Solving Mechanical Vignetting Problems

Today's Photo Tip: Solving mechanical vignetting problems.  The picture on the right shows and example of mechanical vignetting. Sometimes I end up with this effect on my pictures when using my lens hood.This can occur whenever a mechanical extension to a lens protrudes into its field of view - the image corners receive less light than they would in the absence of the extension and vignetting occurs. The can happen whenever the extension (lens hood) is too long for the lens, when there are stacked filters, or a combination  of the two.  Sometimes a single, thick filter can vignette a wideangle lens. Sometimes using the zoom feature on a lens will trigger the effect. If you have this problem, the only recommendation I can offer is to check on vignetting behavior under various conditions, e.g. with and without filters, hood, and under various zooming conditions. One would think the remedy is obvious: use proper accessories; however in my case the lens hood I use came with the purchase of the lens.