You scanned the code, you can see a handful of photos, and the page is asking for your email. That's the host's choice, not a paywall: they've asked that everyone who sees the full album and adds to it confirms who they are, once, with an email.
What you'll see
The welcome is a door standing open on the album, its cover's photos showing through. Continue walks you through the door, and a sheet rises over the album, its newest 9 photos as a preview behind it. On this kind of event the sheet asks for your email first, with a short explanation: the host keeps this album for guests only, so you confirm an email once, with no password.
Your name comes after the code, and only if your account doesn't have one yet: it's the one that goes on your photos. An account that already has a name keeps it, so you're the same name at every event you add to.
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Enter your email and tap Email me a code
The page shows exactly which address the code went to.
9:41 - 02
Type the 6-digit code from the email
Or tap the link in the same email; either one works. If it doesn't arrive within a minute, see the email code didn't arrive.
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You're in
The last step asks for a first photo, and then the album opens with Add photos on every screen. Only the host of this event ever sees your email; other guests see your name.
9:41
That code made you an account
There's no separate sign-up. Confirming your email creates a free Partyreel account, which keeps every photo you add under your name, across events, and puts each event you add to on your dashboard, so you can come back to this album later. Next time, the same email (or Continue with Google with the same address) opens the same account; the ways in are in sign in: a code, Google, or a password. See find your uploads, and the events you added to.
Guests never pay
Nothing a guest does costs anything, ever: joining, adding photos, downloading, watching the reel, making a clip of it. The host pays for storage if they need more of it. The Make one like this button in the corner is for people who want to host their own event: it starts one in the same style as the album you're in.
Rather not?
There's no way past it on this event: the preview is all there is without the email, and the sheet stays in front of it. If the host had turned An email first off, the page would have asked only for a name, with an email as an optional add, never required and nothing sent to it; typing one just means these photos are waiting for you if you ever confirm that address from an account. It's their setting. What they see about you is in what guests can and can't see.
A password, or a wait at the door?
Some albums ask for a password from the invitation before the email. At others the host lets each guest in: you confirm your email, then wait at the door until they do, and the album opens right there by itself. An album kept to an invite list lets in the addresses on it. Each is its own gate: see messages guests might see.