10 of the Best WordPress Photography Themes for 2023

If there is one industry that is all about the visual aspects of your work, it’s photography. As such, you’ll need a theme that not delivers the functionality you need, but looks good too. This is why searching for the best WordPress photography themes is vital for success in the field.

It’s simple to find a theme with stunning visuals, but you may have to seek out one that meets your needs when it comes to built-in functionality. The good news is that each of the themes on our list will have its own focus, so you can better find one that’s appropriate for your site.

For this post, we’re going to look at some of the best WordPress photography themes. First though, let’s discuss what you should bear in mind when you choose one, then go into how we put our list together.

How to Choose From the Best WordPress Photography Themes on the Market

In most cases where you have to choose a theme for your site, we’d advise to put visual elements to bottom of your priority list. This is because you’ll often be able to use a drag-and-drop editor to design your site to perfection later. However, in this case, we’d argue that you want to move looks nearer to the top.

From there, look to check out the following and strike any theme that doesn’t meet the demands from your shortlist:

• First, make your own list of essential functionality you’d like your site to have. Next, look at the functionality on offer in each theme and see if it meets your needs. If not, push it out the circle and keep playing the game.
• At this point, you’ll have a set of themes that appeal on an aesthetic and technical level. You can now look at whether the developer cares about the theme. You’ll want to see regular updates in place, with the last one no later than six months ago. Any longer, and it could be that the theme won’t work with future versions of WordPress.
• Your final step is to see how other users rate the theme. We like to look for at least a 4.5 star rating, or equivalent. However, most important is the ratio between one- and five-star reviews, and what those low rated review say. This will give you an insight into how much support you will receive.

Our criteria for choosing the best WordPress photography themes matches this. As such, you won’t need to worry about the ten themes here – they’ll all be the best of the best.

10 of the Best WordPress Photography Themes for 2023

There are ten of the best WordPress photography themes to cover, and each one could suit your needs. However, each one has a different focus too, so they’ll suit different types of sites. Here’s the list in brief:

1. Imagely. You get immense value here – more layout templates than the competition, and one of the best WordPress gallery plugins around.
2. Photography. You’re able to turn a straightforward theme into an extra arm for your business, with advanced functionality.
3. Elementor. This page builder plugin includes template kits for many different site types – including photography.
4. Novo. We like the Elementor support, novel navigation, full-screen image options, and the extra functionality for your photography business.
5. Blacksilver. If you want to present your images in the best light and also have access to client management features, this theme could be the one for you.
6. Chique Photography. This free theme is a fantastic way to build a portfolio fast, and also comes with a number of relevant inner pages to use too.
7. Noah. You have plenty of ways to showcase your photography with this theme, along with subtle transitions to help guide users to the right pages.
8. Yuma Masonry. This is another free theme that will be a go-to option if you need to present your photography in a flattering light, without bells and whistles.
9. Oshine. You have a huge number of demo layouts to choose and customize. What’s more each looks great and you can customize them using the built-in page builder.
10. PhotoProof. This theme is another that provides a near full package: It gives you lots of customization, business-specific functionality, and much more.

First off, let’s talk about our top pick, and why it’s number one.

1. Imagely – A Clear Leader Among the Best WordPress Photography Themes

Imagely is a perennial option for a WordPress photography theme, and its one of the first you should consider. You get around 80 layouts to use for your site, and tons of functionality. You can tell that the Imagely theme designed for photographers, as it’s this functionality that is sometimes essential yet always valuable.

For instance, there are lots of ways to upload images, including direct from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. If you want to run a photography business, there are also plenty of e-commerce features to leverage.

However, the icing on the cake is the mammoth amount of gallery options you can harness, courtesy of the NextGEN Gallery plugin. This comes as a bundle with the Imagely theme for $139 per year, although you can get a discount using our unique Imagely coupon code.

Why Imagely Is One of the Best WordPress Photography Themes Around

Quite simply, Imagely shoves so much into the box that it’s ready to burst. We love the theme designs, sure. However, the options you get from the NextGEN Gallery plugin are second to none. You can scroll down the feature list and decide that all could be essential to your business. For that, Imagely is at the top of our list of best WordPress photography themes.

2. Photography

This theme with the blunt title looks gorgeous without any other customization. Photography can be a simple way to get your work online, but is much more than that.

