Joe at Lightroom Galleries has provided a Release Candidate 1 for download of his LRG Complete web site templates for Adobe Lightroom. There has been a large amount of feedback and Joe is very responsive. The result is shaping up to be a very strong Lightroom template for the show and sale of photography.

RC1 now includes a fully functional contact page. Although it’s up to the user to setup the email functionality on their site server, the contact form is necessary for any site that sells something. The paypal integration is improving.

One of the best features of any of the templates I have created or seen is the quick upload times. Joe has optimized the templates to perform individual functions and as a result, the upload times are extremely quick. Joe also setup the base of the web site as a flash presentation and the results are much better than plain ole’ HTML. Finally, the menu and styling is basically set at the site level so that the infinite number of galleries and extra pages that can be added all carry the same header.

Some improvements I’d still like to see include a customizable footer with links, a customizable font to use site wide, and some choices to move the menu and gallery bar on the left or right side of the site. I’d also like to see a custom html title that is different from the site name. Finally, I’d like to see an image available to show on the contact page (after all, it’s a photography site!). There are also a few improvements that can be made in order to add pages to the site.

All in all, this template is going to be a leader in the Adobe Lightroom arena. Keep watching here as we will be releasing more news and some help aids towards getting started and a sample site to view.