As you probably know there is a WordPress theme for just about every profession, hobby, interest and business.
There are free themes and premium themes.
Some of them actually have titles and descriptions that make sense, but most don't, which means you have to slog through each one to find out if it's any good or will work for you.
Some of you just want something to show off your photography style...because you are a creative person and everyone just thinks your images are cool. However, you also want a platform that is user friendly and doesn't require a special coder or web designer to create and keep it alive.
There are so many themes and templates to choose from, it makes your head spin Exorcist style...so I have kept the list short but included as many feature details as possible with my take on them.
What Makes This List More "Awesome" Than Any Others?
I'm not a photographer, but I do know WordPress. In order to make this list valuable to you I enlisted the help of some real photographers who use some of these themes. From their insights I was able to highlight the best features for each theme.
Most list articles you may find just give you an image of the theme and the standard features from the developer and not much else. This article list looks at the best themes from the perspective of a person just like you, a photographer.
Whether you are a professional or an amateur photographer thinking of starting a WordPress blog, or you have a website already but it's old and you want something fresh, this list will prevent you from having to do a "spray and pray" of sorts, in the hopes of finding the right theme.
#1 - Top Of The Line - Mone'ys No Object Theme
ProPhoto
Quick Video Tour of ProPhoto Theme
Features
- PayPal - the ubiquitous PayPal integration - you gotta have it
- WooCommerce Compatible - means you can add the fabulous WooCommerce plugin (tested to work) and create a great and well supported store/cart for your site
- Responsive design - has been tested to render perfectly on all devices no matter how you configure it
- Translation & RTL (right to left text) Ready - (does require a plugin, either free or paid)SEO Friendly - Site is structured to be "loved" by Google with clean and optimized code
- Live Customizer - real time WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get while designing your pages)
- Fast install - they say in under a minute and comes with demo content
- Custom Background - allows for image, video, or a slider background
- Fully Customizable Menus - full control of structure and design of the menus and submenu content - no extra plugins required
- Video Tutorials and Excellent Support - 1-click updates, access to forums docs and video tutorials that take you through the entire build of a WordPress website
- Drag and Drop Content - move your page content where you like it, which will individualize your page to your liking
- Drag and Drop Content - move your page content where you like it, which will individualize your page to your liking
#4 - The Best Free WordPress For Photographers Theme
Illdy
This is a difficult category to pin down, because the best free WordPress themes usually don't have all the best features enabled in the free version. I had to consider the "free" claim with a large grain of salt.
That said, I decided to only include what was in the free version. This took a lot of digging as the theme descriptions don't always tell you what is "not" included until you try and use that feature.
This is what rose to the top (from the mostly feature rich criteria):
Features
- Responsive Flat Design - flat design does away with the fluffy stuff like drop shadows and gradient; more minimalist with flat colors and faster performance
- Retina Ready - optimized for all HiDPI (Retina) displays for sharp text and stunning images
- WordPress Customizer - has dozens of options for extra customization all from the new WordPress customizer feature
- One Page - this is a new trend in WordPress themes and a lot of websites use it, especially business sites. It allows for all your best content to be on one page, works well on mobile for scrolling, and navigation stays on the page instead of opening new windows
- WooCommerce Support
- Font Awesome support - supports these vector based iconsed - again a great store/cart plugin
- Plugin Support - works with most popular WP plugins both free and premium, including standards like Contact Form 7, Jetpack, W3 Total Cache etc
- Translation Ready - multilanguage ready, but still working on all translations
- Color Options - unlimited one-click color pickers for all elements
- Documentation - plenty of documentation articles on how to setup and use the theme
- Support (of course) - they claim free support and use a forum format which in my opinion is sometimes faster than regular ticket based support
- Hero Image - A hero image is a large full-width prominent image at the top of the page. Makes your best work stand out and a great place for a call to action
#5 - Just Plain Awesome Photograpghers Theme
photocrati
Okay now I get to pick one for the fun of it. Being a bit of a creative person I like things that are different or cool to look at. So you may not be looking to have a perfect business site, but want to show that you have a flare for new or different so my pick with you in mind is: photocrati
Blog-style Galleries - great for you photo bloggers and wedding photographers. They are columns of large images with customizable sizing, spacing, and borders
Conclusion:
So by now you have a better idea of what's out there specifically for finding the best WordPress photography themes.
I have tried to keep the selections to a minimum, but give you a wide range of categories to choose from.
I know not everyone is in the position to be making this their full time living, so I kept the selections in the price range most can afford, with the exception of the "money’s no object" — because, hey, there will be some pros out there that can afford the best that money can buy.
I hope you have found this article and list of themes informative and entertaining. My choices were based on both my opinion and experience with WordPress photography themes and some insights from photographers both professional and beginners on rhe photography themes they've used.
I wish you luck in finding the best WordPress theme for your experience and taste.