You have around 40 demo layouts to choose from, which split into light and dark variants. However, you can customize any and all of these using the native Block Editor or the live content builder. You also have built-in advanced gallery options, helpful functionality such as password protection galleries, client proofing options, and more.

Photography costs $59 as a one-off fee, with six months of support from the developer.

3. Elementor

Elementor is the only theme on our list that isn’t a theme. It’s a page builder plugin that can work with almost any existing theme to help create your site. However, it does offer its own starter theme, and lots of template kits for various niches that includes photography.

Rather than repeat ourselves here, check out our Elementor review to find out what we think. Spoiler alert though: It’s fantastic, and cheap from $59 per year.

4. Novo

Here’s an example of a theme that uses the free version of Elementor to help create your site. Novo gives you lots of customization options, along with essential functionality for your photography business.

We like how some page designs let you place navigation and other information around the edges of the screen. This keeps these necessary elements away from the full-screen images – the theme has its priorities right. Not only that, you have password and right-click protection for images, watermarking, and much more without the need for third-party plugins.

Novo costs $59 as a one-off fee. For this, you get full future updates and six months’ support.

5. Blacksilver

On the surface, Blacksilver looks like another theme on the list. However, it does have some unique features and functionality. First off all, you have client management and proofing options available to you in the box. In addition, you have choice e-commerce functionality, such as the ability to add purchase links to lightboxes.

Even better, you can choose to customize your site using either Elementor or the native Block Editor. For a one-off fee of $59, Blacksilver certainly gives you a lot of value for money.

6. Chique Photography

If you know you need a website, but don’t have the budget for one of the best WordPress photography themes on this list, Chique could be perfect. It’s a free theme with a codebase that meets WordPress’ strict standards. This means you’ll have a quality photography theme for zero outlay.

It’s a simple way to get your work online, and might be just the ticket if you want to show off your images for free. However, if you like Chique enough to upgrade, you can do so for under $60 per year.

7. Noah

PixelGrade knows how to develop themes for a variety of niches, and Noah excels as a WordPress photography theme. The best use case for this theme is browsing a portfolio. The good news is that the underlying features of Noah keep out of the way so you images can shine.

You have the ability to mix and match orientations, text, carousels, slideshows, and more to best present your photography. Even better, you have lots of customization options that can help you keep your site focused and tasteful.

A single-site license for Noah is $225 per year, although for $20 more you can own the theme outright.

8. Yuma Masonry

Here’s another theme to help facilitate posting your photos online in a format that looks good. Yuma Masonry is as simple as a photography theme can get. While it supports Elementor and WooCommerce, that’s not the strong point of the theme.

Instead, you get a masonry gallery as a home page that uses negative space well. There are a re few color palettes to influence the style and look of your site, but nothing that can bog you down during the design phase.

We think Yuma is a first port of call for when you need a photography site fast.

9. Oshine

Oshine represents not only one of the best WordPress photography themes, but one for creatives on the whole. Of course, our focus here is on the snappers, and Oshine is no slouch in this regard.

You get over 50 template layouts to choose from, of which many are for photography (or that you can adapt to suit.) To tweak those layouts further, you can use the built-in Tatsu drag-and-drop page builder.

This means you won’t need to clog up your WordPress installation with another plugin, and can begin to work on your site straight away. What’s more, you have lots of pre-built section templates that can help you add specific kinds of aspects such as full-screen hero sections, and client logo lists.

You can have everything Oshine offers from $69, which includes all future updates and six months of support.

10. PhotoProof

Last on our list of best WordPress photography themes is PhotoProof. It’s a performant, feature-rich way to show your photography, and comes with lots of ways to present your work.

For instance, you have a full-screen parallax scroller, or slideshow galleries with full control. To give your photos more space, you can choose an appropriate header style from 15 different variants. There’s some solid business functionality in the box too, as you have photo proofing, available too.

All of this is available for $59, a lifetime of future updates, and six months’ support.

In Conclusion

Choosing a theme for your photography website involves a balance between the visual and technical considerations. You’ll want the theme to look stunning out of the box, in order to show off your work. Also, you will want to have access to the right level of functionality for your needs. This can be simple gallery options, full client management, or anything in between.

For our money, Imagely produces the best all-around package, and is one of the best WordPress photography themes money can buy. You have a high number of demo templates that look stellar. However, you can also utilize NextGEN Gallery too – a top-drawer WordPress gallery plugin that packs and punch.

Which of our best WordPress photography themes do you like the look of? Let us know in the comments section below!