To create an Instagram gallery in WordPress, navigate to Elevated › Instagram Feed and launch the feed setup wizard. Choose either the Grid Clean or Mosaic Clean template to establish a clean, photo-only structure. In Step 4, set Post Click Action to Open in Modal to enable an on-site lightbox popup. Configure your custom columns and layout gaps in Step 5, and paste the generated shortcode onto your site.

Table of Contents

• Step 1: Select a Clean Gallery Template
• Step 2: Assign Your Instagram Account
• Step 3: Enable the Lightbox Modal Popup
• Step 4: Configure Columns, Rows, and Spacing Gaps
• Step 5: Apply Custom Gallery Styling
• Step 6: Embed Your Instagram Gallery Shortcode
• Gallery Layouts, Lightboxes, and Performance
• Troubleshooting Gallery Display and Load Issues

Step 1: Select a Clean Gallery Template

Navigate to Elevated › Instagram Feed in your WordPress sidebar menu. On the overview screen, click the Get Started Here button to launch the setup wizard. You can also start the wizard if you navigate to the My Feeds tab and click Create New Feed.

Under Step 1 (Template), select one of the following clean layout styles:

• Grid Clean: Displays your posts in uniform, square-cropped blocks without a profile header.
• Mosaic Clean: Arranges your posts in a responsive masonry layout that preserves the natural, uncropped height of your photos.

Click Next to move to Step 2.

Step 2: Assign Your Instagram Account

On Step 2 (Account), select your connected Instagram card profile from the list. The live preview pane on the right side of the screen immediately populates with your selected account posts.

Click Next to move through Step 3 (Filters) to proceed to Step 4 (Post Elements).

Step 3: Enable the Lightbox Modal Popup

To allow users to view full-resolution photos of your Instagram gallery without leaving your site, configure the modal settings inside Step 4 (Post Elements):

1. Under the Post Click Action dropdown, select Open in Modal.
2. Expand the Modal Elements accordion panel below.
3. Set the toggles to ON or OFF to customize what metadata displays in the lightbox window. For a minimalist Instagram photo gallery, toggle elements like User, Follow Button, Likes Count, and Comments to OFF.

Click Next to save your post settings and move ahead.

Step 4: Configure Columns, Rows, and Spacing Gaps

On Step 5 (Layout), adjust your gallery structural grid parameters:

1. Expand the Columns and Rows accordion and select Manual.
2. Set Columns to your preferred width, such as 4 or 5, for a standard wide gallery.
3. Set Gutter to your preferred margin, such as 8 px or 12 px, to create clean borders between images.
4. Set Width to determine how the container behaves inside your page container.
5. At the bottom of the panel, toggle Load More Button to ON if you want users to dynamically load additional photos.

Click Next to move to the styling screen.

Step 5: Apply Custom Instagram Gallery Styling

On Step 6 (Styles), expand the Feed and Post accordions to match your WordPress Instagram gallery to your active theme:

1. Under Feed, choose a Background Color and adjust Padding, Margin, and Border Radius settings. 
2. Under Post, adjust the Hover Card Background Color and Hover Card Text Color to customize the overlay color that appears when users hover their cursor over your gallery photos.

Click Next to complete the wizard.

Step 6: Embed Your Instagram Gallery Shortcode

On Step 7 (Complete), enter a descriptive name in the Feed Title field. Click the copy icon next to the generated shortcode box (e.g., [elevated_instagram_feed id=”1″]) to save the code to your clipboard.

Click the My Feeds button to exit the wizard.

Open your target page or post in the WordPress block editor or your preferred page builder, insert a Shortcode block, and paste your copied code directly into the field.

Gallery Layouts, Lightboxes, and Performance

When you build an Instagram gallery in WordPress, selecting the right layout framework directly influences how visitors interact with your visual content:

Advantages of an On-Site Lightbox

For an Instagram gallery in WordPress, enabling Open in Modal as your post-click action keeps visitors on your website. If users are redirected directly to Instagram, they are highly unlikely to return to your site. The lightbox modal opens your images immediately in a clean, overlay window, allowing users to scroll through your media portfolio while maintaining their session on your domain.

Troubleshooting WordPress Instagram Gallery

The photo gallery displays broken image icons on the frontend of the site

If your Instagram gallery in WordPress displays broken image icons, this indicates that your local cache files are corrupt or have timed out during a server update. Navigate to the Settings tab at the top of the plugin’s page and click the red Clear Cache button. This clears your local folders and forces the plugin to fetch fresh copies of your Instagram gallery photos.

The lightbox modal popup does not open when a thumbnail is clicked

Confirm that your Post Click Action is set to Open in Modal inside Step 4 (Post Elements) of your configuration. If the setting is active but the lightbox still fails to launch, inspect your browser console (F12 › Console) for JavaScript errors. This issue is typically caused by optimization plugins that minify or defer scripts, which can block the popup execution scripts.

The Load More button does not display or load more posts

Verify that the Load More Button is toggled to ON. Additionally, check that your Posts Per Load is set to a valid integer (such as 5 or 10) rather than being left empty. If the button is active but nothing happens, make sure that your Instagram account contains more published photos than the initial columns and rows grid limit you set in Step 5.

WordPress Instagram Gallery – Related Documentation

• Choosing a Feed Template
  Learn how to choose grid, slider, and masonry templates to match your site design.
• Layout Settings
  How to manage visible column limits, manual row counts, padding, and responsive mobile breakpoints.
• Styling and Colors
  Detailed guide to setting borders, backgrounds, hover states, and color overlays.