Managing Photos
Uploading
From an event’s admin view, use the upload area to add photos:
- Drag and drop files or folders directly.
- Click to browse and select files.
- Supported formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP.
- Maximum file size: 50 MB per image.
- Videos: MP4, WebM, MOV, AVI up to 10 GB (see Video Support).
Thumbnails are generated automatically during upload using Sharp (for images) or FFmpeg (for videos).
Categories
Organize photos into categories within an event:
- Create categories from the event editor (e.g., “Ceremony”, “Reception”, “Portraits”).
- Assign photos to categories during or after upload.
- Guests see categories as filter chips in the gallery — or as folders they open, if you turn the category into one.
Categories can also carry a cover photo, block downloads for their photos, and be reordered per gallery. See Photo Categories & Folders for all of it.
Bulk operations
Click a photo to select it, then Shift-click another to select the whole run between them. The range adds to what you already had rather than replacing it, and never deselects, so you can build a selection from several runs. Clearing the selection resets the starting point.
Select multiple photos to perform batch actions:
- Move to a different category.
- Delete selected photos.
- Download selected photos as a ZIP archive.
Filtering and sorting
The admin photo view supports:
- Filter by likes, ratings, comments, or favorites.
- Search by filename.
- Sort by date, name, size, or rating.
Export for post-processing
Generate Capture One or Lightroom-compatible file lists from filtered selections. This lets you identify client favorites and apply edits to matching RAW files.
Adding photos via file system
For managed galleries using local storage, PicPeak has a built-in file watcher that detects photos copied directly into the event’s storage folder.
You must create the event in the admin panel first. The file watcher only processes photos for events that already exist in the database. Copying files alone does not create a gallery.
Once an event exists, copy images into its folder:
# Find the event slug in the admin panel URL or share link
cp /path/to/photos/*.jpg storage/events/active/<event-slug>/The file watcher will automatically:
- Detect new files (with a 2-second stability delay)
- Create database records for each photo
- Generate thumbnails
- Classify photos in
collages/orindividual/subfolders by type
Supported formats: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .webp
When files are deleted from the folder, the file watcher removes the corresponding database records.
Watching an external library
For photos kept on a NAS or in an existing library, use Reference external folder and the per-event Watch folder for new files checkbox. The external watcher imports new photos without copying originals. Removing a source file keeps the gallery record, and photos deliberately deleted in PicPeak stay excluded from later automatic scans. See External Media → Watch a folder for setup, supported formats, permissions and network-share polling.
Storage
Photos are stored in the events/active directory. When an event expires, its photos are moved to events/archived. The storage directory holds thumbnails and processed files.
Monitor disk usage:
du -sh events/ storage/ backup/