If we work with photographers, or we are photographers ourselves, we know how challenging it can be to present and sell images in a way that feels polished and professional. ShutterPress steps into that gap as a WordPress gallery plugin for photographers, built to display photos elegantly and connect directly to WooCommerce for sales, downloads, and client delivery.
In this first look, we walk through what ShutterPress offers, how its admin workflow feels on a fresh site, and where it already shines for agencies, freelancers, and DIY site owners.
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ShutterPress—First Look Video
What ShutterPress Is
ShutterPress is a premium WordPress plugin focused on photo galleries. It helps us:
- Display galleries in clean layouts.
- Protect and watermark client work.
- Sell images through WooCommerce.
- Deliver files and documents to clients.
ShutterPress Features
The ShutterPress feature list is packed, and it lines up with what we see in the plugin itself. Here is a structured look at the core areas.
- Customizable gallery layouts: Grid, masonry, or justified layouts to present different styles of work.
- Stylish lightbox: Open images in full screen, run automatic slideshows, and zoom in on details.
- Download options:
Make images downloadable, choose full-size or scaled files, and control this per gallery. - Select and filter images: Let viewers like or favorite images, then filter the gallery to show liked photos only, on a gallery-by-gallery basis.
- Gutenberg and Elementor support:
Insert and customize multiple galleries with the block editor or Elementor, plus add custom buttons and options. - Password protection and user access: Create private galleries, set passwords per gallery, restrict to logged-in users, and see which users have viewed each gallery.
- PDF document creation: Build PDFs from templates, such as license agreements, and add them to zip downloads. Use placeholders to insert things like names and addresses.
- Watermarking: Apply text or image watermarks, control size and position, and remove all watermarks with a single click.
- Gallery zip downloads: Bundle all photos and optional PDFs into a single downloadable file, with controls that help prevent unauthorized downloads.
- Client emails: Create custom email templates, send messages to selected users when galleries are ready, and add extra email addresses.
To provide a quick snapshot of the feature areas, it helps to see them side by side.
| Feature Area | What It Covers |
|---|---|
| Galleries & Layouts | Grid, masonry, justified layouts, lightbox, slideshows, zoom |
| Access & Protection | Passwords, logged-in access, user tracking, secure originals |
| Sales & WooCommerce | Gallery products, product groups, attributes, cart buttons |
| Delivery & Downloads | Individual downloads, zip files, PDFs, licensing docs |
| Branding & Control | Watermarks (text or image), opacity, size, watermark removal |
| Communication | Email templates, client notifications, dynamic placeholders |
Documentation And Helpful Resources
Documentation
From the ShutterPress site, we open the documentation in a new tab and keep it handy while working through the plugin. The docs include:
- Clear sections for major features.
- Screenshots of real admin screens.
- Step‑by‑step guidance for WooCommerce setup.
While we test, the docs feel solid enough that we can answer most questions without support tickets.
Demo Content
For demo content, we can use the WordPress Photo Directory, which provides photos that are free for the public to use.
That makes it perfect for:
- Filling test galleries without digging through our own hard drives.
- Building client demos with real, license-safe images.
- Trying different layouts and watermark settings without risk.
We download a few photos from there and use them for our ShutterPress test gallery.
Setting Up Email Templates, PDF Templates, And Product Groups
Once ShutterPress is installed, we see a new ShutterPress menu in the WordPress admin. Before creating a gallery, it helps to set up the pieces that support our client workflow: email templates, PDF templates, and product groups.
Email Templates
Under ShutterPress → Email Templates, we find a default email named something like “Your gallery is ready.” Inside the editor we can:
- Write the subject and body text.
- Use text replacements (dynamic tags) for:
- First name
- Last name
- Username
- Gallery password
- Gallery link
- Our name
A typical greeting might look like this:
Hi {first_name},
When the email sends, ShutterPress swaps the placeholder for the viewer’s actual name.
There is also a Send test email button. In our test it reports that emails were sent successfully. The likely target is the site admin email, which is common behavior.
PDF Templates
Next, we open ShutterPress → PDF Templates. ShutterPress ships with an example license agreement template, which is a nice touch.
This screen feels similar to the email templates:
- We write or edit the text of the contract or document.
