Accessories

Looking for a perfect holiday gift for the “To Me, From Me” under the tree? We’ve compiled our annual list of a few of our favorite gear and accessories about which you’ll want to start dropping hints. From updated versions of essential tools to totally new ideas to make your photography more successful and enjoyable, this year’s list includes some of the most exciting technologies we’ve ever covered.

Conventional wisdom says that for the best-looking prints, you should stick with your printer manufacturer's papers and inks. It's not bad advice because their printer-software drivers are fine-tuned for those inks and papers to ensure excellent results and print longevity. But if you only print with the standard photo stock, you're missing a chance to make an artistic choice.

Whether you're content to shoot from shoreline or want to dive in to snorkeling or scuba, with the right accessories, your camera also can come along, without fear of damage. Underwater housings protect your gear from the elements—even the salty seaside air can wreak havoc, and sand is no friend either. So before you hit the beach, get your photo gear a swimsuit, too.

Whether you're jetting off on a family vacation, backpacking solo in the wild or going away on business, mobility is key when traveling with your photo gear. It's true that today's D-SLR bodies and lenses continue to set new standards for what's considered lightweight (the new Olympus E-420 weighs just 13.4 ounces). But throw in more extras than needed, and you'll be too exhausted from lugging your equipment around to take good shots. Consider these essentials to stay light on your feet.

Just in case you didn't receive your perfect holiday gift, tech and electronic companies kick off the new year with two festivals full of stuff you didn't even know you couldn't live without: CES and Macworld. CES is one of those mega-trade shows that's legend, where all manner of must-have tech toys are debuted. And in recent years, thanks to the juggernaut that is the iPod and the growing demand for all things Apple, Macworld has been increasingly interesting to us, too.

Our annual Editors' Choice Awards is consistently one of the most popular features in PCPhoto, but it's also one of the toughest for us as editors. We cover hundreds of new products each year, and trying to pick just a handful of these for recognition isn't easy. So, while we can't include every product worthy of mention, we try to highlight a variety of products we think represent the best of what's available for photographers today.

Taking pictures in the snow is cool, literally and figuratively speaking, but snow scenes present certain photographic challenges. First, all that white can fool a camera's exposure meter into thinking that the scene is brighter than it actually is, therefore setting the camera for an underexposed picture. The remedy: Set your exposure compensation dial to +1. The increase should give you a better exposure, which, of course, you can fine-tune further with exposure compensation and in the digital darkroom.

Choosing the right accessories is as important as selecting a camera and lenses. There are so many creative possibilities of which you simply can't take advantage without certain pieces of gear—filters, tripods and unique extras like underwater housings.