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Boost Your Photo Fun (cont'd)

Pictorico Premium Canvas; HP Iron-On Transfer

When selecting inkjet printer paper, it's good to use paper from the same company that made your printer, because they're generally engineered to work well together. But what about special projects? Pictorico produces a superb family of inkjet papers that work well with most popular inkjet printers, including models from Canon, Epson, and HP. Pictorico Premium Canvas paper, for instance, has the look and feel of a painter's canvas, complete with rich texture and a warm paper tone. $17 for ten sheets of 8.5-by-11-inch stock.

T-shirts may not qualify as fine art, but transferring digital photos to clothing is popular for fundraisers, team sports, and family projects. Like Pictorico paper, HP's Iron-On Transfer paper works well with a wide variety of printers, so it's a great choice for putting a photo of your bowling league logo onto team T-shirts. $15 for 12 sheets of 8.5-by-11-inch transfers.

ExpoCap

What color is white? Your digital camera must answer that question every time it takes a picture. To a camera white looks different indoors, outdoors, at sunset, and at high noon. Unfortunately, when running on full automatic settings, most digital cameras get it wrong about as often as they get it right--a major reason so many pictures have obvious color problems.

One way to solve this regular headache is by performing a white-balance adjustment--if your camera has this feature--each time you start taking pictures. To do this, you access the calibration function, aim the camera at a white or gray card (available from any camera shop for about $5), and shoot. But ExpoCap from ExpoImaging makes the task even easier. Just snap the opaque cap onto the front of your camera lens, and then set your camera's white balance. Unlike most white-balance aids, the ExpoCap gives your pictures a slightly warmer tone, which translates into better skin tones in pictures of people.

ExpoCap snaps onto the front of any camera lens that is 52mm, 58mm, or 67mm in diameter. If your lens isn't one of those standard sizes, you can set the white balance manually by holding the cap in front of the lens--or you might just want to go and purchase that $5 calibration card from your local camera store, instead. $59.

Philips 7FF1AW/37 Digital Photo Display

Because most digital photos never get printed on paper, sharing them electronically makes a lot of sense. That's where a digital display comes in handy. The Philips 7FF1AW/37 Digital Photo Display may have a name that only a robot could love, but this 7-inch LCD screen surrounded by a wood or contemporary clear plastic frame looks attractive enough to occupy a position of distinction in your living room, which is exactly the point.

The display can store 50 pictures internally, or you can play slide shows of your photos via SD Card, CompactFlash, or Memory Stick media. The display also has a built-in transition library of interesting visual effects to put between photos.

The display looks sharp and bright from a wide range of viewing angles, with 720 by 480 resolution in its 5.4-by-3.6-inch frame. And you needn't confine the display to a tabletop. Pass it around at a party, and its rechargeable battery will keep it alive for almost an hour. $249.