These photography templates are designed and maintained in-house by uiCookies, built to put your images first. Each is free to download, comes with a live demo, and ships as plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — no signup and no build tools.
Mosaic, Explorer and Aside run on Bootstrap 5 with vanilla JavaScript, including a built-in lightbox so visitors can open your photos full-screen. Drop in your own gallery images, adjust the layout, and you have a portfolio site that gets out of the way of the work.
The templates
Silver Halide
Silver Halide is a single-page portfolio for a photographer who takes commissions as well as showing work. It opens dark, on a full-viewport image with a centred wordmark and the menu split either side of it, then hands the page to a full-bleed mosaic gallery whose images take asymmetric spans and ignore the usual container and row grid. A sideways-scrolling strip presents photo series, followed by rates tiers, an about section and a booking enquiry, so a visitor can go from looking to asking about a date without leaving the page.
The lightbox is the browser's native dialog element, which supplies the backdrop, focus trap and Escape key without a plugin. The enquiry form offers a Combobox for commission type, a Datepicker for the date and Chip input for usage tags, validates natively and sends nothing until you connect it. Dark by default with a remembered light mode, on the Bootstrap 6 alpha with ESM-only vanilla JavaScript.
Mosaic
Mosaic is a pure image-gallery template: a true CSS-columns masonry grid of varied-height frames with instant category filtering, a load-more reveal, and a custom keyboard-friendly lightbox (arrows, escape, focus trap).
The near-black gallery canvas with a single restrained brass accent keeps the chrome out of the way so the images always lead. One page, Bootstrap 5, no jQuery.
Explorer
Explorer is a full-bleed, image-led photography template with project galleries and a built-in lightbox. Large hero imagery and generous spacing let each photo carry the page, which suits travel, landscape, and editorial photographers.
Galleries open in a clean custom lightbox with keyboard navigation, and sections reveal as you scroll using an IntersectionObserver rather than a heavy animation library.
Aside
Aside keeps a fixed side navigation in view while a grid of thumbnails fills the rest of the screen, so browsing feels like flicking through a contact sheet. It is a good fit for studios and visual portfolios with a lot of work to show.
The gallery grid is responsive and pairs with a lightbox for full-size viewing, and the layout stays minimal so nothing competes with the images.
Aperture
Aperture is an image-first photography portfolio with a full-bleed hero, a masonry gallery that opens in a hand-built lightbox, and honest package pricing. Restrained chrome keeps the focus on the work, and every interaction is plain vanilla JavaScript.
Compare at a glance
| Template | Best for | Layout | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silver Halide | Photographers taking commissions | Dark one-pager, full-bleed mosaic | Native dialog lightbox + booking enquiry |
| Mosaic | Pure image galleries | Masonry grid, one page | Instant category filter + keyboard lightbox |
| Explorer | Travel / editorial photography | Full-bleed, scrolling | Custom lightbox galleries |
| Aside | Studio / visual portfolio | Fixed side nav + grid | Contact-sheet thumbnail grid |
| Aperture | Photographer portfolio | Full-bleed + masonry | Hand-built lightbox |
How to choose
Pick Explorer if you want each project to fill the screen and lead visitors through a scrolling story; pick Aside if you would rather show a dense grid of work with a persistent menu to jump around. Both handle a large number of images well.
Whichever you choose, compress your photos before publishing — large image files are the main thing that slows a gallery site down. Lazy-loading off-screen images helps, but well-sized files are what keep the experience fast on mobile connections.
Silver Halide is the one to pick when the site has to sell commissions as well as show work: it adds rates tiers and a booking enquiry to the gallery. Aperture also lists package pricing, so compare those two on look, with Aperture's masonry gallery under a full-bleed hero against Silver Halide's dark, chrome-free mosaic. Mosaic, Explorer and Aside stay focused on showing the work. Silver Halide runs on the Bootstrap 6 alpha and targets only recent browsers (Safari 16.4+, Chrome 111+, Firefox 113+).
Frequently asked questions
Do these photography templates include a lightbox?
Yes. Both Explorer and Aside include a built-in lightbox, so visitors can click a thumbnail to view the full-size photo with keyboard and touch navigation. No extra plugin is required.
Will lots of high-resolution photos slow my site down?
Large image files are the biggest factor. Lazy-loading keeps off-screen photos from being fetched until needed, but you should still export web-sized, compressed versions of your photos for the best performance.
Are the galleries mobile responsive?
Yes. All of them use responsive Bootstrap layouts, so the galleries and navigation adapt to phones and tablets automatically.
Can I use them for a paid client project?
Yes. The templates are free for personal and commercial use, so you can build client portfolios and photography sites with them at no cost.
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