Adobe Lightroom is a great program for photographers, You can find many Lightroom presets. But Lightroom has a lot of limits that can slow you down significantly. This is the kind of situation when Lightroom plugins come in handy.
You can use Lightroom plugins to improve your workflow, enhance your photos, and collaborate with other people. And you don’t even need to leave the program to do all of this!
17 Best Lightroom Plugins
17. Exposure X7
Paid
Exposure X7 is a program of its own, but you can also use its features in Lightroom and Photoshop. It offers 3D color masking, layer effects, bokeh tools, and more. Many of its features are similar to Lightroom’s, but it offers much more control.
This is a great program for photographers who want to experiment with different artistic tools and have more control over the details in their pictures.
Exposure X7 is quite pricey, but it comes with a lot of interesting photo editing features. The X7 Bundle will give you access to photo enlargement, artistic tools, and many other Lightroom plugins.
16. Photosafe
You can find Photosafe under Publish Services in the Library module. When you enable it, you can start using the Can’t Be Deleted folder to lock your pictures.
Free
Photosafe is one of many Lightroom plugins made by Jeffrey Friedl. It’s a simple but effective tool for photographers with thousands of images.
If you take lots of wedding or event photos that look similar, you might accidentally delete your favourite pictures. This can also be the case if you have a complicated rating system in Lightroom.
To prevent this, you can use Photosafe. This plugin will let you select your favourite photos and lock them.
Photosafe is free to use, but its functionality will get worse 6 weeks after you download it. You can prevent this by sending Jeffrey any amount of money.
15. The Fader
The Fader works very simply. Once you install it, go to File > Plug-in Extras > The Fader. Choose a preset folder and select the preset you’d like to edit. This doesn’t change the Lightroom presets themselves. It simply gives you more control over the intensity of a specific look.
Free
The Fader is one of the most popular Adobe Lightroom plugins out there. If your Lightroom presets are too intense, you can use Fader to change their opacity. This is in fact very similar to the Layer Opacity tool in Photoshop.
The Fader is completely free to use. Like Photosafe, it will lose its functionality with time. You can prevent this (and gains access to more controls) by paying a small fee.
14. Topaz Photo
Paid
Topaz Photo is Topaz Labs’ current all-in-one editor. Topaz Labs discontinued Topaz Studio 2, Topaz Lens Effects, and Topaz Clean, and folded their features into this single app.
Topaz Photo combines noise reduction, sharpening, upscaling, and face recovery in one workspace. Its Autopilot mode scans each photo and applies the right combination of AI models on its own, but you can still fine-tune every tool by hand if Autopilot gets it wrong.
Topaz Labs ended perpetual licenses for its apps in September 2025, so Topaz Photo is subscription-only now: around $25 a month billed annually for the single app, or about $399 a year for the full Topaz Studio bundle, which also includes Topaz Video and Topaz Gigapixel.
If you only edited a handful of photos a year with the old one-time-purchase Topaz Clean or Lens Effects, the ongoing subscription cost may not be worth it for you. A free tool like Focus Mask below or a one-time purchase elsewhere on this list will suit occasional use better.
13. Focus Mask
Free
Focus Mask highlights the sharpest parts of your photo using red streaks. This is an easy way to sort through hundreds of similar-looking photos that may or may not be blurred.
Keep in mind that the plugin may highlight sharpness even in blurred images. However, it’s likely that the more redness you see in your image, the sharper it is.
12. Film Stocks
Paid
Film Stocks, now a filter inside the Boris FX Optics suite, offers a huge collection of film presets which can be modified using the Lightroom plugins unique controls. You can also add different textures to your pictures, such as dust.
The aim of the plugin is to make photos and videos look like they were shot on film. You can choose from a variety of looks, including Polaroid, Fuji, and Kodak.
The photo editing plugin is much cheaper than the other Adobe Lightroom plugins on this list.
The version that comes with video editing features is a little more expensive, but it can be the perfect choice for filmmakers who want to enhance their videos.
11. LRTimelapse
Paid
LRTimelapse is one of the most popular time-lapse tools out there. If you want to enhance your time-lapses without leaving Lightroom, this program is perfect for you. This plugin for Lightroom promises to help you achieve smooth transitions without ruining the quality of your files.
Photographers can choose between a Pro and a Private license. The Private license is the cheaper option.
10. Portraiture
Paid
Portraiture by Imagenomic is all about skin retouching. If you’re a portrait photographer who wants to save time without making your models look unnatural, you will definitely enjoy using this plugin.
This Lightroom plugins controls are fast and easy to use. You can smooth and enhance even the most problematic skin.
Portraiture is one of the most expensive Adobe Lightroom plugins on this list. However, given its strong reputation and advanced retouching features, many portrait photographers might find the price quite reasonable.
9. ON1 Photo Raw
Paid
ON1 is a professional photo editor that comes with hundreds of interesting features. You can use it to organize your photos, process raw files, edit photos in layers, and experiment with special effects.
The plugin also has AI-powered features that can do all the work for you within seconds.
