DJI Gimbal Metadata Plug-in for Lightroom Classic

This free Lightroom Classic plug-in helps you view the camera direction of a DJI drone image in Lightroom Classic. It reads gimbal orientation metadata stored in DJI photographs and makes that information available directly in Lightroom.

What the Plug-in Does

The plug-in reads the DJI gimbal metadata embedded in images taken with a DJI drone. It accepts both JPG and DNG file formats. It will not read files derived from these types such as photoshop or dxo files. The plug-in adds the following custom metadata fields to the Lightroom Classic catalog:

• Gimbal Yaw – camera direction from 0° to 360°
• Gimbal Pitch – camera angle above or below the horizon
• Gimbal Roll – camera roll angle, usually zero

Gimbal Yaw is also written to Lightroom's Exif Direction metadata field. This allows Lightroom and other tools that use this field to determine the direction in which the camera was pointing. THe Exif Direction field in Lightroom contains a numerical value (e.g 351.3°) but displays North, North-East, East, South-East, South, South-West, West, North-West rather than the numerical value. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 45°. To see the exact number, hover over the direction field.

The plug-in can process multiple selected photographs at once. A progress display reports the number of files successfully processed and any files that could not be processed. If the required DJI gimbal metadata is missing from a photograph, no gimbal metadata is written for that photograph.

The plug-in changes only the Lightroom catalog. It does not modify the original DNG or JPEG files.

Installation

1. Download the ZIP file using the button above.
2. Unzip the downloaded file.
3. The extracted folder should be named DJI_Gimbal_Metadata.lrplugin.
4. Start Adobe Lightroom Classic.
5. Select File > Plug-in Manager.
6. Click Add.
7. Browse to and select the DJI_Gimbal_Metadata.lrplugin folder.
8. Lightroom should report that the plug-in is Installed and running.

Using the Plug-in

1. In the Lightroom Classic Library module, select one or more DJI photographs.
2. Select Library > Plug-in Extras > Read DJI Gimbal Metadata .
3. The plug-in will examine each selected photograph and report how many files were successfully processed.
4. To view the added metadata in Lightroom's Metadata panel, select DJI Gimbal Metadata from the metadata-view menu.

DJI Compatibility

The plug-in has been tested successfully with photographs from several DJI drone models, including DJI Mini and Mavic series aircraft. Other DJI models that store Gimbal Yaw, Pitch, and Roll using the same DJI metadata fields may also work. The plug-in won't work for Autel, Skydio, ... drones.

Requires Adobe Lightroom Classic. This is a Lightroom Classic plug-in and is not intended for the cloud-based version of Lightroom.

This page was last updated 9/21/2026