Take a shot at creating some of your own tiled background images out of unusual or unexpected images. If you go through your own collection of digital photographs, you may run across a patch of grass or some other texture in an area of a picture that could be turned into a cool background image.
If you have some photos of objects for a web-based catalog, consider taking the time to paint a transparent color carefully around the edges of them. (Sometimes the magic wand tool in your image editor can help automate this process.) You can also use Paint Shop Pro's Effects, 3D Effects, Drop Shadow feature to add a slight shadow behind or beneath each object so that it appears to stand out from the background.
