Top 10 Ways to Give Your Photos as Gifts

If you are reading Explora, you know that photographs make great gifts. What you might not know is that there are many ways in which you can transform your photos into gifts. Below is a countdown of the best ways to make your photographs shine this holiday season.

10: Polaroid Family Tree Stand and Frames

Don’t know what to get Grandma? The Polaroid Family Tree Stand and Frames is a great gift for parents or grandparents. Five 2 x 3" magnetic frames attach to the tree with three different-shaped windows: two rectangles, two ovals, and one heart.

9: Leica Sofort Photo Presenter

Not sure about the best way to give your instant photos? Leica’s Sofort Photo Presenter offers a clever tabletop way to display a pair of 2.4 x 1.8" (Leica Sofort / Fujifilm instax mini) prints. Each side of the display holds six spiral-bound displays, allowing you to mix and match up to twelve photographs.

8: Adventa Acrylic Block Displays

Acrylic displays are a very giftable way to protect and display small photographs. Adventa offers two 23mm-thick acrylic displays for 4 x 6" photos: Glitterblox (glitter suspended in liquid), and, most appropriate for holiday gift-giving, Snowblox (glitter and “snow” suspended in liquid).

7: Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

Printing photographs on canvas is one way to get your photographs on the wall without having to deal with frames. Hahnemühle offers Gallerie Wrap Sets for several sizes of prints to make the process of displaying your digital photographs on canvas relatively straightforward. Don’t forget to grab your favorite canvas to print on while you are at it.

6: Polaroid Snow Globe Photo Frame

Snow globes are a classic holiday decoration. Polaroid’s Snow Globe Photo Frame allows you to load up your favorite picture and let it snow—regardless of whether you are celebrating on the North Pole or a tropical island.

5: Rockland Liquid Light Photo Emulsion

Holding down the middle of the list is an alternative processing favorite: Rockland Liquid Light Photo Emulsion. Liquid emulsion allows darkroom-savvy photographers the opportunity to print their work on nearly any surface: wood, glass, ceramics, fabrics, metals, etc. Results are limited only by the creativity and capability of users.

4: A&I Fine Art and Photography Photobook

Photobooks are an excellent way to immortalize your digital photos and neatly package them as gifts. B&H has partnered with A&I Fine Art and Photography to offer Pre-Paid Cards to make your own custom photobook. Choose from a variety of design templates to lay out your photos on pages made of high-quality photo paper bound into a soft or hardcover book.

3: Aluminyze Print

Aluminum prints present a sharp, contemporary way to print your photos. B&H has partnered with Aluminyze, a Brooklyn-based company specializing in dye sublimation aluminum printing, to allow you to purchase a digital credit to make custom prints, redeemable on Aluminyze’s website. A wide range of sizes are available, from 5 x 5" tabletop displays to 30 x 30" behemoths. Small prints include easels, while larger prints come with the option of adding metal edge mounts for a solid look, or wooden frame mounts concealed behind the print for a “floating” effect.

2: Meural Leonora Digital Art Canvas

Does the person you are shopping for have a short attention span? Fear of commitment? Extremely refined taste in screen resolution? The Meural Leonora Digital Art Canvas can display photographs or digitally reproduced artworks on its 1920 x 1080-resolution LCD screen. It is compatible with Amazon Echo and Alexa, so you can shout commands at it from across your home gallery. It is available with black, white, or walnut frames.

1: Nielson & Bainbridge Gallery Frame

Coming in at number one is a combination as time-tested as bread and butter: mat and frame. Nielsen & Bainbridge’s Gallery Frames are some of the best all-in-one framing options on the market. Unlike the flimsy mats that often come pre-packaged with frames, the Gallery series includes a noticeably high quality, 8-Ply archival cotton rag mat with beveled windows. In addition to the mat, the metal frame itself is beveled, adding a sharp visual effect. To learn more about matting and framing your work, check out Cory Rice’s article on the topic here.