diff --git a/frontend/src/components/gallery/GalleryView.tsx b/frontend/src/components/gallery/GalleryView.tsx
index 1b95d63c..7ff8d5be 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/gallery/GalleryView.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/components/gallery/GalleryView.tsx
@@ -697,6 +697,9 @@ export const GalleryView: React.FC<GalleryViewProps> = ({ slug, event }) => {
   const headerStyle = data?.event?.header_style || theme.headerStyle || 'standard';
   const isHeroHeader = headerStyle === 'hero';
   const showSidebar = theme.controlsStyle === 'sidebar';
+  const filterBarShown = !showSidebar
+    && settingsData?.gallery_show_filter_bar !== false
+    && (data?.photos?.length ?? 0) > 0;
 
   // Full-page layouts (gallery-premium, gallery-story) have their own integrated UI
   // Skip all wrapper elements (header, footer, sidebar, filters) for these layouts
@@ -922,7 +925,7 @@ export const GalleryView: React.FC<GalleryViewProps> = ({ slug, event }) => {
             filter bar globally, and when the gallery actually has photos
             (avoids the empty "Search photos by filename" row in the screenshot
             from discussion #317). */}
-        {!showSidebar && settingsData?.gallery_show_filter_bar !== false && (data?.photos?.length ?? 0) > 0 ? (
+        {filterBarShown ? (
           <div className="mt-6">
             <PhotoFilterBar
               categories={data.categories}
@@ -945,8 +948,11 @@ export const GalleryView: React.FC<GalleryViewProps> = ({ slug, event }) => {
         </div>
       ) : null}
 
-        {/* Photo Grid */}
-        <div className={showSidebar ? "mt-6" : "mt-6"}>
+        {/* Photo Grid — when the hero header sits directly under the filter
+            bar, double the wrapper margin (mt-12) so the hero's decorative
+            `-mt-6` bleed leaves a visible gap instead of gluing the filter
+            bar to the hero image (issue #624). */}
+        <div className={filterBarShown && isHeroHeader ? "mt-12" : "mt-6"}>
           <PhotoGridWithLayouts 
             photos={filteredPhotos} 
             slug={slug}