Gleam theme / Elegant Themes Portfolio template issue

I am at a point in my journey through php and wordpress where my minds eye is outpacing my actual knowledge of the language itself. I am comfortable with my ignorance, so long as I can locate suitable resolutions to the visual challenges which arise throughout this process. I will have alot of questions about wordpress themes and templates, and how to best modify them in minor ways to produced my desired results. Although this is my first day on your forum, please know that I truly desire to learn.

First up – sophiasartproductions.com, using wordpress theme “gleam” from elegantthemes.com. I get the feeling lately that these guys simply buy themes and resell them, because often their support resolutions begin with “try this….” One would think that the author of a theme would be able to vett a given solution, but thats another conversation for another time.

Here are my design challenges:

1. on the “gallery” pages ( which use a template labelled portfolio ), the file name appears in the lower left corner of the screen. the control panel for this portfolio page template has radion buttons to include or omit the title as well as description for the images, but do not seem to be functioning. I don’t believe the feature will be used at any time, so I would just like to eliminate its integration in the template, or at the least, remove the instructions used to display it with the background image.

2. what things can be done to minimize “stretching” or ” squishing” photos due to screen resolution/aspect ratios? is there a way for the code to detect a screen resolution and display a version of each photo appropriately cropped / centered for that resolution?

I thank you in advance for your assistance, and eagerly await your feedback

Nicholas D