You just got back from the family reunion and are confident you got the perfect portrait of the whole clan — after all, you did make all the kids and grandparents stand still while you snapped ten identical pics just to be sure. Sadly, when you upload the photos and see them on your computer’s big screen, there isn’t a single one in which somebody isn’t blinking, frowning, or (in the case of your nephew) sticking his tongue out. Enter the new version of Adobe Photoshop Elements, available at around $80 for either Windows or Mac: This friendly little application boasts a raved-about feature that makes it super-simple to craft one perfect picture out of many shots with minor flaws — just steal a smile from shot #4, a wave from shot #7, and blend them into your base shot using Photomerge, and you have something worth putting in this year’s holiday card. Which, incidentally, Elements can help you assemble, with an array of pre-designed layouts for scrapbook pages, slideshows and any number of other display options. As you’d expect from any program with “Photoshop” in its name, this one knows a thing or two about the technical details — color balance, contrast, et cetera — that make one pic pop out and another look drab. Fortunately for those of us who aren’t tech-minded, the programmers have harnessed Photoshop’s industry-standard tools into a format that’s novice-friendly: click here to tone down the red-eye, click there to make the colors more vibrant, and so on. Elements won’t turn a sloppy snapshot into an Ansel Adams, but it can help a curious amateur assemble a family photo album that looks better than most.

Everyone loves the instant gratification of digital photography; press the button, wait a second, and see your snapshot on the camera screen. But getting those photos someplace useful can be a chore: dig into your desk drawer for the appropriate cable, find an open USB port on your computer, and open up the photo-sync software to move pictures onto the computer. (If you share photos over the Internet, additional steps are required.) Now, however, a new gizmo streamlines the process. The $100 Eye-Fi looks just like the memory card you already slip into your camera to store pictures, but it has a second function built in: It can be set up to communicate wirelessly with the computer of your choice, automatically downloading new photos whenever the camera’s within range — no cables required, no need to open software yourself. It can even go further if you’d like it to: The Eye-Fi can be programmed to automatically move your images directly to a web-based picture sharing site like flickr or Picasia; it can slap them onto your Facebook page; it can even submit them to a pay-per-print service like Costco. Just be sure you’ve deleted any blurry or embarrassing pictures from your camera before you get it near the computer — the Eye-Fi, after all, doesn’t know the difference between a family-friendly photo and one that could get you fired.

For the last couple of weeks, there’s been no shortage of stories in the news about “what’s hot” in the gift arena. But who’s deciding? Who says industry forecasts and retailer decisions reflect what your loved ones would actually like to receive this year? A peek into Amazon’s innards offers first-hand knowledge on that front, since the site allows users to put wish lists online for all — at least family, friends and Amazon programmers — to see. Visiting the retailer’s “most wishlisted” page can sometimes offer a skewed vision, as it usually reflects a single day’s activity; as of this writing, for instance, the list suggests that there are more women who want size 10 boots than a one-size-fits-all cashmere shawl. But Amazon recently tallied results through the first half of the shopping season to offer this year’s greatest hits. In the toy department, familiar brands like Star Wars and Barbie are joined by neat-o newbies like the Jakks EyeClops ($49.99), a microscope that plugs directly into your television so everyone in the room can see what the carpet looks like at 200x magnification. Anyone could guess that iPods and GPS would dominate the Electronics department, but the list is helpful in gauging, say, what brands are most desirable when it comes to digital cameras or flat-panel TVs. (In the digicam department, Canon rules the roost on both ends, from the pocket-sized PowerShot SD800 at $349.99 to the more nearly pro-level Digital Rebel XTi, which currently lists for $599.) TV addicts will duly note that The Sopranos ($99.98 for the latest DVD release) have whacked the competition, while Apple’s latest operating system ($129) is out-wishlisting its rival, surely thanks to those “Mac vs. PC” ads. Meanwhile, it’s anyone’s guess in the Home & Garden and Home Improvement categories, where such familiar brands as KitchenAid and Black & Decker dominate but no single kind of item stands out. Lest all these brand-and-model rankings drain the magic from the holidays, your local post office may be a participant in a loose-knit “Operation Santa Claus” that helps citizens reply to the many letters each year that get sent to the “North Pole.” Chances are the lists you find there will be a bit less commercial than those compiled by the web’s largest retailer.

