Photography  ·  Dark

Aperture

A dark, full-bleed design for photographers — built so the images fill the screen and the interface gets out of the way.

View Live Demo Start With This Design

You're choosing a design. I build the site.

This isn't a file you download or a theme you install. There's no page builder to learn and nothing to configure yourself.

You pick this design, send me your images and rates, and I build your portfolio around it by hand — the grid, the categories and the type adjusted to your work.

Two costs, quoted separately

The build — a one-time fee covering design adaptation, building every page with your images, and launch. Quoted once I know your gallery size.

Hosting & care — a separate monthly cost that keeps the site online, fast and backed up. Image-heavy sites need slightly more, and I'll say so up front.

Aperture design preview

The demo uses placeholder frames. Yours would carry your photographs, your categories, your rates.

The Process

From here to live

Two to Four Weeks

01

You pick Aperture

Get in touch and tell me this is the direction. We talk through the work you want leading and who you're trying to reach.

02

You send the edit

Your selects at full resolution, the categories you want, your rates and bio. I handle compression and sizing.

03

I build it

I lay out the grid around your actual images, tune the crops, and build every page by hand.

04

We go live

Domain connected, search set up, and a walkthrough so you can swap images as the portfolio changes.

Gallery detail
Included in the Build

A gallery that
behaves properly

  • Full-screen hero with your name over the frame
  • Filterable gallery by category
  • Fullscreen lightbox with arrow-key and escape control
  • Camera details revealed on hover — lens, aperture, shutter, ISO
  • Frame numbering and a live count
  • About section with a kit and credits list
  • Three-tier rate cards
  • Enquiry form that asks for the brief, not just a name
See It Live
Design detail
The Feel

Dark, but not
the same dark

Where a restaurant site goes warm and gold, a portfolio should go cold and neutral — nothing on the page should compete with the colour in your photographs.

  • Cool near-black, no warm tint anywhere
  • Monospace for technical details, like a contact sheet
  • No serif type — nothing decorative
  • Images run edge to edge, no boxed container
  • Thumbnails sit slightly desaturated, then bloom on hover
  • A fine film grain over the whole page
  • Scroll progress hairline at the top
  • Honours reduced-motion accessibility settings

What It Costs

Build, then hosting

Quoted Separately

One-Time

The Build

Design adapted to your work, gallery built around your actual images, lightbox and enquiry form connected, and launch handled.

Quoted per project — it depends on gallery size and whether you need client proofing or print sales. You'll have a fixed number before anything starts.

Monthly

Hosting & Care

Keeps the site online, fast, secure and backed up, with software kept current.

Separate from the build — photography sites carry more data than most, so I'll be specific about what that costs rather than quoting a flat rate and revising later.

Good to Know

Common Questions

Before We Start

Am I buying a template to install myself?

No. You're choosing a design direction. There's nothing to download or configure — I build the portfolio for you around your actual images.

How many images can the gallery hold?

The demo shows eleven, which is about right for a portfolio that's been edited properly. It'll comfortably handle forty or fifty. Past that we should talk about paging or lazy loading so the page doesn't get slow.

Can I add new work myself?

Yes. Before launch I'll walk you through swapping images and adding a frame. Photography sites need the images compressed correctly, so I'll show you that too — or handle it monthly if you'd rather shoot than resize.

Can clients view and download their gallery?

Client proofing is a different job from a portfolio, and the honest answer is that a dedicated service like Pic-Time, Pixieset or ShootProof does it better than I could build from scratch. I'll link it from your site so it feels seamless, and those services charge their own fee.

Can I sell prints through the site?

Possible, and it's a bigger build. Most photographers are better served connecting a print lab or a store platform than running fulfilment themselves. Tell me what you're picturing and I'll quote it honestly.

Will my images be protected?

Partly, and I won't overstate it. I can disable right-click, serve sized-down images rather than full-resolution files, and add a watermark. None of that stops a determined screenshot — nothing on the web does.

Do I own the website?

Yes. The files, domain and content are yours, and your images remain entirely your copyright. If you ever move to another host or designer, everything transfers.

Do you only work with photographers in Los Angeles?

No — I work anywhere in the US. If you're local we can meet in person; everywhere else we do it over Zoom.

Start Here

Build my portfolio
with Aperture

No Obligation

I'll come back within 48 hours with a build price and a monthly hosting figure.

Work With Me

Want something
entirely your own?

If none of the designs fit, I build from a blank page too. Same process, more discovery.

Start a Project