Geotagging Photos

January 25, 2009
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I’ve been experimenting with Geotagging photos and a way to present the tagged pictures.   Have a look at the results over to the left under Photos->Map   Sometimes the map doesn’t load correctly so you may need to hit retry.

I didn’t invent anything new but rather gathered some things already on the net to make it happen.  The hardest part was finding the tools, loading the GPS Software and setting up the Gallery.  The Geotagging was easy.

Tools:

Steps:

  1.  Synchronize the camera clock with the GPS clock.  The first time out I had the clocks off by an hour.   The software can correct for this but it is easier to get it right the first time.  If you have multiple cameras make sure all of them are synchronized too.
  2. Make sure the GPS is setup to keep track logs and has a good fix.  With the GPS on go on a walkabout taking pictures.  
  3. Using the GPS Software save the track information for the time period you are interested in.  For the Garmin RoadTrip software this involves merging selected track information into a single track and exporting it.  
  4. Copy the photos off the camera and into a working folder on the computer.  I normally use Adobe Lightroom to import and manage my photos.  If I’m going to geotag the images I do not import with lightroom as I want to tag them before the import.
  5. Open GPSPhotoLinker, open the track log and open all the photos you want tagged. No special tricks with the software.  It just works. 
  6. Import into Lightroom, retouch as necessary and export to the Gallery making sure to leave the embedded EXIF information.  The Gallery plugin does the rest and places the photos on the map.

I’m going to use this workflow and develop an Automator action to automate as much as possible.

This post was written by

Jim

Jim – who has written 327 posts on UniBrain Trust.

Jim is the curator of UniBrain Motorsports, our resident photographer and the only one in the family to shoot a perfect 25. He enjoys eating Nadya's cooking and tries his best to stay out of her way while in the kitchen.

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2 Responses to Geotagging Photos

  1. Shaili Jain on January 25, 2009 at 9:43 pm

    I don’t normally approve comments that are commercials for products but this one is a) related to the post and b) looks like an interesting product if you don’t want to maintain your own website.

    Jim

    Hello Jim,
    Good outline on geotagging photographs using a combination of camera, gps & a tagging software.
    We, at Abaqus have launched a service called MyGeoDiary which enables you to upload your GPS tracks from any device (phone, garmin etc.) & separately upload the photos. The web app will then try to sync the photos on to the track and then let you visualize them on a Google map. Also, you can authorize your account to directly upload your photos to Flickr. Please see the attached two links:
    1. http://www.mygeodiary.com
    2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/anneshailendra/map/

    thanks for reviewing,
    Shaili Jain
    http://www.abaq.us

  2. Jeff on January 26, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    Your mash-up works fine for me, except for one glitch. The groups say something like “Six elements here, zoom in”, but there are only three or two photos there. Otherwise, it’s bitchen.