Photographers need websites these days and luckily, there is the fantastic Wordpress platform that essentially allows you to create a fantastic looking website without having to spend a huge amount of money. There are a lot of Wordpress themes out there but as a photographer, you might not really have thought about these too much. However, there are actually a lot of Wordpress themes that are pretty much created with photographers in mind and therefore, they allow a lot of the functionality that you'll likely want your photography portfolio website to have. With the advent of CSS3 and HTML5, there have been a lot of exceptionally cool looking themes released and to give you inspiration, I've rounded up a few of the absolute best and coolest photography themes for Wordpress.
#1 - Kingsize
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Kingsize[/caption] Kingsize is an amazingly stylish theme that utilises a full background image to really stand out. It's a pretty simplistic theme, as you can see from the screenshot above but this is intentional, as it allows your work to be the main focal point of the theme, rather than some useless gimmick. Having said this, there are a lot of cool aspects to the theme. For example, you have the ability to not only set a background of your choice, but also make sure that it rotates with other photos (essentially a background slider). You can add information about each of these photos too. The menu is a pretty simplistic design too and can be hidden at the touch of a button. The theme has a great looking blog template, gallery template and portfolio, so you can be sure that you'll be able to display your work in a great way.
#2 - Core Minimalist
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Core Minimalist[/caption] If you're looking for a bit of a more simple approach to your portfolio, then look no further than the core minimalist theme. This is a theme that has been designed with minimalism in mind and therefore, allows your work to be at the absolute forefront of the design. You'll notice from the screenshot above that the theme uses a lot of white space. This is great for photographers as it allows your work to stand out. The main design element of the theme is the carousel style gallery that is displayed on the homepage. This is intuitive to use and is a really cool way to display your work to your sites audience. One of the nice aspects of the theme is that you can also include both Vimeo and YouTube videos, which is great if you have a video showcase that you'd like to utilise.
#3 - Chocolate
Chocolate is another incredible theme that should seriously be considered if you're looking for a clean and minimal theme, but perhaps not quite as clean and minimal as our last example. Chocolate features a rich design that also utilises a full screen background image but this time, it has a 3D slider too. It has been optimised for mobile devices which means that even if you have a lot of visitors using Smartphone's or tablet PC devices, your website will still display perfectly well and will allow them to view your work with ease. The blog post style of this theme is pretty cool as it is reminiscent of Tumblr, as you'll see when you take a look at the demo. There are a number of cool widgets included including a widget that allows you to show photos from your Flickr account. Overall, it's a great option when choosing a Wordpress theme for your portfolio.
#4 - DK For Photography
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DK[/caption] DK for Photography has to be one of my all time favourite photography themes as it works so well as is just so clean and nice. It's an extremely minimal, yet modern theme that showcases your work and no aspect of the design gets in the way at all. One of the cool things about this theme is that you have a selection of homepage templates to choose from, each with a slightly different design style, so you can be sure that your website looks exactly how you want it to look. Much like core minimalist theme above, you can also include YouTube and Vimeo videos in your posts as there are custom post types for these. Overall, it is a very trendy and modern looking theme that would be perfect for portrait, fashion, wedding or just about any other type of photographer out there. There are a lot of page templates, widgets and other cool features included too.
Conclusion
Creating the perfect photography portfolio website can be difficult and you might have thought that it would have cost a lot of money. The thing is, if you choose to have a custom theme created or opt for a web designer that creates a bespoke design, it will cost a lot of money. But there are literally so many great Wordpress themes aimed at photographers out there these days, that this isn't really necessary for most photographers.
#1 - Kingsize
[caption id="attachment_919" align="alignnone" width="650"]
Kingsize[/caption] Kingsize is an amazingly stylish theme that utilises a full background image to really stand out. It's a pretty simplistic theme, as you can see from the screenshot above but this is intentional, as it allows your work to be the main focal point of the theme, rather than some useless gimmick. Having said this, there are a lot of cool aspects to the theme. For example, you have the ability to not only set a background of your choice, but also make sure that it rotates with other photos (essentially a background slider). You can add information about each of these photos too. The menu is a pretty simplistic design too and can be hidden at the touch of a button. The theme has a great looking blog template, gallery template and portfolio, so you can be sure that you'll be able to display your work in a great way. #2 - Core Minimalist
[caption id="attachment_920" align="alignnone" width="650"]
Core Minimalist[/caption] If you're looking for a bit of a more simple approach to your portfolio, then look no further than the core minimalist theme. This is a theme that has been designed with minimalism in mind and therefore, allows your work to be at the absolute forefront of the design. You'll notice from the screenshot above that the theme uses a lot of white space. This is great for photographers as it allows your work to stand out. The main design element of the theme is the carousel style gallery that is displayed on the homepage. This is intuitive to use and is a really cool way to display your work to your sites audience. One of the nice aspects of the theme is that you can also include both Vimeo and YouTube videos, which is great if you have a video showcase that you'd like to utilise. #3 - Chocolate
Chocolate is another incredible theme that should seriously be considered if you're looking for a clean and minimal theme, but perhaps not quite as clean and minimal as our last example. Chocolate features a rich design that also utilises a full screen background image but this time, it has a 3D slider too. It has been optimised for mobile devices which means that even if you have a lot of visitors using Smartphone's or tablet PC devices, your website will still display perfectly well and will allow them to view your work with ease. The blog post style of this theme is pretty cool as it is reminiscent of Tumblr, as you'll see when you take a look at the demo. There are a number of cool widgets included including a widget that allows you to show photos from your Flickr account. Overall, it's a great option when choosing a Wordpress theme for your portfolio.
#4 - DK For Photography
[caption id="attachment_921" align="alignnone" width="650"]
DK[/caption] DK for Photography has to be one of my all time favourite photography themes as it works so well as is just so clean and nice. It's an extremely minimal, yet modern theme that showcases your work and no aspect of the design gets in the way at all. One of the cool things about this theme is that you have a selection of homepage templates to choose from, each with a slightly different design style, so you can be sure that your website looks exactly how you want it to look. Much like core minimalist theme above, you can also include YouTube and Vimeo videos in your posts as there are custom post types for these. Overall, it is a very trendy and modern looking theme that would be perfect for portrait, fashion, wedding or just about any other type of photographer out there. There are a lot of page templates, widgets and other cool features included too. Conclusion
Creating the perfect photography portfolio website can be difficult and you might have thought that it would have cost a lot of money. The thing is, if you choose to have a custom theme created or opt for a web designer that creates a bespoke design, it will cost a lot of money. But there are literally so many great Wordpress themes aimed at photographers out there these days, that this isn't really necessary for most photographers.