ON1’s price depends on the subscription you use. The cheapest version costs as much as most professional editing Lightroom plugins.
8. LR/Enfuse
Free
LR/Enfuse is great for photographers who want to merge multiple photos without leaving Lightroom. This is a handy tool for all HDR, macro, and nighttime photographers.
One of its awesome features is that you can blend two images with different focus points to create a blurred background. You can also use this tool to create a stronger dynamic range in landscape photos.
The plugin is free, but it comes with limitations. If you want to take full advantage of its features, you have to make a donation to the owner.
7. Light
Paid
Invented by Digital Film Tools and now part of Boris FX Optics, Light creates virtual gobos for you.
You can think of gobos as light stencils. If you hold a stencil in front of a light, it will create a pattern. The plugin offers many different patterns you can use to create different atmospheres in your photos.
You can add light to areas without a light source and create your own stencils. Based on the examples, it seems that the plugin is great at creating realistic effects.
Light also offers masking tools, presets, and special light effects, such as fog.
Optics bundles Light with more than 800 gobo lighting patterns. And you can subscribe monthly instead of buying the suite outright.
6. Excire search
Paid
Excire search is an AI-powered plugin that will create automatic keywords for you. Its main feature is a search engine that can help you find any photo you need quickly. You don’t need to tag your photos manually.
The plugin doesn’t need an Internet connection to work and takes up very little space. You’ll need around 650MB for 100,000 photos.
Excire is also one of the cheapest Lightroom plugins on this list.
5. Hashtag AI
Paid
If you want a program to do all the tagging for you, you might like Hashtag AI. This plugin uses a custom algorithm to automatically create keywords for images.
The only downside is that you need to pay for every image you work with. This means that you don’t need to subscribe or pay a large fee at once, which might be appealing to some photographers.
4. Evlaa
Free
Evlaa is a collaborative plugin that guarantees to save an hour for every photo shoot you have. Your clients can rate your photos, receive photos directly from Lightroom, and send you payments. You don’t even have to leave Lightroom to do any of these things.
Evlaa is free to download, but you’ll need to pay every month to use its advanced features. A monthly subscription gives you access to unlimited photos, galleries, and users.
3. LR/Instagram
Free
LR/Instagram is a simple plugin that can save you a lot of time. You can upload your photos directly to Instagram without leaving Lightroom.
You can also use the plugin to create hashtags, choose the best cropping ratios for Instagram, and publish to several accounts at once.
LR/Instagram is free to use, but you’ll need to register to use it for a long period of time. The registration fee is very small though.
2. Blow Up 3
Paid
Blow Up can enlarge photos without ruining their quality. Using simple tools, it will enlarge photos for prints, magazines, billboards, and more.
This plugin can also help you save money if you use stock photos often. You can download smaller ones and enlarge them without compromising their quality.
The latest version of Blow Up three is easier and faster to use. It automatically comes with the Exposure X7 bundle. (Mentioned at the beginning of this article.) You can also buy it separately for much cheaper.
1. Luminar Neo
Paid
Luminar Neo is Skylum's current all-in-one photo editor. Skylum no longer sells its older Creative Kit apps (Intensify, Tonality, Snapheal, FX Photo Studio, Focus, and Noiseless), and their features now live inside this one program.
Luminar Neo runs as a standalone app for Mac and Windows, or as a plugin inside Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, Photoshop, and Apple Photos. It handles sky replacement, portrait retouching, HDR merging, AI masking, and object removal with AI-driven presets, so you don't need six separate apps to get the results the old Creative Kit promised.
You can buy Luminar Neo outright: the Desktop license (2 computers, Mac or Windows) is $119, Cross-device (adds the mobile app) is $159, and Max (adds a year of the Creative Library) is $179. That's roughly what the old Creative Kit apps cost combined, without needing six separate purchases.
The catch is that the generative AI tools (GenErase, GenExpand, and GenSwap) are only included for one year from purchase. After that you'll need to renew to keep using them, even though you own the rest of the app for good. If all you want is basic retouching without AI generation, a cheaper single-purpose tool elsewhere on this list may suit you better.
Common Lightroom Plugin Questions
How Do I Use Lightroom Plugins?
Install your Lightroom plugin by going to File > Plug-In Manager and clicking on Add. Find your Lightroom plugin in your folders and click on it. Restart Lightroom. Your plugins for Lightroom will now be visible in the program, and you can start using them!
Does Lightroom CC Support Plugins?
Yes. Lightroom CC supports some Lightroom plugins, such as Luminar and ON1 Photo RAW.
Where Are Lightroom Plugins Stored?
Lightroom plugins are stored in folders of your choosing. Once you install your Lightroom plugins, make sure you don’t delete the folder where they are stored. If you do, it will immediately remove the Lightroom plugins from Lightroom. Keep all of your Lightroom plugins in one neat folder before you install them.
Conclusion
Lightroom is great on its own, but it can be turned into an even more powerful program thanks to custom Lightroom plugins. You can use them to enhance your photos, communicate with clients, take advantage of AI-powered features, and much more.
With the right Lightroom plugins, your photography experience will be efficient and successful.
