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Creating Your First Gallery

Step-by-step guide to creating, uploading, and sharing your first photo gallery

Creating Your First Gallery

Galleries are the heart of Seleckt. They are where your clients view photos, leave comments, and select their favorites. This guide walks you through creating a gallery from scratch, uploading photos, choosing a template, and sharing the final result with your client.

Go to Galleries in the sidebar, then click New gallery in the top-right corner. A guided setup walks you through five short steps — only the first one is required:

  1. Basics — Enter a name for your gallery (required, up to 200 characters). Use something descriptive that your client will recognize, like "Sarah & James — Wedding Day" or "Product Shoot — Spring Collection". Optionally pick the kind of shoot — it helps suggest a matching style in the next step.
  2. Style — Pick a design preset (Editorial, Classic, or Minimal). One click styles the whole gallery; you can fine-tune fonts, colours, and layout later in the Design tab.
  3. Clients — Choose how your client will use the gallery: Proofing (clients select and submit photos) or Viewing only (clients browse and favourite). Proofing galleries can set optional min/max selection limits. You can skip this step.
  4. Sharing — Decide who can open the gallery (private, unlisted, or public), add a PIN, and set an expiry date. You can skip this step too — or click Skip & create to create the gallery with the defaults.
  5. Photos — Your gallery is created; add photos right away or head to the gallery page.

Your gallery is created in draft status. It is not visible to anyone until you publish it, and a Finish setting up checklist on the gallery page tracks what is left: add photos, invite your client, and publish.

Tip: You can always edit the title and description later from the gallery settings page.

Step 2: Upload Photos

Once your gallery is created, you are taken to the gallery detail page where you can start uploading.

  1. Click the Upload button, or simply drag and drop files directly onto the upload area.
  2. Select the photos you want to upload from your computer. Seleckt supports:
    • JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg)
    • RAW formats — Seleckt processes RAW files from most major camera brands, so you can upload straight from your camera card without converting first.
  3. Wait for the upload to complete. You will see a progress bar for each file.
  4. Once uploaded, Seleckt automatically processes each photo in the background:
    • Generates optimized thumbnails for fast gallery browsing.
    • Creates web-sized previews for the gallery view.
    • Applies your default watermark (if you have one configured in your watermark settings).
    • Extracts EXIF metadata (camera, lens, settings) from each file.

Processing usually takes a few seconds per photo. You can continue working while it runs — the gallery updates automatically as each photo is ready.

Tip: Upload in batches if you have hundreds of photos. There is no limit on gallery size, but smaller batches let you review as you go.

With your photos uploaded, it is time to fine-tune the gallery settings. Click Settings (the gear icon) on the gallery page.

Visibility

Control who can see your gallery:

  • Private — Only people you explicitly share it with can access the gallery. This is the default.
  • Link Only — Anyone with the gallery link can view it. Good for sharing on social media or your website.
  • Public — The gallery is publicly listed and accessible to anyone.

PIN Protection

Add an extra layer of security with a PIN code:

  1. Enter a PIN (4-8 digits) in the PIN field.
  2. When someone opens the gallery link, they will be asked to enter the PIN before they can view the photos.
  3. Share the PIN with your client separately (e.g., by text message or email).

To remove the PIN later, simply clear the field and save.

Set an expiry date if you want the gallery to be available for a limited time:

  1. Click the Expiry Date field and pick a date.
  2. After this date, the gallery will no longer be accessible to clients.
  3. You can extend or remove the expiry at any time.

Tip: Gallery expiry is useful for proofing sessions. Give clients a deadline to make their selections, and they are more likely to respond promptly.

Choose how clients interact with the gallery:

  • Standard — Clients can select photos, submit selections for your review, and mark favourites. This is the default.
  • Viewing — Clients can browse, favourite, and download photos. No selection or submission workflow. Ideal for complimentary galleries and portfolio showcases.

You can change the mode at any time from gallery settings. Switching between modes preserves all existing selections and submissions.

Selection Limits

When the gallery mode is Standard, you can set limits on how many photos clients must select:

  • Minimum — The fewest photos a client must select before submitting.
  • Maximum — The most photos a client can select.

These fields are hidden when the gallery is in Viewing mode. This is helpful for packages where the client gets a set number of edited images.

Delivery Mode

Choose how photos appear when clients browse the gallery:

  • Watermarked — Clients see watermarked versions of photos (default for proofing).
  • Full Quality — Clients see the original full-resolution previews (for final delivery).

Allow Free Downloads

By default, clients need to pay an invoice before they can download photos. Toggle Allow Free Downloads on to let all clients with gallery access download without payment. This is perfect for complimentary sessions or portfolio gifts.

When downloading, clients can choose between Hi-Res (original files) and Web View (smaller, web-optimised files). You can also control download access per-client in the Sharing tab after publishing. See Galleries for full details.

You already picked a style preset during the guided setup. To refine it — or change direction completely — open the gallery's Design tab. Three professionally designed presets are the starting point, and every axis (cover style, photo grid, fonts, colours, accent) can be fine-tuned on its own, with a live preview of the real client gallery. Your photos and settings are always preserved when you change the design.

Editorial

Timeless luxury. Features a parallax hero image at the top, a masonry photo grid, and gold accents on a white background. Great for weddings and fine-art photography.

Classic

An editorial spread feel. Warm cream background with a feature grid layout and italic serif headings. Perfect for editorial shoots, fashion, and styled sessions.

Minimal

Clean and polished. A dark banner with a justified row layout and lavender accents. Works well for commercial, product, and architectural photography.

To change the design:

  1. Open the gallery and click the Design tab.
  2. Pick a preset, or adjust the cover, grid, typography, and colours individually.
  3. Changes save automatically and show instantly in the live preview.

Tip: Try all three presets to see which one fits your style best. You can change the design even after publishing — the switch is instant and does not affect your photos or client selections.

Step 5: Set a Cover Photo

The cover photo is the hero image displayed at the top of your gallery.

  1. On the gallery page, hover over the photo you want as the cover.
  2. Click the Set as Cover option from the photo menu.
  3. The selected photo will now appear as the gallery's hero image.

If you do not set a cover photo, Seleckt uses the first photo in the gallery.

When you are happy with your photos and settings, it is time to go live.

  1. Click the Publish button at the top of the gallery page.
  2. The gallery status changes from Draft to Published.
  3. Your gallery is now accessible based on the visibility setting you chose.

You can unpublish a gallery at any time by changing its status back to Draft from the settings.

Step 7: Share with Clients

Now that your gallery is published, share it with your clients:

  • Copy the gallery link — Click the Share button to copy the gallery URL to your clipboard. Paste it into an email, text message, or chat.
  • Share with a connected client — If the client is already in your Seleckt client list, the gallery will automatically appear in their Client Portal.
  • Send by email — Use Seleckt's built-in sharing to send a beautifully formatted email with the gallery link directly to your client.

If you set a PIN, remember to share the PIN code separately from the gallery link for security.

Tip: Sharing through Seleckt's built-in email lets you track when the client opens the gallery. You will get a notification when they start viewing.

After Sharing

Once your client starts interacting with the gallery, you can:

  • See their selections — View which photos the client has favorited or selected.
  • Read their comments — Clients can leave comments on individual photos.
  • Track activity — The gallery's activity log shows when the client viewed the gallery, made selections, or left comments.

Next Steps

Previous
Setting Up Your Account
Next
Inviting Your First Client