A folder of finished photos and a page that shows them well are two different things.

WordPress can turn a handful of images into a tidy grid in a minute. Once a set grows past a dozen frames, though, you start wanting a layout that suits the shoot, a proper lightbox and a way to group sets together.

The free route covers most of that. A working gallery on a live page takes about ten minutes, with no code and no paid plan.

I’ll start with the built-in Gallery block, since it’s enough for some posts, and then build a full image gallery step by step.

What the WordPress Gallery Block Can Do and Where It Stops

WordPress has a Gallery block built in, so you can create a gallery in WordPress without a plugin. Here’s how to add one to a page or post:

1. Add the block: open the post or page in the block editor, click the Add Block (+) icon and search for “Gallery”.
2. Add your photos: click Upload to pick images from your computer, choose them from the Media Library, or drag and drop photos onto the block.
3. Arrange them: drag the images into the order you want, and click any image to add a caption.
4. Set the grid: in the block settings sidebar, choose the number of columns and whether to crop images to fit.
5. Turn on enlarging: set the link option to Enlarge on click so each photo opens bigger.
6. Publish: click Update or Publish to make the gallery live.

Enlarge on click scales the photo up with a lightbox effect, and inside a Gallery block visitors can use arrows to move between photos.

For a blog post with six photos, that’s often all you need. The block stops where a photographer’s needs start, though:

• One grid style: you can change the columns, crop and aspect ratio, but every gallery is still the same even grid.
• No albums: there’s no way to group several galleries into one portfolio page.
• Tied to the page: each gallery is saved inside one post or page, so there is no central place to manage your sets.
• No selling or proofing: clients can look at the photos, but they can’t buy a print or mark their favorites.

If you’re still comparing tools, our roundup of the best WordPress gallery plugins sets the main options side by side. The rest of this tutorial builds the gallery with a dedicated gallery plugin.

How to Create an Image Gallery in WordPress with Imagely

Imagely is a WordPress gallery plugin built for photographers. Every step below works on the free version. I’ll point out paid features only where they show up on screen.

Step 1: Install the Free Imagely Plugin

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add Plugin and search for Imagely. The free plugin shows up under its WordPress.org name, Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery, with the green Imagely icon. If Imagely is already installed, the button reads Active instead of Install Now.

Click Install Now, then Activate, and a new Imagely menu appears in your dashboard sidebar. Our overview of what Imagely Free includes lists everything you get without paying.

Step 2: Add a New Gallery and Upload Your Photos

Go to Imagely > Galleries. This screen lists every gallery you make, and the green Add a New Gallery button starts a new one.

Click Add a New Gallery and type a Gallery Title. Pick a name you’ll recognize in a dropdown later, such as the client or the location. That’s how you’ll find it when you add it to a page.

Big camera exports slow a gallery down, so I resize them before uploading. Our WordPress image optimization guide covers the sizes that work well.

Then add your photos by dragging them onto the upload area or clicking Browse from Computer. Media Library brings in images already on your site, and Import Folder copies a folder from your server if your host allows it.

Once your photos are in, the gallery opens in the editor. It walks you through three steps, Images, Customize and Settings, shown as a bar across the top. The knowledge base also covers creating your first gallery field by field.

Step 3: Add Alt Text, Descriptions and Tags to Your Photos

In the Images step, each photo has a three-dot menu. Choose Edit Details to open its Alt Text, Description and Tags fields, then click Save Changes.

Alt text describes the photo for screen readers and search engines, so write what’s actually in the frame rather than leaving a file name.

Description is the field Imagely shows as the caption, which makes it the place for a location, a date or a short story. Our guide to adding captions to WordPress images goes into how they display.

Tags are optional. They’re worth adding if you plan to use the TagCloud layout, which lets visitors filter photos by tag.

Step 4: Choose a Gallery Layout and Preview It

Click Next step to move to Customize. Pick a tile under Choose Layout, and the Gallery Preview on the right shows your own photos in that layout.

