Ben Long

Pentax has long made very good digital SLRs that offer excellent image quality with simple, intuitive interfaces. And while their latest cameras pack a thorough selection of high-end features, they also have something that a lot of competing SLRs don't: style.

Consider, for example, the Pentax K-r, a midrange, 12.4-megapixel SLR ($850 with an 18-55mm lens; $800 for body only as of 4/1/2011), with a compact, lightweight, but very sturdy body. The K-r is available in red, white, and the comparatively boring black. We looked at the white K-r, a very striking camera that's a nice break from the usual black DSLR color scheme. Fortunately, the camera has the features and the image quality to back up its pretty looks.

No matter how good your camera, or how advanced your photography skills, there will be times your pictures need a little extra style-or, you might say, a little flare. That's what the new image editor Flare (Mac App Store link), from Artis Software and The Icon Factory, tries to offer. The program provides a simple, iPhone-inspired interface that makes it easy for novice photo editors to add fun, stylized color effects and borders without requiring a trip to a more complicated program like Photoshop.

To start experimenting with an image in Flare, drag and drop a file into the main Flare window or, to edit an image from your iPhoto or Aperture library, go to File -> Open and navigate to Media -> Photos in the left navigation panel. Flare can read any file type supported by Mac OS X, which means that any image that will work in iPhoto, Aperture, or Preview will open just fine in Flare, including raw file formats.

The first step in taking a photo is to point the camera in the right direction. But to know what that right direction is, you need a viewfinder. The problem with designing a viewfinder is that the lens on the camera is located in front of the image sensor, so it’s difficult to get your eye directly behind the lens.

SLRs get around this problem by using a flip-up mirror to bounce light into the optical viewfinder. Most digital cameras, though, simply use the LCD screen on the back of the camera to show the current framing. The Sony Alpha SLT-A55 is a new interchangable-lens camera that looks a lot like a traditional SLR. But, like a lot of its competitors, it lets you switch between the rear LCD screen and a small electronic viewfinder located where the viewfinder on an SLR would be.

Instead of making the same ho-hum New Year's resolutions you break every year, consider these resolutions specifically for photographers. It's easy to fall into photography ruts. This year, make it a point to try new things, break old habits, and push your gear and talent to new limits.

* Turn off Auto: Try venturing out of your safety zone and experimenting with your camera's manual settings. Start small by turning the exposure compensation up or down for a moody or blown-out effect.

It's unavoidable: During the holidays someone is bound to get out a camera to grab some festive snapshots. If you're the person with camera duties, then you should follow some of these photo guidelines. If you're not the person shooting, then you can offer these suggestions from in front of the camera. Really, people love that.

Play with group composition

In the future, everything will be televised, so you sure don't want to be caught carrying an SLR that can only shoot still images. For this reason, Sony has joined the ranks of other major camera manufacturers and added video capability to its new Sony Alpha 580 DSLR.

The successor to the Alpha 550, the $900 a580 offers a new APS-sized 16.2 megapixel sensor, some interface re-design, a few new still features, and the ability to shoot full HD video. The result is a high-quality, full-featured camera that's well worth considering if you're shopping for a mid-range DSLR.

The first step in taking a photo is to point the camera in the right direction. But to know what that right direction is, you need a viewfinder. The problem with designing a viewfinder is that the lens on the camera is located in front of the image sensor, so it's difficult to get your eye directly behind the lens.

SLRs get around this problem by using a flip-up mirror to bounce light into the optical viewfinder. Most digital cameras, though, simply use the LCD screen on the back of the camera to show the current framing. The new Sony Alpha SLT-A55 is a new interchangable lens camera that looks a lot like a traditional SLR. But, like a lot of its competitors, it lets you switch between the rear LCD screen and a small electronic viewfinder located where the viewfinder on an SLR would be.

This might sound familiar: you're happily recording video on your digital still camera, smugly pleased that your gadget has movie capability as well as a still photo facility. Then, when you get home, you pause the video mid-edit and realize that a particular frame would make a great photo. With your smugness quickly evaporating under a cloud of used-the-wrong-tool malaise, you realize that, if only there were a way to save that single frame as a still image, you'd not only have a usable picture, but nerd cred to boot.

Fortunately, there are several ways to do just that.

You don't have to be a photo nerd to know that Photoshop is the undisputed king of image editing. But Photoshop is also very expensive, so unless you can use the program to make money, the $699 price tag can be difficult to justify.

While iPhoto is a good alternative, it's a little lacking when it comes to advanced image editing features. That's why many photographers have opted for Pixelmator and it's $59 price tag (the new version is available as a free upgrade for existing Pixelmator users). Now, with the release of version 1.6, code named Nucleus, this full-featured image editor wrapped in a Photoshop-like interface is even more appealing.

Sitting somewhere between a point-and-shoot and a DSLR, compact interchangeable-lens cameras offer substantially lower bulk and weight than a DSLR, but more features than a pocket camera.

The third Olympus camera to enter this category is the 12.3-megapixel Olympus Pen E-PL1. Priced closer to a high-end point-and-shoot than a low-end DSLR ($600 as a kit at time of review), the E-PL1 has a street price higher than that of a point-and-shoot, but lower than that of a DSLR. It is a good option for novice photographers who want to learn more about manual in-camera settings, as well as anyone who wants good image quality and features without the bulk of a DSLR.

Modern image editing programs are packed with amazing adjustment tools that provide complex algorithms for radically altering the color, tone, and even content of an image. In spite of all this amazing technology, you'll often find that the single tool that can do the most to turn a bad image into a keeper is your crop tool. For the humble crop tool allows something quite amazing: with it you can re-compose your shot after you've taken it.

Composition is the art of arranging the elements of your scene so as to help guide the viewer's eye through your image. When you crop, the relationship of the elements in your scene changes, and as that relationship changes, the viewer reads your image in a different way.