One of my previous blog posts that you can find here, covered WordPress plugins that are great for photography oriented sites. But, a lot of people may use Lightroom in conjunction with their photography WordPress site. If that’s you, then I have a few Lightroom plugins that can be quite helpful. In particular, if you want to optimize your JPEG files in terms of size (smaller size mean faster load times, and possibly better SEO ranking) and embedded EXIF/IPTC metadata, you are in for a treat.
Thankfully these plugins are actively maintained, and are compatible with the ‘new’ Adobe Lightroom CC classic (i.e. LR 7.0). These plugins are installed on your PC/Mac and not WordPress.
Lightroom Plugins
- JPEGmini Pro – Minimizes JPEG file size while retaining extreme image detail and quality. Lightroom and Photoshop plugin. $99 one time fee.
- jf Metadata Wrangler – Massages Lightroom metadata and lets you selectively embed it in JPEG EXIF/IPTC data blocks. Donation ware.
- jf Geoencoding Support – Much improved GPS/geoencoding for Lightroom photos. Excellent when used with Metadata wrangler, Photopress image taxonomies, and Media Library assistant. Donation ware.
- WP/LR Sync – Enables you to publish photos directly to WordPress. This must be used with the WP/LR Sync WordPress plugin.
- LR/Instagram – Lets you directly publish photos to Instagram, including hashtag metadata. Free/$10 donationware.
One tip for JPEGmini Pro, is to be sure to set the JPEG quality in your export settings to at least 80. If it’s smaller, you could end up with an export error code 1004 that leaves you wondering what is wrong. Now if you are wondering why you should get JPEGmini Pro and ShortPixel, I will tell you that they compliment each other.
First, JPEGmini Pro works with any export scenario in Lightroom so its not just limited to photos in your WordPress media library. Great for sharing on social media sites, sending to the printer, etc. ShortPixel, more often than not can still save space while retaining a high quality image. It will also optimize thumbnails which WordPress internally makes (and your Retina 2x files), something you miss out on if just using JPEGmini Pro (which only optimizes the one file you upload).
Summary
Lightroom and WordPress are a powerful combination. By extending the functionality of Lightroom, you can make your photography WordPress site even better.
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