The free plan includes four layouts: Thumbnails, Slideshow, ImageBrowser and TagCloud. Starter adds Film and Mosaic, and Plus unlocks the rest, including Masonry, Tile, Thumbnail Grid and Blog Style.

Choose the layout by how people will look at the set. Thumbnails suits a client gallery where people scan and pick favorites, while Slideshow works for a short sequence you want seen in order.

Below the layouts, Customize Gallery Look holds the settings for the layout you picked, such as Images per page and the number of columns.

Before moving on, click the phone icon above the preview. Mobile Preview shows how the gallery stacks on a small screen, which is where many clients will open it first.

Step 5: Review the Gallery Settings

The Settings step holds the gallery’s details: Gallery Title, Gallery Description, Link to page, eCommerce Settings and Lightbox Library.

The Lightbox Library choice applies to every gallery on your site, not just this one, as the note under it says. The default works well, so most people can leave it alone.

Enable eCommerce is greyed out on the free plan, because selling prints and downloads comes with Imagely Pro. Imagely saves your changes as you make them.

Step 6: Add the Gallery to a Page or Post with the Imagely Block

Open the page or post, click the Add Block (+) icon and search for Imagely. In the Imagely block, stay on the GALLERY tab, pick your gallery from the dropdown and click INSERT.

Update or publish the page and the gallery is live. The layout and settings belong to the gallery, not the page, so editing the gallery later changes it everywhere it appears.

The block’s + Create New link starts a gallery without leaving the editor. Our knowledge base article on adding galleries to a page or post has the full reference.

How to Bring Your Existing WordPress Galleries into Imagely

If your site already has galleries made with the WordPress Gallery block or classic gallery shortcodes, Convert Galleries moves them into Imagely on every plan, free included.

To convert one gallery, select its Gallery block in the editor and click Convert to Imagely Gallery in the block settings sidebar.

To convert them all at once, go to Imagely > Settings > Convert Galleries, choose a post type and click Convert All Galleries. Imagely backs up the original gallery content before it changes anything.

Titles, alt text and image order come across. Check your captions after converting, because a caption typed into the Gallery block on the page isn’t carried over. Our post on converting WordPress galleries to Imagely explains the rest.

Photos that live outside WordPress can come in directly too. On Pro, Instagram Sync pulls posts from up to three accounts into a gallery.

How to Group Several Galleries into an Album

A gallery is a collection of images, and an album is a collection of galleries. An album works like a folder on your portfolio page: visitors pick a set, then browse its photos.

Go to Imagely > Albums, click Add a New Album and give it a name. In the Galleries step, click Add Item to choose galleries, then drag them into the order you want.

The Settings step, labeled Album Display, is where you choose the album layout. Compact Album and Extended Album are free, and paid plans add more album layouts.

You add an album to a page the same way as a gallery, using the ALBUM tab in the Imagely block.

How to Make a Large Photo Gallery Easy to Browse

Imagely turns on a lightbox out of the box. The free Simplelightbox opens each photo full screen with arrows, a close button and a photo counter.

You can switch styles at Imagely > Settings > Lightbox Effects, and Plus adds the Pro Lightbox with comments and social sharing. Our guide on how to add a lightbox to WordPress compares the options.

A gallery of a hundred photos would be a long scroll on a phone, so the Thumbnails layout splits it into numbered pages of 24 photos by default. Change Images per page in the Customize step to show more or fewer on each page.

Pagination is free on every plan. Our WordPress gallery pagination guide walks through the settings, including loading new pages without a full page reload.

FAQs About Creating a WordPress Image Gallery

Start with one gallery from your latest shoot, and add an album once you have a few sets to group. When you’re ready to build the rest of the site around them, our guide on how to create a pro photography website walks you through it.

Don’t have Imagely yet? Get started today!

For more photography tips and WordPress tutorials, check out our blog.