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WordPress plugin

Photos from recent iPhones and Android phones are HDR. On an HDR screen their highlights are brighter than white. Upload one to WordPress and the HDR is usually lost: WordPress turns HEIC photos into a standard JPEG, and image optimizers and CDNs strip the gain map from the others.
The free HDRJPG plugin fixes this. It sends the photo you uploaded to HDRJPG, which converts it into files that keep the HDR: a gain map JPEG at each width you choose, an HDR AVIF and a short, silent HDR MP4. The plugin then serves them with the HDRJPG embedding markup, so each visitor's browser gets the version it shows in HDR. Chrome, Edge and Safari 26 get the gain map JPEG. Firefox and Safari on a Mac get the video. On a screen without HDR, visitors see a normal photo.
It works wherever the photo appears: in an Image block, in a gallery, as a featured image or inline in a post.
Get the plugin on WordPress.org

How to use it

  1. In WordPress, go to Plugins > Add New, search for HDRJPG, then install and activate it.
  2. Create an HDRJPG account and copy your API key.
  3. Go to Settings > HDRJPG and paste the key.
  4. Open an HDR photo in the Media Library and press Convert to HDR. To convert several, select them in the list view and pick Convert to HDR from the bulk actions. You can also have new HDR uploads converted automatically.
A conversion takes a minute or two. The photo keeps its normal version on your site until it is done.

Which photos it converts

iPhone and iPad HEIC photos, Android Ultra HDR JPGs, other JPGs with a gain map (from Lightroom, Photoshop or Camera Raw, for example) and EXR files. A photo with no HDR in it fails to convert and does not count against your conversions.

What it costs

The plugin is free. Each photo converted counts as one conversion, however many sizes and formats it makes. The free plan includes 300 conversions a month, with an HDRJPG watermark on the photos. The paid plan has no watermark and no cap. See pricing.

Where the files are

The converted files go into your own uploads folder, in wp-content/uploads/hdrjpg/, and your visitors load them from your server. Your original photo and the sizes WordPress made of it stay as they are. If you deactivate the plugin, your site goes back to serving them.