The LR2Mogrify Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Nice border and logo thanks to LR2/Mogrify
From the factory, Lightroom’s export panel has a preset for making images for email. While I appreciate this feature, I don’t think that the factory preset is powerful enough for my needs. So for today’s lesson, I picked a wonderfully useful export plug-in from Mr. Timothy Armes called LR2/Mogrify. You can find out more and download the free trial version here.
http://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/lr2mogrify.php
For a bit of background, plug-ins are little bits of computer code that folks generally outside of the Adobe paid programming team create. Plug-ins are created by brilliant programmers who fill a hole in the existing application. Generally, these cool tools are shareware or donation-ware.
As you will see in today’s video, I believe that presentation–the wrapping, framing, “the polish”: around an image–is almost as important as the image itself. Anyone can email a photo; but I believe that a professional photographer should send out something that looks a touch more elegant.
Lets be honest, doesn’t presentation help to create the perception of value? I want to send out email images that look a little bit more polished than what the average person sends. I want my images, and their wrappings, to create an appearance of professionalism and value.
This is where LR2/Mogrify comes in. With LR2/Mogrify I can add some great functionality into Lightroom that it just doesn’t have from the factory. With LR2/Mogrify, I can get place a border around my images and stamp my pixels with a custom watermark without having to visit Adobe Photoshop CS4.
Trust me, I love Photoshop CS4. I have been teaching class on Photoshop since 2002, but having to go from Lightroom to Photoshop and then on to my email program is just terribly inefficient. Lr2/Mogrify to the rescue. Please watch this video and check out Timothy Armes’s site to learn more about this super handy tool.
LR2/Mogrify Lightroom Video Tutorial from David Marx on Vimeo.
Filed Under: Exporting Images • Tutorials
About the Author: David’s sports and landscape images are often used on the web and in outdoor sports publications. He has an extensive knowledge of digital photography and is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. David is a talented instructor and his entertaining teaching style works for students of all skill levels.
In 2009, David Marx led digital photography programs for the 
Thanks for the walk through. I wish the plugin had a live preview so you could see the output before making it.
I followed this with great interest, however I cannot persuade Image Magik to work on my PC (Windows XP). I wonder if others have had this issue or whether there’s something odd going on with my machine.
Dear Roger,
I am afraid that I am on a Mac so I can’t provide too much assistance. When I have taught LR2/Mogrify in classes I have seen it work on Mac, Vista 32, and Vista 64. Based on this experience, I feel confident that the plug-in should work for you. So the question is why doesn’t it?
You might find some answers here.
http://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/lr2mogrify.php?sec=install
When you say that you can’t persuade Image Magik to work I am wondering if you really mean that the LR2/Mogrify plugin doesn’t know where to find the Image Magik .exe file. Did you connect the two in the LR2/Mogrify configuration manager panel?
Hope this helps,
David
[...] today I noticed that my very talented colleague David Marx has posted a video about this on Lightroomlab.com. Do check it out! You can download the plug-in here. Read the Quickguide for more [...]
My PC refuses to install imagemagick properly despite several tries. LR2/Mogrify only works partially. For instance I cannot add text annotations. Resizing and borders work fine. WTF.
Dear Alan,
Sorry to hear that you are still having troubles. You might find an answer here.
http://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/
best of luck,
David
Timothy Armes has just released a new version of his wonderful LR2/Mogrify export plugin. I am excited to try out the new features. The newest version includes:
- A new “Canvas” section for placing the (resized) image onto a fixed size canvas. Useful when images have to have a fixed size but you don’t with to crop them (such as for sending them to photo labs or displaying them on a digital projector).
- Multiple different watermarks may now be added to an image.
- PNG watermarks may now be scaled proportionally.
- Watermarks can now be specified as a percentage of the width or height of the image while preserving the aspect ratio.
- Horizontal/Vertical insets now work in each of the nine watermark positions.
- The limit of 3 text annotations has been removed – add as many as you want.
I encourage all you Lightroom users looking to add some class and style to your exported images to check out this super plugin.
