QR Code Photo Gallery for Events: How to Set One Up

A printed code cannot be edited once it is on 200 table cards. So the address inside it has to stay valid for as long as guests might scan it.

On clientgallery.io, each gallery has one link, and that link never changes. You can add photos to the gallery after you have shared it, and the same link keeps working. Hosted galleries do not expire while the account exists.

That means the card printed the week before the event still works on the night, the next morning and months later. The only ways to break it are your own: revoking the gallery takes its page dark, and deleting it is permanent.

What a guest needs after the scan is short.

• No account. There are no guest accounts; the link is the way in.
• No app to install. The gallery opens in the phone's browser.
• No email to hand over before viewing or downloading.
• The gallery password, only if you set one.

Gallery pages are also marked noindex, so search engines are told not to list them. A printed code is still a public object, though, and the password section below deals with that.

1. Create the gallery before the event. Name it, set the password if you want one, and decide on face search (covered below).
2. Copy the client link. Use the gallery link from the studio, which can also be served on your own studio subdomain. Do not use a section link (see the next point).
3. Paste it into any QR generator. Choose one that encodes your gallery address directly. Some generators encode their own redirect address instead, and a code like that stops working if that service changes its terms or shuts down.
4. Pick the highest error correction level the generator offers if a logo or a crease might cover part of the code. The levels are listed in the table below.
5. Export at print size. Keep a clear margin around the code. The QR code's developer specifies a margin four modules wide on every side.
6. Test it before you print. The checklist is further down.

The section link matters because it behaves differently. A gallery can be split into sections, and each section has its own share link. That section link is view-only: no downloads, no picks, no comments and no face search. For an event code, always encode the main gallery link.

Guests on the main link see one scrolling page. Photos not placed in a section come first, then each section under its heading, with a jump bar at the top showing how many photos each holds.

Error correction levels, as published by the QR code's developer:

A higher level makes a denser code for the same link. That is one more reason to print it at a comfortable size rather than as small as possible.

Put the code where guests already look, at the moment they are thinking about photos.

Next to the code, print one line of plain text saying what it opens, for example "Scan for the event photos." A bare square gives a guest no reason to scan it.

The gallery password is optional and set per gallery. It can be up to 60 characters, but for an event, keep it short enough to type on a phone. A guest enters it once, and that browser remembers it for 30 days.

When a password is set, it also covers the whole-gallery download, face search and comments.

Here is the honest trade-off.

For a public fundraiser, a password printed on the card is usually enough. For a private party or an internal corporate event, print the code on the card and give the password another way.

No password stops a guest who shares both halves. Tell your client that before the cards go to print, and keep any frame that must not circulate out of this gallery.

A reprint costs more than ten minutes of testing. Test the exact file the printer will receive.

• Print one proof at the real size, on the real stock if you can.
• Scan it with at least two phones, one iPhone and one Android, using the built-in camera app.
• Scan from the distance a guest will stand: arm's length for a card, the back row for a screen.
• Scan under the venue's light, or the closest you can get: dim, warm, or backlit.
• Turn Wi-Fi off once and scan on mobile data, since the venue Wi-Fi may not reach every guest.
• Open it in a private browser window, so the password prompt appears as a first-time guest sees it.
• Confirm it lands on the main gallery page, not a section.
• If face search is on, run it once from that test phone.

If a scan fails, the usual fixes are a larger print, a wider clear margin, or a plain background behind the code.

Because the link never changes, the code can go out before the first frame is uploaded.

You can publish a first batch the same night and add the rest to the same gallery later. New photos are added to the end of the page. The printed code keeps working throughout.

Nobody is notified when photos are added. Tell guests yourself, or ask the organiser to: a line on the closing slide, a follow-up email, or a post in the event channel. A card that reads "More photos added through the week" saves a round of questions.

If you want frames reaching the gallery during the event, the iPhone app has a Live Shoot mode with real limits. They are set out in the live shoot upload guide.

A gallery holds up to 1,000 photos. A larger event needs a second gallery, which means a second link and a second code. Splitting by day is the easiest version for guests to follow: one code on the day-one badge insert, another on day two.

A scan puts a guest on a page with hundreds of photos. A guest often wants only the few they appear in.

Face search solves that. It is off by default, and you switch it on per gallery, so each event gets a deliberate choice.

• The guest gives a selfie, and the gallery narrows to the photos that match.
• Matching runs entirely in the guest's own browser.
• The selfie is never uploaded.
• The face index sits behind the gallery password when one is set.
• Face search does not work on section links, which is another reason to encode the main link.

The guest sees a short explanation before giving a selfie. There is no separate consent step. If attendees have not been told face matching is available, let the organiser decide whether to switch it on.

Matching is a similarity search, not an identity check. It can miss photos or show a lookalike. The full gallery stays browsable either way.

The event workflow is covered in depth in delivering event photos so attendees find themselves. If photos go out while the event is still running, see same-day event photo delivery, and for the wider question of handing one set to hundreds of people, see the best way to share photos with a large group.

This point matters more at an event than anywhere else.

Everyone who opens a gallery link shares one set of picks. Picks are sent once, with one name and email, and sending them locks picking for everyone.

At an event with 300 guests on one code, that means the first guest to press Send my picks decides for all of them. Picks are built for a client choosing photos, not for a crowd.

Picks and downloads are separate switches on each gallery. For an event gallery reached by QR code, the simplest setup is picks off and downloads on.

If your client does need to choose album photos, give them their own gallery with picks on, and keep the guest gallery for downloads.

Switching downloads off hides the download buttons. The photos are still shown in the browser, so a determined guest can still save one.

clientgallery.io is one plan: $10 a month, or $100 a year. Face search is included. A free account holds one gallery and 5 GB.

There is no print store and no commission. If your event business earns from guests ordering prints from the gallery, keep a platform with a store.

If you want the product to make the QR code for you, it will not. Any QR generator does that job, and the gallery link is all it needs.

The only external facts on this page are the QR code error correction levels and the margin requirement. Every clientgallery.io behaviour was checked against the product on 17 September 2026. No ISO standard is cited, because the official standard page could not be retrieved today.

• DENSO WAVE, QRcode.com, "Error correction feature", no date shown, fetched 17 September 2026, https://www.qrcode.com/en/about/error_correction.html
• DENSO WAVE, QRcode.com, "Point for determining the code area" (four-module margin), no date shown, fetched 17 September 2026, https://www.qrcode.com/en/howto/code.html
• clientgallery.io product behaviour (no QR generator; one gallery link that never changes; photos added later appended to the end, with no guest notification; view-only section links; optional password up to 60 characters, remembered 30 days; noindex gallery pages; face search off by default, per gallery, matched in the guest's browser; one shared pick set that locks when sent; separate picks and downloads switches; 1,000 photos per gallery; $10 a month or $100 a year; free account of one gallery and 5 GB), checked 17 September 2026, https://clientgallery.io/