The Digital Photography Companion

GAINING SPEED

SHOOT FIREWORKS

115

Use Sunglasses As a Polarizing Filter

Point-and-shoot cameras are the height of convenience, but not always versatility. A

case in point is when you want to mount a polarizing filter to saturate the sky or reduce

glare. ere’s nowhere to put it!

But that doesn’t mean your pictures are doomed to the blinding glare of a reflective

world. You can, instead, remove those stylish neutral gray polarizing glasses from your

head and place them in front of the camera lens. Quality sunglasses make great polar-

izing filters for compact cameras.

Make sure the lens of your sunglasses completely covers the front glass element of your

camera. You’ll get best results when the sun is aligned along your shoulders.

You don’t believe it works? Take two shots, one with the sunglasses and the other with-

out. You be the judge.

Shoot Fireworks

If you check the Scene Modes on your digital camera, chances are you’ll have a set-

ting for capturing fireworks. ese presets work great, but you might want to know

what’s happening under the hood in case you have to work with a camera that requires

manual configuration. Here’s the setup procedure:

First, turn off your flash. Yes, you’re going to be shooting in a dark environment, and

1.

if your camera is set to auto flash, it’s going to fire. is is the last thing you want, so

disable it by selecting Flash Off from your flash menu. ...