[Trezoid]

I don't understand why so few lightbox plugins (and sites with custom ones) do the actual image link properly.

The image should be a link either to a page for that specific image (facebook style) or just to the full sized image itself. That way if the person has js disabled, or middle clicks, or opens in new tab they'll still get the image, but you can intercept a normal click and show the pretty lightbox if they're browsing "normally".

It's not like it's super complex or anything, but everyone goes the "image is only useful for the lightbox" path.