Last week I wrote about Jeffrey Friedl’s plug-in that allows you to export images directly to Facebook.  There are lots of other great third-party plug-ins out there.  But how can one find out about them?

Easy, of course, or I wouldn’t be writing about it!   In the Library module of Lightroom, click on the Export button (bottom left), then Plug In Manager (bottom left), and then Plug-in exchange.  This takes you out to the Adobe web site, where you can browse and download plug-ins.  You can choose to look at most popular, highest rated, featured, or all, and browse by category — Develop presets, Export plug-ins, Web galleries, and Other.   You can also filter by whether they are shareware, donationware, commercial, etc.   Adobe makes it all very easy for us — because these plug-ins increase the power of their product — a good deal all around.   Just remember, it is third party software, and is therefore  not guaranteed by Adobe.

Among other things, you’ll find plug-ins for exporting to places like Flickr, gmail, Smugmug, Photobucket,  for creating borders and watermarks (check out LR2/Mogrify), for managing metadata, creating more sophisticated slideshows and web galleries, and for launching images into programs like Photomatix.  You will also find all kinds of Develop presets for creating different looks for your photos.

Explore and enjoy!