- We insert placeholders such as:
- Your name
- Business name
- Business phone
- And other business details
Each placeholder has a small button that copies the tag to the clipboard so we can paste it into the PDF content. That makes it easy to build documents with consistent fields.
We can also click Generate test PDF, which opens a PDF preview based on our template. This is helpful when we want to check formatting and fonts before any client sees it.
WooCommerce Products And Product Groups
To sell photos, ShutterPress works with WooCommerce. The bridge between WooCommerce products and individual galleries is something ShutterPress calls Product Groups.
The workflow looks like this:
- Create a WooCommerce product: We add a new product in WooCommerce, give it a name like “IWP SP,” and set it as a simple product, and for the demo, mark it as virtual and downloadable.
- Enable the ShutterPress options on the product: On the product edit screen, we find a ShutterPress section in the product data. Here we mark the product as a ShutterPress gallery product and give it an internal title if needed.
- Add attributes for options that do not change price: If we offer options such as frame color or finish type that do not change the base price, we add them under Attributes. Example: Attribute name: frame color and Values: red | black
- Publish the product: We can still assign regular WooCommerce categories, tags, brands, and a product image, just like any other simple product.
- Create a Product Group in ShutterPress: Now we go to ShutterPress → Product Groups, add a group, give it an internal and public title, then select our WooCommerce product and click Add product. After we save, that group becomes available to assign to galleries.
By default, ShutterPress hides its gallery products from the main WooCommerce shop and from search, which keeps our public store clean. Clients can still buy through gallery pages, but casual shoppers will not stumble over special gallery products.
For photographers who sell different print sizes, the docs suggest using one WooCommerce product per print size and then adding those to a product group. Options like finish type that do not change price can stay as attributes.
ShutterPress Settings Overview
The ShutterPress Settings page is split into several tabs. Each tab controls a different part of the experience. We found it helpful to skim each one before building galleries.
- General: Choose the default gallery layout type, turn the lightbox on or off, enable or disable pagination or infinite scroll, set images per page, and define the gallery slug. There are also options for debugging and tracking.
- Business: Store core business information, such as name, address, and contact details. These values can feed into PDF templates and other placeholders.
- Email: Add a global email footer that ShutterPress appends to all outgoing emails. Beneficial for adding consistent signatures, contact info, or legal notes.
- PDF: Configure the default page size, font size, and font family for generated PDF documents.
- Watermark: Choose between a text or image watermark. Upload a logo if we use image mode, set opacity, size, and position, and pick the processing engine. GD for faster processing or Imagick for higher image quality. There is also a button to remove all watermarks, which reverts gallery images back to their original state.
- WooCommerce: Control how ShutterPress products behave in the store. Options include hiding gallery products from the shop page and from search. There is also an image threshold setting that relates to how WordPress scales large images (for example, larger than 2560 pixels).
- System: A status screen that reports on the server environment. This is where we would expect ShutterPress to flag any server issues that might affect processing or large file handling.
Once these are set, daily gallery work becomes much smoother.
Creating And Customizing A ShutterPress Gallery
With the groundwork done, we create our first gallery under ShutterPress → Galleries and click Add new.
We call our test gallery “IWP Gallery” and then upload three images we downloaded from the WordPress Photo Directory.
Adding Images And Basic Options
The image manager lets us upload or select from the media library, then insert all chosen images at once. After that, we see:
- A preview of the gallery images.
- A sorting option with “drag and drop” as the default, plus other sorting modes in a dropdown.
Below the images, we configure gallery options such as:
- Favorites: Allow visitors to like or favorite individual images.
- Downloadable images: Decide whether each image can be downloaded. There is also a toggle to allow full-size downloads or restrict to scaled versions.
- Access control
- Leave access open to all visitors.
- Protect the gallery with a password.
- Restrict access to logged-in users only.
- Optionally restrict to a specific user.
- Watermark use: Turn on watermarking for the gallery, based on our global watermark settings.
These options make it easy to tailor each gallery to a specific client or usage case.
Advanced Gallery Options: WooCommerce, PDFs, Zips, Emails
Further down the gallery edit screen, ShutterPress adds some more advanced controls.
- WooCommerce: Sell photos: We enable selling, then choose the product group we created earlier. There is also a Secure photos option that moves original images to a protected folder that is only accessible after purchase.
