If you've every tried shooting towards a window in the daytime, you've probably had some frustration with the way your picture turned out. Your subject was probablyvery dark, and the window very bright. Depending on how much the camera focused on the window, you might not have been able to see anything but the light from the window.

And if, like most of us, you're shooting with a standerd "point and shoot" digital camera, you may think there's no way around bad turnouts for your pictures in certain lighting.

I've discovered, however, that many point-and-shoot's on the market have some features that will help you shoot better pictures inside.

For this hub, we will "focus" on the focus lock feature on the camera, and its benefits for shooting indoors.

Focus lock is a feature that enables you to tell the camera what to focus on specifically. Line the main subject of your picture up in the cross hairs or little box in the center of your display, and press the shutter button (the one you take pictures with) half-way down and hold it. Then you can move the camera to put your subject to one side of the frame instead of in the middle. Press the shutter all the way down when the picture is framed the way you want it.

Applying this concept to indoor shots towards windows in particular, you can lock the auto focus of your camera somewhere on the picture other than what you want to be the middle of your picture.

For example, in the pictures on the right, let's divide them into two "light zones." The bright zone is the windows, and the dark zone is the cabinets. Allow your camera to focus on the windows, and the cabinets would be underexposed (too dark).

By locking the camera's focus somewhere down on the darker zone and then tilting the camera back up to frame the picture the way you want it, you can get the effect you want with the light from the windows overpowering the shot. These two pictures show two different focus areas and slight differences in framing. The first I focused entirely on the cabinets, with no window light whatsover. The second, was focused slightly higher, allowing me to get that sort of "glow" from the window without it being overpowering.

Go practice with your focus lock and see what you can do with it!

1. Frame your shot the way you want it.
2. Tilt your camera down so that none of the window is visible in the frame.
3. Press the shutter button half-way down and hold it.

4. Tilt the camera back up so that your picture is again framed the way you want it, including the window(s).
5. Press the shutter the rest of the way down and capture the picture.