This is a WordPressified version of the excellent, lightweight (for real!) imageLightbox.js (MIT-licensed) by Osvaldas Valutis (
http://osvaldas.info/image-lightbox-responsive-touch-friendly)
This is his introduction to the lightbox:
"As for the image lightboxes, I have always lacked simplicity for them. I mean not only the visual design, but the overall experience: from implementation to UX. All due respect, but I have never liked any of these light-fancy-face-boxes. They all were solving problems that just don't exist: lots of unwanted features by default, total mess in markup, no native behavior for touch screens. I was working on a project and needed an image lightbox that solves these problems. I needed a lightbox only for images, not video, text, and iframes at once. I made ImageLightbox.js."
This version autodetects all links to image files and opens them in the lightbox.
For your "install, activate and go"-convenience, this plugin comes with a minimal CSS that easily can be deactivated and/or replaced.
The plugin can also be themed to your liking. An example theme is available here:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/imagelightbox-smooth-theme/
Please let me know if you have any issues. Fastest way to get a response is by Twitter:
https://twitter.com/bjornjohansen