- PDF files: Here we can pick a PDF template that ShutterPress will use to create a document associated with the gallery. In our demo, we use the included license agreement template. This might travel with the purchase as part of client delivery.
- Zip files: We can show a “Download all images” button for the gallery. ShutterPress can:
- Use an uploaded zip file.
- Use an external link to a zip.
- Or create a zip file that includes all gallery images (and PDFs if configured).
- Emails: We pick an email template, for example, “Your gallery is ready,” and can add extra email addresses if needed. This ties directly into the client communication flow when a gallery goes live.
With those options in place, we publish the gallery and view it on the front end.
What The Gallery Looks Like On The Front End
On the front end, our gallery page shows:
- The gallery title and publish date.
- A row of images based on the layout settings.
- Icons under each image to:
- Favorite the image.
- Download the image.
- Add the image to the cart.
When we click Add to cart, a small interface appears with:
- The WooCommerce product name.
- Any attributes we defined (for example, frame color red or black).
- Quantity controls and an add‑to‑cart button.
There is also a simple toggle at the top of the gallery to switch between:
- Showing all photos.
- Showing favorite photos only.
This makes it easy for clients to mark their picks and then focus just on those.
Security, Passwords, Watermarks, And Zip Downloads
Protection and delivery are key for client galleries. ShutterPress includes several tools to handle both.
Password-Protected Galleries
To test password protection, we set a password like “test” in the gallery settings, save, and then open the gallery URL in a browser where we are not logged in.
The page shows a message that the gallery is protected and presents a password field. After entering the password, the gallery loads as normal.
This is a common pattern for client galleries and fits well into workflows where passwords are shared by email or through a client portal.
Watermarking Photos
Our first pass uses a simple text watermark. We click Update watermarks inside the gallery, and ShutterPress processes the images. On refresh, we see a faint “watermark” text over each photo.
We then change settings to use an image watermark:
- Switch from text to image mode.
- Upload the InfluenceWP logo.
- Lower the opacity for a more subtle effect.
- Adjust the watermark size as a percentage of the image.
After changing the global watermark settings, we click Update watermarks again in the gallery to regenerate them. On the front end, the logo appears over each photo.
Watermarks are both easy to apply and easy to remove. To remove all watermarks from a gallery, we simply click the Remove all watermarks button, refresh the gallery, and the images appear clean again.
Zip Downloads Of Entire Galleries
For the zip feature, our first try at “Download all images” failed because no zip existed yet. Back in the gallery settings, we clicked Create zip file. ShutterPress then built a zip that includes all gallery images.
On refresh, the “Download all images” button now serves a working zip file. This is a nice workflow for giving clients one archive after they have paid or approved their selections.
Embedding Galleries And The Front‑End Experience
Beyond direct gallery URLs, we often want to embed galleries inside regular pages.
Embedding A Gallery With A Shortcode
ShutterPress provides a shortcode for each gallery. Inside the gallery edit screen, we copy the shortcode, then:
- Create or edit a page that uses the WordPress block editor.
- Add a Shortcode block.
- Paste the ShutterPress gallery shortcode.
- Save or update the page, then view it on the front end.
The gallery appears inside the page content and behaves just like the standalone gallery page.
One thing to keep in mind is image orientation. In our test gallery we used images with different sizes and orientations. That can create a more varied look, but if we want a perfectly even grid, we might choose images that share dimensions.
Client View And Stats
On the gallery edit screen in the admin, we can also see:
- View counts.
- Dates and times for gallery activity.
There is a small down arrow icon that looks clickable near this meta info, but we did not see any action tied to it in this version. It may simply be a visual hint to scroll.
We can also set a featured image for each gallery. This is handy for archive pages or for use in page builders.
From the client side, the combination of favorites, downloads, add‑to‑cart buttons, and lightbox viewing gives a complete experience. When we tie this into WooCommerce features like upsells, cross‑sells, or order bumps, ShutterPress can easily sit at the center of a serious photo sales workflow.
Final Thoughts
ShutterPress brings together galleries, client proofing, sales, and delivery in a single plugin that feels built for real photographers and agencies. From watermarks and zip downloads to WooCommerce integration and PDF license agreements, it covers most of what we need to sell and protect client photos on WordPress.
We have only scratched the surface of what is possible when ShutterPress meets a full WooCommerce stack, but even this first look shows a strong base for client galleries and photo sales on WordPress.