Event Images: Main Gallery, Showcase, Banners, and Captions

Set up your event's visual identity on Seaty: a main image gallery beside the description, an optional showcase gallery for real photos, optional header and footer banners, captions, focal points, and a built-in lightbox for attendees.

Event Images section showing the image uploader

Overview

Every event has a visual identity. The Images section gives you four places to use imagery on your event page: a main image gallery of up to five images shown beside the description, an optional showcase gallery of real photos below the description, an optional header banner at the top, and an optional footer banner at the bottom. Pick the one image that best represents your event, add a few supporting shots, and Seaty takes care of the rest.

At its simplest, the Images section answers one question: What does my event look like to the world?

Who uses this: Event organisers with permission to edit events.

Key capabilities:

A main gallery of up to five images shown alongside your event description
The first image in the main gallery is your event's "face", used in search results, on the Seaty app, in event listings, and as the preview when someone shares your event
Drag images to reorder them. Moving an image to the first slot makes it the new main image
Adjust the focal point of each image so the right part stays visible at any crop
Add a caption to each image, shown in the lightbox and used by screen readers and search engines
An optional showcase gallery of up to five images below your description, designed for real photos like production shots, cast photos, rehearsal moments and venue images, in either a horizontal strip or a vertical magazine-style flow
An optional wide header banner across the top of your event page
An optional wide footer banner at the very bottom of your event page
Attendees can click any image on your event page to open it in a fullscreen lightbox with arrow navigation
Supports JPEG and PNG files

How It Works

At a glance: Add a main image (and up to four more). Optionally add a header banner, a footer banner, or both. Save the event, and everything appears immediately.

1. Pick your main image

The first image in the main gallery represents your event everywhere it appears outside its own page: search results, your organisation's listings, the Seaty app, and the social-share preview when someone posts your event link. Choose the image that best captures the event at a glance.

2. Add supporting images (optional)

You can add up to four more images to sit beside your description. Use these for cast photos, venue shots, prior productions, programme art, or anything that helps an attendee picture the event before they book. Drag any image to a different slot to reorder it, and dragging an image to the first slot makes it the new main image.

3. Add a header and/or footer banner (optional)

If you want a wide, edge-to-edge image across the top or bottom of your event page, add a banner. Banners must be wider than they are tall, at least twice as wide. When you upload one, you'll be asked to crop it to a 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, or 5:1 shape.

4. Fine-tune with focal points and captions

For each image, click Adjust focus to choose which part of the photo stays visible when it's cropped to fit different shapes. Click Add caption to write a short description. It appears under the image in the lightbox and is read by screen readers and search engines.

5. Save

Click Save in the editor toolbar. All your images upload, your event page updates, and the main image becomes available across Seaty.

Think of it this way:

The main gallery is the picture book sitting next to your event description

The first image is your event's face to the rest of the world

The showcase gallery is the in-page photo strip below the description, for real photos, not poster variants

The banners are optional cinematic strips that frame the page top and bottom

Focal points decide what stays visible when an image is cropped

Captions are what attendees, screen readers, and search engines read

The Main Image Gallery

The main gallery sits beside (or above on narrow screens) your event description. It holds up to five images. You don't have to fill all five. One strong image is often enough.

Adding the first image

Open the Event Editor for your event
Click Image in the left-hand menu
In the Main images panel, click the empty area (or drop files onto it)
Pick a JPEG or PNG file from your computer
Click Save in the editor toolbar

The image you added becomes both the first slot in your gallery and your event's main representative image across Seaty.

Adding more images

With at least one image in place, the Add another button appears below the gallery. Click it (or drop additional files onto the gallery area) to add up to four more. You can also select multiple files at once from the file picker, and all of them are added in one go, up to the five-image limit.

Reordering, and the "main image" rule

Drag any image to a new position. The first slot in the gallery is always the main image. That's the one used in search results, the app, your organisation's listings, and social shares. If you drag a different image into the first slot, that image becomes the new main image when you save.

A green Main image badge appears on the first image so it's always obvious which one represents your event externally.

Adjusting focus

Each image has an Adjust focus action. The focal point you choose decides which part of the image stays visible when it's cropped to fit different shapes: a square thumbnail in a listing, a wide preview in a social post, or a tall card on the app.

