Photo albums for your society's events, plus member-submitted "Picture Wall" galleries (ancestor portraits, member-submitted heritage photos).
What you can do
- Create photo albums with titles, descriptions, captions per photo.
- Two album types: Curated (admin uploads) and Submissions (members submit, admin approves).
- Cover photo per album, sortable order, public / members-only visibility.
- Drag-to-reorder photos within an album.
- Bulk upload — drop multiple files at once.
- Picture Wall — special submission-album type for ancestor portraits with name, relationship, and submitter credit.
How to make a curated album
SocietyPress → Photo Gallery → Add Album. Title, description, optional event association, visibility. Save.
Then upload photos. Drag files into the album's edit page; SocietyPress processes them via WP Media Library and adds them to the album. Set captions per photo. Drag to reorder.
Cover photo: pick from the uploaded photos, or upload separately. The album list view uses the cover photo as the album's thumbnail.
How to make a Picture Wall
A Picture Wall is a member-submission album. Members upload an ancestor portrait + name + relationship + brief note. Staff approves before it appears publicly.
SocietyPress → Photo Gallery → Add Album. Title (e.g., "Ancestor Portraits"), description. Submission Type = Submissions. Accepts Submissions = on. Submission Instructions = the guidance shown to members on the upload form.
To put the submission form on a page: drop the "Picture Wall — Submission Form" widget OR [sp_picture_wall_submit album="ancestor-portraits"]. Members fill in the form, upload, submit. Status starts at pending.
To display the approved photos: drop the "Picture Wall" widget OR [sp_picture_wall album="ancestor-portraits"]. Configure columns (default 4) and whether to show submitter credits.
How to moderate Picture Wall submissions
SocietyPress → Picture Wall Pending. Each pending submission shows the photo thumbnail, ancestor name, relationship, caption, submitter, date.
Two buttons per submission:
- Approve — submission goes live in the public Picture Wall. Submitter is emailed.
- Reject — submission is hidden. Submitter is emailed (with a polite "thank you for the submission, this one wasn't approved" note).
A pending-submissions banner appears on every SocietyPress admin page when items are awaiting review, so you don't have to remember to check.
How to display albums
Page builder: drop the "Photo Gallery" widget. Pick which album(s). Shortcode: [sp_album id="..."] or [sp_album slug="annual-banquet-2025"].
The display is a responsive grid (4-col → 2-col → 1-col on mobile). Click any photo to open a lightbox with caption.
For a master "all albums" page, the gallery widget without an album ID shows the album list (each album as a thumbnail card). Click a card to open the album.
If something looks wrong
Photos didn't upload. WordPress's max upload size (set in php.ini) might be smaller than the photo file. Check SocietyPress → Settings → System → Max upload size. If a photo is bigger, resize it (most genealogy photos can be ≤ 2MB without losing detail) or ask your host to bump the upload limit.
A member's submission isn't appearing in Pending. Check that the submission album has submission_type = 'submissions' AND accepts_submissions = 1. Both flags must be on for submissions to land. Toggle them on the album edit page.
Submission form rejects images. The form accepts JPG and PNG by default (image/* mime type). HEIC files from iPhones get rejected — submitter should convert to JPG first (their iPhone's Photos app can do this; share → "Save as JPG" or via Files).
Lightbox isn't opening. Browser cache. Hard-refresh. If it still doesn't work, check the browser console for a JS error and report it.
Related guides
- Events — albums can be associated with events
- Members — submitter credits link to member records when emails match
- Page Builder — placement on pages