You must be logged in to create a new gallery.
 

After logging in, you'll see the words My Homepage at the top of every SmugMug page. Click those words and you'll find an Upload button.
 

You'll want to select New Gallery near the top of the menu that drops down.
 

The Basics.

A simple page will come up with just two requirements: you must title your gallery and choose a category to help classify your gallery.
 

If none of SmugMug's category choices are a perfect fit... create your own category with any name you'd like.
 

The NiceName gives your gallery a clean, easy-to-remember URL. If you do not like the NiceName we automatically create based on the gallery title, you can enter up to 30 characters of numbers, letters, and dashes (but no spaces!)

NiceNames make it easy for your viewers to remember where your photos are and they help Google and other search engines find your galleries. Some folks love popularity, but if it's not for you, simply turn off the Hello World option in your gallery settings after you've created the gallery.

Once you create the gallery we'll automatically add an Album ID and Key to the URL. These are the alphanumerics separated by an underscore in your address bar. You can leave off this part to get a cleaner URL when you share the link with your viewers.
 

Tip: You can change the NiceName at any time in your gallery settings, but remember that anyone using the old NiceName link without the Album ID and Key will be redirected to the closest possible location: subcategory, category, or your homepage.
 

For example: If you create a gallery at yournickname.smugmug.com/Nature/Flowers and later change the NiceName "Flowers" to "Gardens", your visitors using the original link will be redirected to yournickname.smugmug.com/Nature, instead. If you ever change the category level (Nature) then your visitors will land at your homepage.
 

Get a permanent gallery link by leaving the Album ID and Key intact or by using the Get a link feature. It will include those extra letters and numbers so your visitors will be able to find the exact gallery, even if you reorganize your site.
 

Tip: Remember that NiceNames are CaSe sEnSiTiVe.

Gotcha: Any single gallery can hold up to 5,000 photos. Anything more and we recommend you split up your photos into multiple galleries. Make browsing easy on your guests!
 

Give it some color.

Choose a theme for your gallery and see its preview. Here's the scoop on themes!
 

The preview you'll see will reflect your choice of Square or Original Thumbnails. Some people prefer square for a cleaner look. No worries, your large images stay just the same either way.
 

Do not disturb.

Instantly apply privacy settings, which you can tweak after creating the gallery.
 

An unlisted gallery will not show on your SmugMug homepage. Lock it down and we'll automatically select settings that restrict access to your gallery. It will be unlisted, have external linking disabled, right-click protection on (Power and Pro only), Site Privacy options set to no, and it will be protected by a password that you provide.
 

Go advanced.

After creating the gallery, you can set more options in your gallery settings.
 

After you've created your first subcategory in your Account Settings^?, you'll be able to create subcategories on your create gallery page. Similarly, creating a quick setting in your gallery settings, or setting custom gallery prices (Pro-only) will add options to the create gallery page.

Tip: After you create a quick setting, you'll no longer see the Public/Unlisted toggle, the Thumbnails toggle, or the Lock it Down option on the create gallery page. You may want to create a quick setting with the Lock it Down settings: unlisted, external links = no, protected = yes (for Power and Pro), and password-protected. You can also include in your quick setting whether you'd like square or original thumbnails.