In the focus modal, drag the marker over the part of the image that must stay in view. The previews on the side show how your choice looks at three different crop shapes (square, wide banner, and tall). Click Apply focus to commit.

Why bother? Without a focal point, Seaty centres every crop. If your image has the subject off to one side, or a face near the top, the default centre crop can hide what matters. Setting a focal point keeps the right thing visible everywhere.

Adding captions

Each image has an Add caption action. The caption appears underneath the image when an attendee opens it in the lightbox. It's also used as the image's alt text, read aloud by screen readers and indexed by search engines.

Keep captions short and descriptive. "The cast of Macbeth on stage at last year's run" is more useful than "image001.jpg" or "Photo."

Layout and position

For the main gallery you can choose:

Layout: Grid, Stacked, or Hero. Grid arranges all images in equal-sized cells. Stacked shows them in a column. Hero gives the first image more space, with the rest below as smaller thumbnails.
Position: Left or Right. Decides which side of your event description the gallery sits on, on wider screens. On narrower screens the gallery always stacks above the description.

These choices appear as buttons in the toolbar above the gallery once you've added at least one image.

The Showcase Gallery

The showcase gallery is a separate, optional gallery of up to five images that appears below your event description, right before the share cards near the bottom of the page. It's the spot for real photos that tell the story of your event: cast shots, rehearsal moments, venue interiors, audience reactions, production stills.

Why a separate gallery? The main gallery beside your description does double duty. Its first image is also your event's "face" everywhere on Seaty. That means it tends to fill up with poster variants and marketing artwork rather than photography. The showcase gallery has no such job, so it's the place to put the photos you'd actually want someone to see.

When to use it

You have production photos, rehearsal shots, cast headshots, or venue photos
You want to give attendees a sense of the atmosphere before they book
Your main gallery is full of poster art and you want a separate space for "the real thing"

If you only have poster variants and no real photography, you don't need a showcase gallery. The main gallery already shows them off well. The showcase is optional.

Adding showcase images

Open the Event Editor → Image
Scroll to the Showcase gallery (optional) panel
Click the empty area (or drop files onto it). You can select multiple files at once.
Up to five images total. Each can have its own caption, focal point, and drag-to-reorder position, just like the main gallery.
Click Save in the editor toolbar

Horizontal vs Vertical layout

Once you've added at least one image, a layout toolbar appears with two buttons:

Horizontal (default): images sit side by side in a row. Best for portfolio-style sets where each image has equal weight. The layout adapts to the number of images:
- 1 image: shown larger, centred, with a sensible maximum size so it doesn't dominate the page
- 2 images: side by side at moderate size
- 3 images: a clean three-across strip, the original Seaty showcase look
- 4 images: a 2×2 grid
- 5 images: three on the top row plus two larger ones below
Vertical: images stack one above another as larger, magazine-style rows. Each image is rendered at a cinematic 16:9 shape. Good for storytelling sequences where each photo deserves its own moment.

On phones and narrow tablets, both layouts collapse to a single column.

Showcase vs main gallery: what's the difference?

Feature	Main gallery	Showcase gallery
Position on the page	Beside your event description (top)	Below your description, before the cards
First image used elsewhere?	Yes, it's your event's "face"	No, only appears on the event page
Image cap	Up to 5	Up to 5
Layout options	Grid, Stacked, Hero + Left/Right position	Horizontal or Vertical
Best for	Posters, key art, marketing visuals	Real photos: cast, rehearsal, venue
Required to have at least one?	Recommended (without it your event has no main image)	No

You can use both galleries together. They don't compete with one another, they complement.

Header and Footer Banners

Banners are optional, single, wide images that frame your event page.

Header banner: sits above the event description, edge-to-edge across the page
Footer banner: sits below the event description, edge-to-edge across the page

Each banner holds exactly one image. Adding a new banner image replaces the existing one.

Banners must be at least 2:1, twice as wide as they are tall. When you upload a banner image, a crop tool opens automatically. The shapes available depend on your image:

Original: appears as a preset whenever your image is already at least 2:1 wide. Picking it uses the entire image at its natural shape, no cropping needed. This is the default when available.
2:1: Compact banner. Available only when your image is squarer than 2:1 (so you need to crop the sides to make it banner-shaped).
3:1: Standard banner.
4:1: Wide banner, a more cinematic strip.
5:1: Ultrawide strip, the thinnest allowed.

