Best Free Photography WordPress Themes
You might wonder what the difference is between a photography theme and a portfolio theme. The truth is that at times they might both serve the same purpose. But at other times they may be a little different.
To my mind, a portfolio theme concentrates on providing a section of the site that is dedicated to showing off a collection of images.
Of course a photography theme might do that too, but the way I look at it, a photography theme puts more emphasis on the blog aspect and less emphasis on creating a separate section to show off a collection of photos.
We recently went through a nice collection of free portfolio themes, and if you’re looking for a photography theme, some of those may suit your needs. So you can have a look at the themes there.
But we didn’t want to simply repeat those themes here, so below we have new collection of “photography themes” – i.e. themes that put a little more emphasis on photoblogging.
All these themes are free.
1. SKT Full Width
The SKT Full Width theme comes with stunning full screen photo on the front of the blog with a simple, semi-transparent menu on the side. But that full screen photo isn’t just one background image. It’s actually a slider, and so you can have multiple stunning, large images there. This allows your visitors to start browsing right away without having to do any searching or enlarging.
The actual blog and blog pages rest on a semi-transparent background just like the menu on the homepage, and so even on the blog itself, there’s a large photo background taking up the entire screen.
2. Portal
The Portal theme is a clean, single column theme. Each post on the home page has a title and then a wide featured image that juts out over the sides of the text area. Single posts take on very much the same look. This theme also comes with a page builder.
3. Snapshot
Snapshot comes with a slider and gallery type thumbnails on the homepage that lead to single pages. Those single pages show off the photo in an upper area that’s devoted only to the photo itself. The bottom area of the page contains a description and then a comment area.
This theme also comes with a page builder, and so you can make a more traditional style site out of it if you like.
4. Travelify
The Travelify theme, as you might expect, was designed with travel in mind, which normally means photos, and lots of them. Of course there’s no reason why you couldn’t use it for other purposes as well. The homepage comes with a large slider at the top, and each post on the homepage has large “thumbnails” that cover the entire width of the content area. So even on the homepage, there’s a chance to show off your photos.
5. Dazzling
The Dazzling theme’s biggest nod to photoblogging seems to be the large featured image that’s placed at the top of each post, along with a very large homepage slider. It comes with unlimited color options, a call to action button, social media buttons, infinite scroll, and more.
6. Sparkling
The Sparkling theme comes with a very large slider at the top of the homepage. Each excerpt on the homepage is an attractive, clean-looking box divided essentially in half. The top half is filled with a large “thumbnail,” and the bottom half if filled with the excerpt. When you click into the post, the featured image is once again at the top of the content area as on the homepage.
7. Unite
The Unite theme comes with a large slider near the top of the homepage. Single blog pages display a large featured image above the title of the post. Archive/category pages also show a large featured image/“thumbnail” above the post title, giving visitors a nice large look at the post’s main photo.
8. Family
The Family theme comes with a very large image at the top of each Post and Page. The image takes up the whole width of the content area, even the area where the sidebar might be. Below is the title and post, and then also at that level is where the sidebar starts. So there is a sidebar, but it doesn’t get loaded until after the large featured image.
9. Visual
The Visual theme employs a flexible grid type homepage that allows visitors to get a quick look down through your posts, and of course, your pictures. On a single post, the photo takes up the full width of the content area. Below is the title and post area, which you use for a short description or a full post.
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10. Market
The Market theme comes with a well-balanced, attractive looking homepage that puts a slider at the top of the page and then a grid layout below with thumbnails from different posts. Mousing over the large, square thumbnail activates an overlay along with a description and a “Read More” link.
11. Fifteen
The Fifteen theme comes with a large full-width background header photo on the homepage that gives into a grid of featured thumbnail images from different posts. When you hover over a thumbnail, the image zooms and turns, then fades into an overlay with a description and button to the post.
12. Sixteen
The Sixteen theme sports a slider on the homepage with a gallery of thumbnails leading to posts below that. Hovering on the thumbnails sets in motion a slight zooming effect. Single page posts keep the same header image, and then there’s a regular post.
13. Preus
The Preus theme comes with a full-width header at the top of the page as many themes might, but then under that on the homepage you find a kind of filmstrip slider with featured images from your posts. For a photography blog, this is a convenient way for visitors to quickly begin scanning through photos to see which post they might like to visit.
Continuing on the homepage, there is a stream of posts with a large featured image for each and then an excerpt for the post.
14. Temptation
The Temptation theme comes with very large slider near the top of the page. It covers the full width of the page and nearly the whole height as well. Below the slider there are several different areas. First there’s a another mini slider with thumbnails. Below that is a type of gallery. And then below that there are grids of thumbnails for different posts. In short, this theme’s homepage is loaded with opportunities to show off your images. The black background also has a way of putting the focus on the photos and re-emphasizing that this a photo-driven site.
15. BirdSITE
The BirdSITE theme gives you a left aligned page with a grid of featured images on the homepage. The grid layout is designed to work especially well on tablets and phones. Many of the single pages in demo show a slider/slideshow in content area with a comment section below.
16. The J A Mortram
Although there is no official demo site, this theme was originally created for the website Small Town Inertia. So you can see a copy of the theme in action there.
This is a simple, clean, single column theme. The homepage shows a stream of posts with a large thumbnail to the left and an excerpt on the right.
17. Origami
The Origami theme is a very clean and attractive single column theme. The homepage shows a stream of the latest posts. At the top of each post is a large featured image that stretches across the width of the content area. Below is the title and the rest of the post.
18. Clearly
The Clearly theme has a large, full-width slider at the top of the homepage and then a stream of the latest post underneath. Of course that’s fairly typical, but the featured images for the posts have a few qualities that I’ve never seen before. First, they jut out wider than the text except below them, and they also each have social media icons running down their sides.
