A portfolio site that loads fast and books work
BrightSite is the modern website platform for photographers. Image-first galleries that render in 30 to 80 milliseconds, lead-capture forms that don't lose inquiries, and a blog for SEO. $39/mo, all-in. No slow WordPress themes, no plugin tax.
Problems we hear from photographers
If any of these sound familiar, your site is costing you bookings.
Galleries load slow
Full-resolution photos kill mobile speed. By the time the gallery loads, the prospect has bounced.
Updating the portfolio is painful
Every new shoot needs a developer, an FTP client, or a plugin that breaks. So portfolios get stale.
Contact forms lose leads
The inquiry form is broken, going to an old email, or filtered to spam. Bookings vanish before you ever see them.
No SEO depth
"Wedding photographer in Boston" should bring you traffic. Most photographer site builders ship enough SEO to rank — not enough to win.
What's included for photographers
Built for image-first sites that need to convert.
Responsive image pipeline
Upload a full-res RAW or JPEG. BrightSite derives every size you need (thumb, mid, large, retina) and serves the right one to every device. WebP and AVIF where supported.
Gallery and grid components
Drop-in masonry, justified, and lightbox galleries. Built for image density without the JavaScript penalty.
Inquiry forms that don't lose leads
Native forms with email + webhook + Slack routing, anti-spam, and a submission archive you own. Forward to your CRM via webhook.
Blog for SEO and editorial
Built-in blog with structured data, RSS, sitemap, and category taxonomy. Publish from the visual editor. Rank for "[city] wedding photographer" and "behind the scenes" longtails.
30-80ms page render
Roughly 10x faster than a typical WordPress photography theme. Pages feel instant even on heavy galleries.
Analytics + session replay
See which galleries get the most attention, where inquiries drop off, and which referrers convert. Built in on Grow and Scale plans.
An example, just to make it concrete
Imagine a wedding photographer in Maine. After a Saturday shoot, she edits 60 photos on Sunday, uploads the favorites to a new gallery page on BrightSite Monday morning, and publishes a short blog post about the venue with the rest. The blog post links to the gallery. The gallery links to her inquiry form.
Two weeks later, "wedding photographer at Marianmade Farm" is bringing her three or four inquiries a month from organic search alone. The page loads in 0.5 seconds on a phone. Each inquiry routes to her inbox, her CRM (via webhook), and a Slack channel — so nothing gets missed.
Illustrative scenario. Not a real customer.
BrightSite vs the alternatives for photographers
| Platform | Image pipeline | Mobile speed | Lead forms | Blog / SEO | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BrightSite | ✓ Auto-responsive | 30-80ms | ✓ Built-in | ✓ Full | $39 all-in |
| Squarespace | ✓ Good | ~500ms | Basic | Basic | $23+ |
| WordPress (photo theme) | Plugin-dependent | Often slow | Plugin ($) | Yoast plugin | $25-100+ |
| Format / Pixieset / Pic-Time | ✓ | Decent | Basic | Basic | $10-30+ |
Photographer website FAQs
How fast will my image gallery load?
Pages render in 30 to 80 milliseconds server-side, and the image pipeline serves the right size to every device with modern formats (WebP, AVIF). Real-world gallery load times on a phone typically come in under 1 second, even with 30+ images per gallery.
Can I add watermarks to my photos?
Not in-app today. We recommend watermarking your exports in Lightroom or Capture One before uploading, which is how most pros handle it anyway. You can also use a CSS overlay watermark on hover via custom CSS.
Does BrightSite preserve EXIF data?
EXIF is stripped from derivatives by default for performance (so file sizes stay small). The original upload retains EXIF if you ever need it. We're considering an EXIF-on-hover option for portfolio sites — not shipped today.
Do you handle client galleries and proofing?
Honest answer: not today. BrightSite is built for the marketing/portfolio side. For client galleries with proofing, favoriting, and downloads, we recommend pairing with Pixieset, Pic-Time, or ShootProof and linking out from your BrightSite portfolio.
Will my site work on mobile?
Mobile-first by default. The responsive image pipeline, the layout system, and the templates are all built phone-first. Real-world mobile load times sit under 1 second on most galleries.
Your website should
work as hard as you do.
Join the waitlist and be first to build on BrightSite. We'll notify you as soon as spots open up.
Plans starting at $39/mo. No contracts.