‘Tis the season of the digital photo frame. Whether you’re shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond or Linens ‘n Things or at specialty sites like digiframes.com, these nifty gadgets are all the rage and make perfect gifts, especially if you load them up with photos before wrapping. The concept is simple: Each frame can store as few as 20 or as many as 60 digital photos. The photos can appear in a ”slideshow” mode or can be displayed one at a time for however long you choose. For example, a 7-inch digital frame from Philips ($154.99) stores 50 pictures and has a built-in memory card reader. The brightness is adjustable, and photos can be rotated 90, 180, or 270 degrees. At Bed Bath & Beyond, for example, they have 7 styles of frames, from a pricey 15″ one with a remote control and MP3 playing capability (you can give your family photos a theme song) for $300 to a small travel alarm clock that holds 60 pictures, for $30. Sharper Image has 13 styles, and they’ve cut the prices on four of them, including $90 off an 8″ one with 512 MB of memory that holds 100 pictures and has a calendar function (schedule the days you want to look at certain pictures), speakers for music or movies and an alarm clock function. It costs $230. At Brookstone they offer 9 styles of digital frames, including an interesting man’s wallet that has a digital photo viewer that holds 50 images, for $50. unusual looking Grandparents don’t have to stash photos of the grandkids in their wallets anymore, thanks to the Royal Digital Picture Key Chain ($19.99). With its 1.1-inch display and rechargeable battery, it holds up to 56 photos. The credit-card-size Wallet Pix Digital Photo Album ($29.99) functions in a similar way and can be tucked into a wallet or purse. It comes in black and white and has its own stand and USB cable. Showing off cute pictures of those kiddos has never been easier.

Yes, you’re looking forward to the turkey and the pumpkin pie. But we at Shopperati have our sights set on something vastly more significant: Black Friday. That was an insider retail term for the day after Thanksgiving, when the big discounts begin. Now, most intrepid shoppers know what it means. One recent survey says that the number of Internet searches for “Black Friday” are up 91 percent over last year. So what happens when you search on Google for “Black Friday”? You see Black Friday Ads. This smart site has done the searching for you and has advance word on Friday’s sales - both in-store and online. Black Friday Ads has it down to a science: shop by store, category, find out store hours and lots more. So what is everyone buying? Wide-screen, flat-panel HDTVs are going fast. Walmart is selling a 42″ Panasonic for $798 from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Friday. Best Buy has a Hewlett-Packard 42″ for $996.99 Friday and Saturday only, and Sears has a Sony home theater system for $149.99. Other popular items are computers and laptops (Walmart has a Dell Inspiron for $598; Circuit City has an HP Pavilion 15.4″ laptop for $549.99 after a $150 mail-in rebate), digital cameras (Target is selling a Casio Z75 for $129; Costco has an Olympus 8 mp at $149.99) and other assorted electronic extras (Toys R Us has a Microsoft 30 gb Zune MP3 player for $79.99 - which they say is 60 percent off the regular price; Sears has a Delphi navigation system for $129.99). The Black Friday site polled users on where they’re going to shop Friday, and the top 3 were were Walmart, Best Buy and Target. Even the big retail websites are having Black Friday sales. Amazon.com will have a sales spree but they’re keeping the details a secret. You’ll have to go to their Black Friday page on Friday to find out the deals.

Sony is bolstering its lead in the high-definition camcorder arena with the introduction of AVCHD technology-based models. The new Handycam HDR-CX7 model is the world’s smallest and lightest AVCHD high-definition camcorder. It can record nearly three hours of full HD 1080 video on an 8-GB Memory Stick PRO Duo media card (in LP mode). Weighing just 15 ounces with the supplied battery, it provides ultra-portability as well as a virtually crash-proof recording system, instant archiving to Memory Stick PRO Duo media, and effortless connection to a PC via USB for editing and back-up. The new HDR-SR7 High Definition Camcorder can record more than 22 hours of full HD 1080 video on its built-in 60GB hard disk drive, while the HDR-SR5 model’s 40GB hard drive can hold more than 15 hours of footage (in LP modes). In addition to long recording times, these two models offer compactness and Sony’s HDD Smart Protection system to safeguard against data loss as well as easy connection to PCs via USB.

With wedding and graduation season fast approaching, this is an excellent time to think about digital cameras — either as a gift or just for you to get that critical shot. Dell Electronics & Accessories is offering 20 percent off select models from Sony, Nikon, Canon, Olympus and Kodak through April 11 (6 am CT). Check the Dell site for the model that best suits you, but we like the Sony DSC-T9 Cyber-shot for its sleek styling and high performance. At 6 megapixels and with an exacting Carl Zeiss lens, this is not one of those toy “almost-cameras.” The camera has Real Imaging Processor Technology that is said to improve picture quality and clarity, plus a host of other features such as image stabilization that should make anyone seem like a better photographer. At checkout, use the code: $V7CQWF82D0518.