$re = '~<img[^>]*src="([^"]+)"[^>]*>|<a\b.+?</a>(*SKIP)(*F)~is';
$str = '
<img src="/img/file1.jpg" />
<a href="/img/file2.jpg"><img src="/img/file2.jpg" /></a>
<img src="/img/file3.jpg" />
';
$subst = "<a href=\"$1\">$0</a>";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php