Phanfare allows you to create web albums containing your photos and videos while giving you the power to manage them off-line using rich client software. John's Background Switcher allows you to choose backgrounds from any of you and your friends albums. You can add and remove photo sets from the settings dialog and edit your choices here.
You can choose to either authenticate anonymously or with your Phanfare login details. Using the former lets you choose photos from any Phanfare user's photos. Selecting the latter lets you choose from your own or your contacts photos, including private ones.
Next you can choose the account name, password (if one is set) and then select from the following of the chosen user (which if you're logging in with your Phanfare login details can include your friends and family):
- Random images - photos are chosen from your account at random
- Newest images - you specify how many of your newest photos to choose from (e.g. 50)
- Newest album - chooses photos from your newest album
- Pick an album - you can specify a particular album to choose from