shot, and  then put it right back on when you’re done.  Otherwise just leave the hood on, and you  can set it, and forget it. You’ll find  that it blocks out flare, and protects  your lens from all kinds of potential  bumps and bruises.”

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Watch the full episode with David Bergman and Adorama TV: