Please HELP! with gallery and lightbox-type plugin choice

Hi all,

have been reading and reading for days on end now and trying numerous plugins with varying success, still not much closer to a solution so would really, really appreciate some help.

Two questions to start, one more generic (although I really struggle to find the answer myself, maybe I’m just too much of a greenhorn), one more specific:

1. What solution would you personally suggest to achieve ALL of the following in the most reliable and stable way that still looks good: Thumbnail gallery, full size picture display, lightbox-style slideshow?

For the lightbox-style slideshow, currently I am considering: Lightbox2 from Lokesh Dhakar, WP-Slimbox2, Floatbox, Shadowbox.

But I am at a total loss as to what would be the best way to combine that with a thumbnail gallery and full size picture browser (although the latter could happen by just manually forwarding the pictures within the lightbox-style slideshow).

2. With some plugins, for example WP-Slimbox2, I can install and activate them in wordpress, and set some settings, but then what? I have a really hard time finding clear information on how to actually USE them within wordpress. I can not see any menu or button within the Edit Page or Edit Post page of wordpress that would apply the plugin to that page.

Possibly these are greenhorn questions, and maybe I am just overlooking something super simple, but this is the only thing that I am really struggeling with right now, everything else in wordpress isn’t a real problem so far.

Please HELP!

THANKS!

Matt