David,
Are there instructions on this site to do what you did in the video? Using the file name – Email? Or some similar combo?
Thanks!
I too am on a Mac
Randall-
I think you are looking for advice on how to create file naming templates. Hmmmm…. Seems like a good topic for another video tutorial. I’ll see what I can do.
David
Hi, I am having difficulty installing the plugin LR2 Mogrify on my Mac Book Pro. Is there a step by step tutorial that’s easy to follow and understand so I can get the Watermark placed on over 2,500 images I have taken.
Thanks,
Danny
Daniel-
This link might help.
http://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/lr2mogrify.php?sec=install
Here’s my advice.
1. Download the plugin.
2. Unzip the package. On this Mac all you have to do is double click and it will automatically “unzip.”
3. Move the plugin to a folder that you can easily find. I have a folder that I created named “plugins” that I keep inside my Lightroom settings folder.
4. Launch Lightroom.
5. Go File > Plugin Manager.
6. Click the Add button in the bottom right corner.
7. Lead this dialog to the folder where you put the LR2/Mogrify plugin. Click on the Lr2Mogrify.lrplugin file and then hit add.
8. Restart Lightroom.
9. Select a file and then hit the Export button.
10. In the bottom right corner of the Export dialog open up the Lr2/Mogrify drill down.
11. Click on Graphical Watermarks and hit the Insert button. This will add two more panels into your export dialog– a mogrify configurations box and a graphic watermark options box. PC users need to connect the plugin to the mogrify.exe file from ImageMagic in the configuration box but Mac users do not need to make any changes in here.
12. In the graphical watermarks box click the choose button and lead Mogrify down the path to your watermark file. You can use a .psd, .jpg, or .png file.
13. Back in Lightroom select the placement and options for your watermark.
14. Sit back and enjoy Timothy Armes excellent work!
Hope this helps.
–David
P.S. If you find this plugin useful please send Mr. Armes a donation.
David,
I’m going to all the links I can find for LR2/Mogrify in order to download and donate but they are all coming back “can’t find server”, even the link from Timothy’s website. Any idea where to get an official version of this plug-in?
Thanks.
Mel,
Sorry you’re having trouble. I can reach the site just fine.
Here is the link to the main LR2/Mogrify page:
http://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/lr2mogrify.php
If that doesn’t work, here is a direct link to download the plugin:
http://www.photographers-toolbox.com/downloads/LR2Mogrify.lrplugin.zip
Best of luck,
Scott Rouse
how do i get the post process action window into the export window (bottom left) in lightroom v2.3. I have loaded the plug in and restarted lightroom but I cant see the process action window?
Craig-
Something seems to have gone wrong. Once you have loaded the plug-n the post-process window should automatically be added into your export dialog.
Once this window appears open up the LR2/Mogrify drop down and select the feature you want, for example “Outer Borders” and hit the insert button.
Hope this helps
David Marx
Hey Dave
I’m needing to export about 70 pictures for a client proof book and decided to finally donate money to use the LR2Mogrify so that I didn’t have to do them in batches of ten and babysit my computer. But… after making my donation, It’s still only exporting 10 images at a time and telling me I need to donate. I read all the FAQ on the toolbox website along with trying numerous other things and can’t figure it out. They even sent me a serial/registration # to my email. I typed it in under File/Plug In Mrg/User Reg. in Lightroom, but it didn’t do anything. Help!!!
much thanks!
Hailey
Dear Hailey,
Happy Holidays. You might want to send this question to Timothy Armes too since it is his software.
If I were you I would go to the Plug-in Manager and completely remove the LR2/Mogrify plug-in. After you have removed it, I would download the latest version and reinstall it.
http://www.photographers-toolbox.com/products/lr2mogrify.php
Once reinstalled, go back to the Plug-in Manager and enter your serial number. Once it accepts your serial # you should get a green checkmark. Go down to the plug-n author tools section and hit the reload plug-in button and that should solve your troubles.
best wishes,
David