A Lightroom Classic plugin that finds the people in your photos and tags them as keywords. Train in 5 minutes. Scan runs in the background. Search by name forever.
Requires macOS on Apple Silicon (M1 or later). Intel Mac and Windows support coming based on demand. Request it →
Lightroom Classic
People & Keywords
Features
Built for photographers who shoot real life
Every photo of Mom, one click away.
Recognized people become Lightroom keywords. Type a name in the keyword filter and every shot of them - across years of catalog - shows up instantly.
Trained on two photos. Finds the rest.
Pick one or two reference shots per person. The plugin combs your whole catalog and tags every other photo of them - automatically.
Catches people even when faces aren't visible.
Body matching plus surrounding-photo context tag people shot from behind, in profile, or partially turned away.
Your faces stay on your Mac.
Face detection runs entirely on your machine. No photos uploaded, no servers, no accounts. Works with your internet off.
What you shot is what it reads.
Reads .ARW, .CR2, .NEF, .RAF, .DNG and other camera RAW files directly. No need to export to JPEG first.
One-time price. Move it between Macs.
$19.99 once. No subscriptions, no usage limits. Deactivate on one Mac to free a license slot, then activate on the new one.
Why it's different
Lightroom Classic never got People view. This is it.
The other Lightroom has face recognition built in. Classic doesn't, and never will - Adobe ships that feature on the cloud-sync version only. So Classic photographers either tag people by hand (years of catalog, one keyword at a time) or stage their catalog in Apple Photos just to use Faces, then never get those tags back into Lightroom where they actually edit.
Face Tagger gives Classic the missing piece. Train on a few reference photos, run a scan, and every person becomes a real Lightroom keyword - usable in Smart Collections, search, filters, exports, and any other tool that already reads your keywords. No round-trip. No second app.
How It Works
Three steps to a tagged catalog
Teach it who's who, then let it do the work.
01
Train
Select one or two photos of each person you want recognized. Name them. That's your whole training set.
02
Scan
Pick a collection, run Deep Scan. The plugin processes every photo locally and matches faces against your trained people.
03
Review
Confirm suggestions for unrecognized faces. Sync corrections auto-tunes matching so the next scan is sharper.
What People Say
The face-recognition tool Classic users actually got
“
Native People recognition has been missing from Lightroom Classic for as long as I can remember. Face Tagger finally fills that gap - and the fact that it all runs locally matters more to me than I expected. Long overdue, very welcome.
Sofia M.Portrait photographer · 🇵🇹 Lisbon“
Trained it on three photos of my son and it pulled him out of two years of catalog automatically. I'd been telling myself I'd tag those by hand for years. One Saturday afternoon and now every shot of him is a click away.
Tom B.Hobbyist photographer · 🇺🇸 Austin“
Lightroom Smart Collections were always missing the most obvious filter - the people in the photo. Once Face Tagger turned my catalog into people-keywords, I rebuilt half my workflow around them. "Every shot of my niece in 2025" is now one click instead of a weekend.
Hannah W.Documentary photographer · 🇬🇧 Glasgow
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What to expect before you install.
How is this different from Lightroom CC's People feature?
Lightroom Classic doesn't have People view - that's an Adobe Lightroom CC (cloud-sync) feature only. Face Tagger fills the gap for Classic users. Tags land as real Lightroom keywords, so they work everywhere keywords already work: Smart Collections, search, filters, and exports.
Does it really run fully offline?
Yes - after a one-time model download at first run (~500 MB, 2-5 minutes). After that, no part of the plugin needs the internet. Your photos and face data never leave your machine.
Which Macs and operating systems are supported?
For v1, the shipping installer runs on macOS with Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4) only. Intel Macs are not supported yet - the installer is arm64-only for now.
Roughly 500 MB for the AI models. Face data for your catalog is tiny - about 2 KB per photo, stored in a small database file next to the plugin folder.
Does it support RAW files?
Yes. The plugin reads .ARW (Sony), .CR2/.CR3 (Canon), .NEF (Nikon), .RAF (Fuji), .DNG, and other common RAW formats directly. No need to export to JPEG first.
How many machines can I activate on?
Your license key activates on a limited number of computers at a time. If you switch machines, use Library > Plug-in Extras > Deactivate License on the old one to free a slot, then activate on the new one.
Does it work with multiple Lightroom catalogs?
Yes. Face training and scan history are stored per catalog, so you can use the plugin across unrelated catalogs without them interfering.
Where is my face data stored?
Locally, in face_data.db next to the plugin folder on your Mac. Delete that file (or uninstall the plugin) to remove everything. See our Privacy Policy for the biometric-data details.
How accurate is it?
It depends heavily on your photos. Clear, well-lit faces match reliably after you've trained a person on just one or two reference photos. Side-profile, low-light, partially occluded, and body-only matches (people shot from behind) are inherently less confident and often end up in the review queue rather than auto-tagged.
The plugin is designed around the idea that you'll correct it as you go. After each scan, you confirm or reject suggestions in the review step. Sync Corrections then auto-tunes per-person tolerance based on that feedback. After a few scan + review + sync cycles on the same catalog, accuracy typically climbs into the 90-95% range for the people you've trained - and keeps getting sharper with every round.
Will it touch my photos or my edits?
No. Nothing about your photos changes - not your edits, not your ratings, not your originals, not your catalog files. The plugin only reads pixels to find faces and writes back to your catalog as standard Lightroom keywords. You can remove every keyword Face Tagger added at any time.
Can I get a refund?
If the plugin doesn't work on your setup, contact us - we'll either fix the issue or refund you in full. We're a solo team and we'd rather get the issue solved than count anyone out. Full terms on the Terms of Service page.
What if I have questions or problems?
The plugin has a built-in Report a Problem menu item that captures the recent server log and opens our feedback form. You can also reach out directly via the contact form. Solo developer, personal responses.
Stop scrolling looking for "the one with Mom".
Train in 5 minutes. Tag your whole catalog. Search by name forever.
Lightroom Classic
People & Keywords