Presets that would make your banner squarer than the image you uploaded are hidden, as they'd just chop the sides off pointlessly. Use the slider to zoom in if you need to, drag the image around to reposition it, then click Use this crop.

Why no shapes squarer than 2:1? Banners are designed to be wide framing elements. Squarer than 2:1 starts to read as a regular image rather than a banner, and clashes visually with the main gallery beside the description.

Open the Event Editor → Image
In the Header banner or Footer banner panel, click the empty area (or drop a file onto it)
Pick a JPEG or PNG file
In the crop tool, choose a shape (2:1, 3:1, 4:1, or 5:1), position the image, then click Use this crop
Click Save in the editor toolbar

To replace a banner, hover over the existing image and click the × to remove it, then add a new one. Save when you're done.

When an attendee clicks any image on your event page, it opens in a fullscreen lightbox. They can:

Use the left and right arrows (or arrow keys) to move between images in the main gallery
See the caption below the image (if you've added one)
Press Escape or click the × to close

The lightbox sits above everything else on the page, including the site header.

Image Requirements

Property	Requirement
Accepted formats	JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg) or PNG (.png)
Main gallery	Up to 5 images. Any aspect ratio.
Showcase gallery	Up to 5 images. Any aspect ratio.
Header banner	1 image. Must be at least 2:1 (cropped in the editor).
Footer banner	1 image. Must be at least 2:1 (cropped in the editor).
Recommended size	At least 1200px on the longest edge for the main image
Processing	Seaty compresses and optimises every upload

Why these requirements? JPEG and PNG cover almost every common source: phone cameras, design tools, stock libraries. Automatic compression means your images load fast on mobile without you preparing multiple sizes.

Best Practices

Choose the right main image

The first image in your main gallery is the one that has to do the heavy lifting. It's what someone sees in their app feed, in a Google search, in a Facebook share. Pick the one that makes the strongest case in one glance.

Feature performers, the venue, or the moment that defines the event
Sharp, well-lit, and not pixelated
Keep important content towards the centre, as small thumbnails crop the edges
Avoid heavy text overlays, as they become unreadable at thumbnail size

Build a small supporting set

You don't need five images for the sake of five. Two or three carefully chosen supporting shots tell a better story than a padded gallery:

Cast photos or production stills
The venue from the audience's point of view
A previous run of the same show
Programme art, posters, or design pieces

Get banners right

Banners are atmosphere, not information. A wide shot of the auditorium, a panoramic exterior of the venue, or a wide promotional graphic all work well. Avoid banners with text near the edges, because different screens crop banners slightly differently and edge text often disappears.

Always set focal points on portraits

If your image has a face or a single off-centre subject, set a focal point on it. Without one, automatic crops can chop heads off thumbnails, exactly the moment when first impressions matter most.

Write captions for every image

Captions help in three ways:

Visually impaired attendees rely on them via screen readers
Search engines use them to understand the image
Sighted attendees see them in the lightbox

Keep them under one sentence. Describe the content, not the medium ("Macbeth Act III, dagger scene" is better than "photo of Macbeth").

Where Your Images Appear

Your main image (the first image in the main gallery) displays in multiple locations:

Your event page: at the top of the description area, in the chosen layout
Search results: thumbnail when users browse events
Organisation page: featured in your events list
Social media: preview image when your event URL is shared
Seaty app: event listings and detail pages

The rest of your main gallery, your showcase gallery, and your banners appear only on your event page itself.

Common Questions

The main image and the gallery

Which image is my "main image"?

The first image in the main gallery. You can change it by dragging a different image into the first slot. A green Main image badge marks whichever image is currently in that position.

What happens if I delete all my main gallery images?

Your event page will have no main image, your event will be missing from search-result thumbnails and social-share previews, and the Seaty app will fall back to a generic placeholder. Add at least one image to give your event a face.

Can I have a banner without a main image?

Technically yes (banners are independent), but it's a bad idea. Search results, the app, and social shares all use the main image, not banners. Without a main image, your event will look unfinished outside its own page.

The showcase gallery

Do I need a showcase gallery?

No. It's purely optional. If you don't have real photos to share, leave it empty. Your main gallery and description will carry the page on their own.

Should I put poster variants in the showcase gallery?

