Picking a WordPress theme for photography websites is like picking an accessory for an outfit out of your closet.
You might have 20 ties or 20 scarves. But not all fit your style. Not all suit the needs at the moment.
A photography website is extremely personal.
It needs to show off your work. Your brand. Your persona.
And there are many types of WordPress themes for photography websites.
- top headers
- side headers
- no headers
- narrow content areas
- full-width content areas
- large fonts
- small fonts
The choices can go on for days.
There are many themes that include endless amounts of options for photographers to customize. We call that bells and whistles. We even make a product like that, called Photocrati Pro.
However, Imagely themes are simpler than that. Much (much) simpler.
They have few options, but with the ability to expand customization control.
You see, Imagely themes are built on the Genesis Framework, which is the most popular theme framework in the WordPress ecosystem (for a good reason).
Genesis themes do not offer page builder (drag and drop) functionality, like some others out there. But they can work with just about any page builder plugin you want to use with it - like Elementor, Tailor, Divi or Beaver Builder.
Just remember - page builders should not be inside themes, but rather in plugins. So don't pick a theme only because of a page builder.
So how do you pick a theme? Follow these steps to get you pointed in the right direction.
Pick A WordPress Theme for Photography Websites
- Describe your brand and your dream clients. Hopefully, you have already done this for your business.
- Create a bullet list of page content that your website should have.
- Sketch what your ideal website might look like and/or create a list of features you'd like to have.
At this point, you have everything you need to determine a WordPress theme for your photography website. You know what your ideal clients would enjoy as well as what you will enjoy.
The next step (step 4) is to find the theme. Do Google searches for themes, and visit theme shops, like ours, to see if any suit your needs.
Do you want a grid? Background slideshow? Background video?
Maybe the answer is a Genesis photography theme. Or maybe it's Nikkon, which is a free theme. Or maybe a theme made by StudioPress (the makers of Genesis).
Once you know what you need, finding the right theme is a matter of spending some time to browse what's available to you from the WordPress community.
Addison Geary
7 Mar 2017New to WordPress. Chose a theme that I am not crazy about. How hard is it to just up and change themes? Do I need to re-create Galleries, Home Page, About page? Page titles? Image titles, captions, alt tags and description? Will I generate 404’s? What about permalinks? Basically will I screw up SEO for my existing site, or negate all the work I’ve put into building current site.
Scott Wyden Kivowitz
8 Mar 2017I wish the answer was simple. It really depends on the theme you’re currently using. If the theme you use has galleries built in, then switching themes likely means you’ll lose them. But if the galleries are using a plugin, like NextGEN Gallery, then they will transfer to any theme since it’s a plugin. Page content should also transfer, unless you’re using a theme which has a page builder built into the theme instead of a plugin.
Addison Geary
8 Mar 2017Thanks Scott. Current theme has built in galleries. As long as the images are still in Media Library shouldn’t be a problem to rebuild them. Think I’ll wait for a long weekend to try the switch and this time I’ll choose a theme that does not have built in page builder.