I'd like to disable all comments. There ought to be a switch for this but if there is, I can't find it.

Even if there was one which applied only to all new albums I'd settle for that. Right now even if I declare albums to have no comments, all of the images within still have their comment allowed checkmark set. It should be possible to just shut off comments (without having to edit my theme to remove the relevant code).

I see three ways to do it.

1. The simplest: In the administrative panel, go to "Plugins" and disable the "Comment form" plugin. It works with standard themes and should work with yours, unless they are designed to go around the plugin.

2. If you want to keep the possibility for comments somewhere, leave the plugin enabled. Go to "Options –> Comments", then toward the bottom of that page (allow comments on...), de-select all pages where you don't want to see comments.

3. Finally, you may edit your theme to remove the calls to comment routines on all pages. It requires a bit more work, but that way, you might allow, say, administrators to post comments and see them and convert this feature into a discussion platform for photos.

A word of caution: if you have already comments on file and want to keep them, option 3 will keep all of them – it just won't display them. I'm not so sure about options 1 and 2.

If you

Comments will not be deleted unless you do it manually on the comments tab.