Not really. The showcase is designed for real photos: cast, rehearsal, venue, audience. Poster variants belong in the main gallery beside the description, where their job (representing the event) makes more sense. If you only have poster variants, skip the showcase.

Why are the images smaller when I only add one or two?

Deliberately. A single photo stretched across the full page width looks lonely and pulls focus away from the rest of your content. The showcase caps the size of low-count layouts so they sit comfortably in the page flow. As you add more images, each tile shrinks to fit the row.

Can I change the layout later?

Yes. The Horizontal and Vertical buttons appear above the showcase whenever it has at least one image. Switch any time and save. Existing images are kept, only the layout changes.

Where should I put photos of the venue itself: the building, the auditorium, the gardens?

The Venue section has its own imagery slots (header banner, Showcase, footer banner) specifically for real venue photos. Use those for the building, interior, gardens, parking, and accessibility. They appear on the public Venue tab. The event Image section's Showcase is for event marketing (cast, rehearsals, production stills). For details see Event Venue Setup, or if your event inherits its venue from the organisation, Organisation Venue Info.

Banners

Why do banners have to be at least 2:1?

Banners are designed as wide framing strips that span the page. Shapes squarer than 2:1 start to read as a regular image rather than a banner and clash with the main gallery. You can still go thinner (3:1, 4:1, or 5:1), but the squarest allowed is 2:1.

Can I crop the banner later?

Yes. Remove the banner image and upload it again, and the crop tool opens automatically. The original source image isn't kept once you've cropped, so if you want a different crop of the same photo, you'll need to upload the original again.

Uploads and processing

Will my image lose quality?

Seaty uses intelligent compression that preserves visual quality while reducing file size. Most images appear virtually identical after processing.

Why was my image rotated?

The system automatically corrects image orientation based on how your camera recorded it. If an image still appears incorrectly rotated, open it in photo editing software, rotate it manually, save, and re-upload.

Can I use SVG, WebP, or HEIC files?

No. Only JPEG and PNG are accepted. Convert other formats first. Most phones can export HEIC photos as JPEG, and most design tools can export to PNG or JPEG.

What's the file size limit?

There's no fixed per-file limit, but in practice anything over 10–15 MB is overkill and may take a while to upload over slow connections. A 1–3 MB JPEG is usually plenty for the main image.

Focal points and captions

Do I have to set a focal point?

No. Without one, Seaty centres every crop. If your image has the subject in the middle and well away from the edges, the default is fine. Set a focal point when the subject is off-centre or you've noticed something important being cropped out.

Where does my caption appear?

Three places: under the image when an attendee opens it in the lightbox, as the image's alt text (read aloud by screen readers), and as the image's description for search engines. Captions don't appear underneath the thumbnail itself on the event page.

Can different images have different captions?

Yes. Captions are per-image.

Editor behaviour

Why is my upload deferred until I save?

The Images section batches all your image changes together with the rest of the event and saves them when you click Save in the editor toolbar. This means you can change your mind, reorder, crop, and caption freely without committing anything until you're happy. Banners are also cropped in the moment but only uploaded when you save.

Why am I seeing a warning that an image is "very tall"?

The editor flags images where the height is more than twice the width. Tall portrait-orientation images often crop badly into the wider shapes used in listings and previews. The warning is a reminder. You can ignore it if the image looks right with the focal point you've set, or swap to a landscape-oriented version.

Troubleshooting

My upload failed. What should I do?

Common causes and solutions:

"Unsupported format": Ensure your file is a JPEG or PNG. Convert other formats (like HEIC or WebP) first
Upload interrupted: Check your internet connection and try again. Slower connections may struggle with larger files
File too large: Resize your image, as anything over ~10 MB is unusually large for a web image

What if I don't have a professional photo?

Options for creating event images:

Canva: free design tool with event templates
Adobe Express: simple graphic design for non-designers
Stock photos: royalty-free sites like Unsplash or Pexels
Smartphone photography: good lighting and a steady hand can produce excellent results

Next Steps

After setting up your images:

Customise your theme to match your image colours
- Theme Guide
Set up marketing tools to optimise how your event appears when shared
- Marketing Guide
Add venue information to help attendees find your location
- Map Guide

Creating an Event - Event Creation Wizard guide
Event Details - Name, description, and category
Event Theme - Branding and colours
Marketing Tools - Social media optimisation