Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at how to share photos as a Lightroom web gallery and how to change all of the different settings.
This week, we’re focusing on how a Lightroom web gallery appears to a visitor. If you’re the album owner, you might like to include a link to this post when sending someone a gallery link or the free pdf download mentioned below, so your visitors can make the most of the gallery features.
There are 5 posts in this series:
- How do I share a web gallery from the Lightroom cloud ecosystem?
- How do I share a web gallery from Lightroom Classic?
- How do I set the web gallery permissions and settings?
- How do visitors navigate around my shared web gallery?
- How do I see the likes and comments visitors have left on my shared web gallery?
Accessing a Web Gallery
There’s two different ways you might gain access to a Lightroom web gallery:
If the gallery is public, simply click/tap the link you’ve been given, and the gallery will open in your web browser.
If you’ve received an email invitation, the gallery has been shared privately, so you’ll need to click/tap the link in the email and sign in with your Adobe, Google, Facebook or Apple ID. In addition to the gallery, you’ll see thumbnails for your other shared web galleries down the left-hand side.
Viewing the Photos
The gallery initially opens to the Grid view, where you can scroll through all of the photo thumbnails.
To see a larger view of a photo (called Detail view), simply click/tap on the thumbnail. When you’re in the Detail view, you can flick through the photos using the arrows below the photo, or swiping left<>right if you’re using a mobile device.
To return to the Grid view, click/tap the X in the top right-hand corner.
To play a simple slideshow of the photos, to save clicking through each photo, click/tap the triangular play button at the top of the Grid view. A floating overlay shows the rewind/fast forward/pause/close buttons.
But there’s more you can do in a web gallery, depending on the gallery owner’s settings, beyond just viewing the photos…
Adding Likes and Comments
In the larger Detail view (if the gallery owner has enabled likes/comments), you can mark your favorite photos and leave comments for others to see.
To show you like a photo, click/tap the heart icon below the photo. If you’re not already logged in, Lightroom will ask you to do so.
To view other people’s comments, click/tap the speech bubble icon on the right to show the Activity panel.
To add your own comment, type in the Comments field at the bottom of the Activity panel. If you’re not already logged in, Lightroom will ask you to do so.
Viewing Additional Metadata
If the album owner has enabled metadata, click/tap the i button to the right of a photo to open the Info panel. You may be able to see information such as the photo title, caption, copyright, date and time and where the photo was taken. If there’s a map, clicking on it takes you to the location in Google Maps.
Downloading Photos
If the album owner has enabled downloads, you can download a copy of the photos to keep on your own computer or device.
To download the photos, click/tap the … button at the top. In the resulting menu, click/tap download. If you’re in Grid view when you select the menu, all of the photos download as a zip file. In Detail view, only the current photo downloads as a JPEG.
Uploading Your Own Photos 
If the album owner has sent you an email invitation and enabled contribution, then you can upload your own photos to their web gallery. This is a great way of gathering everyone’s photos from a shared event such as a wedding or party.
To do so, click/tap the Add Photos button at the top of the Grid view and navigate to the photos you want to share.
(If you use the Lightroom app on your phone or tablet, even as a free account, you can also add photos to a shared gallery from within the app, but that’s beyond the bounds of this post. Full instructions for the app are found in Adobe Lightroom – Edit Like a Pro.)
Editing Photos
Finally, if the gallery owner has given you permission to edit their photos, and you have an Adobe subscription that includes Lightroom, there will be an additional Edit button on the right-hand side of the Detail view. You’ll also be able to edit the photos in any of the Lightroom apps, which is often an easier option.
Quick Reference
They say a picture paints a thousand words. If you have a free Lightroom Queen membership, there’s a new PDF diagram in the Members Area Downloads showing where to find all of these different options. You can share it with your friends and family when you give them a gallery link, so they know where to find all of the different buttons. (And if you’re not a member yet, sign up free here!)
Next week, we’re back to web gallery owners, and how to view your visitor’s likes and comments.
For extensive information on Lightroom Classic, see Adobe Lightroom Classic – The Missing FAQ.
Note: purchase of these books includes the first year’s Classic or cloud-based Premium Membership (depending on the book purchased), giving access to download the latest eBook (each time Adobe updates the software), email assistance for the applicable Lightroom version if you hit a problem, and other bonuses.
We also have a special bundle offer for the two books. This includes Premium Membership for the first year as described above for the whole Lightroom family!
Thanks for this article series. While trying this out in practice, it seems it’s quite hard to navigate through the photos compared to the interfaces I’m used to in LRC. For example, is it possible to search through my shared geo-tagged photos on a map, include the folder structure of my catalogue or identify tagged faces?
No, on all three counts. Perhaps someday!