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You’re probably aware that you can turn a synced Collection into a beautiful photo gallery that you can share with anybody.
But what you might not know is that you can customize your photo gallery in Lightroom web to give it a truly individual look. The tools in Lightroom web let you take it further and create a gallery that people enjoy viewing and interacting with.
Interested? Let’s take a look at the detail.
1. Make a photo gallery with Lightroom Classic
1. You get started in Lightroom Classic. Add the photos for your photo gallery to a synced Collection.
2. Click the Make Public button at the top of the Collection.
3. Click the Adobe.ly link to open the photo gallery in your browser. Alternatively, right-click and select Copy to Clipboard. You can paste the link into a browser or give it to somebody else.
That gives you a standard photo gallery that looks like this:
Your viewers can:
- Click on a photo to enlarge it.
- View basic metadata.
- View comments.
- Make comments if logged in with their own (free) Adobe ID.
- Like photos.
- View a slideshow.
In other words, it’s a basic photo gallery that’s great for showing your photos. But it lacks flexibility, and you can’t change the layout in Lightroom Classic. Just about the only thing you can do is change the order of your photos.
2. Make the photo gallery look beautiful in Lightroom web
To take full control of you photo gallery’s layout you need Lightroom web.
What is Lightroom web?
Lightroom web is part of the Adobe website. You can log in with your Adobe ID and password and access all the synced Collections in your Catalog. It’s like using Lightroom desktop or Lightroom mobile, but in a browser.
With Lightroom web you can:
- View and develop photos on somebody else’s computer.
- View and develop photos on older computers with outdated operating systems. It’s a great way of getting extended use out of older machines that don’t let you install the latest version of Lightroom Classic.
How to use Lightroom web
To use Lightroom web go to https://lightroom.adobe.com/ and log in with your Adobe ID and password.
Now it’s time to customize your photo gallery. Here’s how you do it.
1. Log into Lightroom web and go to the synced Collection you just created. Click the Share Layout Grid icon (marked below).
This viewing mode shows your photo gallery layout and lets you see the effect of any changes you make. My shared Collection looks like this.
Tip: Adobe recommends you use the Chrome browser for Lightroom web. If you’re using a different browser and things don’t seem to be working properly, then try Chrome instead. Alternatively, use Vivaldi – a Chrome based browser with full privacy protection and ad blocking. It’s my default browser and I love it.
2. Now look for the toolbar at the bottom. You can use it to change the design of your photo gallery.
You can change the theme (the photo layout style) using the icons on the left. There are three to choose from.
Photo Grid: The default layout, what you see in the screenshot above.
Column: Arranges your photos in two columns.
One-up: Arranges your photos in a single column.
On the right you have two Appearance icons, black and white. This is the background color.
Play around with the settings and see what works for you. For example, I’m using the Column theme with a white background. This is what it looks like.
Tip: To see your photo gallery how a visitor would see it, copy the url and open it in a private tab. Click refresh to see the changes every time you change a setting in Lightroom web.
3. Click the arrow on the right of the Toolbar. It opens up, revealing more options.
Show title: Check the box to display the page title. It uses the Collection name by default. Click on the title to change it.
Show author: Check the box and enter your name to display it under the title.
Use cover as: Check the box and select one of two options – Hero or Background.
Every photo gallery has a cover photo. By default it’s the first photo in the Collection, but it’s easy to change:
Hover over the photo you want to use as the cover photo.
Check the checkbox that appears.
Click Set as cover from the options at the bottom of the screen.
Set Use cover to Hero to place the cover photo above the heading, like this.
To change the crop, click the Adjust hero icon in the top right corner. Then click and drag the arrows in the center to reposition the image. Use the plus and minus icons to zoom in or out. Click Apply when you’re done.
Or set Use cover to Background.It looks like this.
Reorder by: Use this menu to set the order of the photos in the Collection. But don’t forget you can also change the order by clicking and dragging photos.
3. Use the Edit button to add text to your photo gallery
Impressed? It gets better. Click the Edit button under the heading to reveal more options.
Now you can enter a heading and a subheading.
Enter text in either or both, then click the Done button.
4. Get critical with your photos
Now the layout is done it’s time to think about the images in the Collection, and the order they’re presented in.
You may be happy with your choice of photos, and that’s fine. Or, like me, you might include lots of photos with the aim of removing some as the photo gallery takes shape. In my case I have a lot of similar photos, so I’d like to remove some of them to avoid repetition.
To remove a photo, move the cursor over it, check the checkbox in the top right corner and select Remove. This removes the photo from the synced Collection, but not your Catalog.
You can also change the order of your photos by clicking and dragging.
5. Add a section divider to your photo gallery
Move the cursor over the photos. As you scroll down you’ll see the option to add a section divider.
Click the blue plus icon. Now you can enter a new heading and subhead to go with the new section. Click Done when you’re finished.
Feeling inspired? I hope this article encourages you to make your own photo galleries. Feel free to share the links in the comments if you don’t mind other readers seeing them.
You can see my photo gallery here. Take a look to see what you can do with Lightroom web.
You can learn more about making photo galleries and websites in my ebook Mastering Lightroom Classic: Book Three – The Other Modules. You’ll learn how to use Lightroom web and Adobe Portfolio, and create fun and interesting projects using the Map, Book, Slide show and Web modules.
Click here to learn more and grab your copy today 🙂
