Import and organize your photos and videos in a gallery

Key takeaways

• Import via the Add media button, by drag and drop, or with Ctrl+U (Cmd+U on Mac)

• Create folders (a single level) and choose a cover photo for each one

• Add as many files as you want at once (within your storage limit) — 100 MB max per file

• Formats: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, RAW files from all major camera bodies, and videos (MP4, MOV, AVI…)

• Bulk actions: select all, then delete, move, or download a batch of photos

• Pelli detects duplicates and optimizes everything automatically in the background

• Display order: automatic (date or name) or manual (drag and drop)

Importing your photos

From your gallery, there are several ways to import:

• The Add media button, visible at the top of the gallery

• Drag and drop: drag your files from your file explorer — often the fastest

• The keyboard shortcut Ctrl+U (Cmd+U on Mac)

Import as many files as you want in a single go. The only per-file limit: 100 MB.

Supported formats

Pelli accepts just about anything your camera can produce.

• Standard images: JPG, JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF

• RAW formats: Canon (CR2, CR3, CRW), Nikon (NEF, NRW), Sony (ARW, SR2, SRF), Adobe (DNG), Fuji (RAF), Olympus (ORF), Pentax (PEF), and many others

• Videos: MP4, MOV, AVI and common formats. If your connection drops mid-upload, the import resumes automatically from where it left off.

For each file, Pelli generates an optimized web preview, keeps your high-quality original for download, and preserves your metadata (EXIF). You have nothing to do.

Duplicate detection

Before starting the import, Pelli checks whether files with the same name already exist in your gallery. If duplicates are detected, you choose:

• Ignore duplicates: only the new files are uploaded

• Import everything anyway

🪫 Upload tracking

During the upload, a progress bar keeps you informed in real time: number of files uploaded out of the total, transfer speed, estimated time remaining. Several files are sent in parallel, and Pelli automatically adjusts the number of connections to the quality of your network.

Importing an entire folder

Do you have a folder already well organized on your disk? Import it all at once. Pelli offers you two options:

• Keep the folder structure: your subfolders are recreated as is in the gallery (handy if you've already sorted them in Lightroom)

• Put everything at the root: the photos arrive flat, with no folder structure

Click on New folder and give it a clear name ("Preparations", "Ceremony"…, emojis allowed). Folders are on a single level (no sub-subfolders). You can designate a photo as a folder cover to make it more recognizable.

What you can do with a folder

Rename: change the folder name at any time.

Reorder: change the display order of the folders in the gallery.

Move photos and videos: select items and move them from one folder to another, or put them back into "unsorted" (outside of any folder).

Set a cover image: choose a photo from the folder as the thumbnail. This is the image your clients will see first to identify the folder.

Configure photo sorting: each folder can have its own sorting mode:

• Inherited (default) — uses the same sorting as the gallery

• Automatic — sorting by name, date, or another criterion, ascending or descending

• Manual — you choose the exact order of the photos

Protect each folder with a password: each folder can have its own password, independent of the gallery's. Handy for making certain sections accessible only to certain people. For example, for a protected "Boudoir" folder within a wedding gallery open to all guests.

Set a price per folder: if your gallery has the shop enabled in digital mode, you can set a specific price per folder, different from the default price. Useful for charging a "Retouched portraits" folder more than an "Atmosphere" folder, for example.

Delete: deleting a folder does not delete the photos it contains. They simply return to "unsorted" in the gallery.

Your clients can share folders

Once your client has access to your gallery (with or without a password), they can easily create share links, including links limited to certain folders. It's a feature designed to match real-world uses as closely as possible: your newlyweds want to send the cocktail photos to the caterer, the portraits to the makeup artist, and the ceremony to the grandparents. Rather than asking you for each request, they go to the gallery's share page and create the links they need themselves, choosing exactly which folders to include.

This way you keep control over the gallery's organization, and your clients manage sharing with their circle!

Going further