Geo Tagging Photos with no built in GPS ?

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wildman

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this is probably the height of laziness, but usually I don't bother taking notes of where I was when I am out and about taking photos. The camera I have (A700) does not have a GPS unit in it.

Now its getting to the point where I wish I had location information available for all the shots I take. Is it possible to get some kind of GPS unit that you can insert your CF card into that will then auto tag all the photos based on time if the GPS clock and A700 clock were synced ?

e.g I come back from a 10 mile walk about with say 400 shots, I then put the card into the GPS unit it reads the date / time stamp on each raw exif then matches that to the the location against the same time stamp in the GPS unit ? or am i out there in star trek land ?
 
Nope but if you go on ebay and find yourself a cheap Garmin etrex or Forerunner it will output a file that can be used to geotagg multiple photos quickly with some of the free software available on the net.

I use a Garmin Forerunner running watch that will output a KML file with all the data in.
 
It is very possibly and exactly how I work.

I use an AMOD driverless GPS logger which hangs off my bag, or coat, and logs my position once a second. When I connect it to my Macbook Pro it is seen as a drive with one folder which contains the logs. I drag them to a file on my computer and then use HoudahGeo to marry up the images with the location, it is then written into the exif so no matter how I use the file it lives with the image.

It is quite useful, for example when I upload to flickr my photos are automatically mapped, I can throw them all into google earth, all sorts of cool stuff.
 
Perfectly possible. I have a iGotU data logger that is attached to my camera strap. Turn it on when you leave, connect to PC, download and export to .gpx and then tag photos in Lightroom via Jeffrey Friedls geotagging plugin. Works nicely once you've got your head around which timezone you need to sync to (when you're on PST and the camera is taking pictures in GMT it takes a bit of thinking after a long day)
 
Using a Blumax GPS 4044 here which works a treat. Records altitude and speed as well as gps co-ords, and helped me shave about 10 mins off my daily commute. And it will turn a PC running Autoroute/Mappoint into a sat-nav. One of the best gadgets I ever bought. Agree with the above bit about time zones though - gmt/bst/going abroad quickly turns my brain to mush, so I usually take a pic of a local clock somewhere.
 
If you have lightroom 3 and an Android phone, then you need and app called "my tracks".

Start your outing with GPS on and the "my tracks" recording.
When you finish, export the track into lightroom using the GPS plugin , and it compares the timestamps with the gps track and matches the photos automagically:).

I cant remember the plugin as Im away from home, but it gives instructions on how to use "my tracks" on the plugin website.

GPS just eats phones batteries though, flattened my LG in 4 hours:gag:.
 
This might be a bit simple of me, but I am still not really understanding the process to get this done. Also do I have to use lightroom for this as currently I only have PSE10 ?

Forgive my simpleton ways but can someone check my logic here to see if this is right

1. Get some kind of GPS dongle and hang it off my bag / coat
2. Turn dongle on
3. Go out and about on my photo walk
4. come back home
5. download GPS data to PC ?
6. Link GPS data to RAW files ?

I am just not understanding how 5 and 6 work

additional info in case this helps. I am a PC user, my camera is an alpha 700, the only PP software I have is PSE10
 
you also need to make sure that your camera's internal clock is correct (i.e. synched to GPS).
The software (my IgotU came with some but there are also other ones & plugins available) on the PC then simply ties up the time in the EXIF with the GPS file - the GPS knows where it was at a certain time & the camera knew what the time was when the shot was taken.

I believe that LR4 (currently available as a free beta download) has been designed with geotagging improvements.
 
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You download the GPS track information to your PC. You then use a piece of software (there are a few freely downloadable from the net) and you point this at the file that contains the track information, and the file that contains your photos, and the software then compares the date stamp on each photo and appends the position info from the matching time stamped track data.

As has been said, this is why it's important to sync your camera and GPS logger clocls before starting your trek.
 
I do this with an app called GPX on my iPhone and link it in with Lightroom 4 Beta, but there is other software available to convert GPX logs.
 
wildman said:
5. download GPS data to PC ?
6. Link GPS data to RAW files ?

I am just not understanding how 5 and 6 work
Click to expand...

5. As long as you've bought a decent GPS logger it's as easy as plugging it into the PC, which will treat is as a USB drive. Then you use Windows Explorer to copy the data file.

6. Run Geosetter. Tell it where your photos are stored on your PC and where the GPS data ir - then let it run. It'll add the GPS data to the image exif info.
 
I use a combination of a GPS track recorder (by Wintec), GPSBabel and a plug-in for Light Room by a chap called Jeffrey Friedl.

GPSBabel is only necessary as the files the track files created by the Wintec aren't natively understood by the plug-in.

However, once it's all set up it is simply a matter of selecting the images in Lightroom you want to encode and pointing it the file(s) produced by the track logger. As long as the camera and GPS clocks are reasonably well synchronised it all works like a charm.
 
If you have an Android smartphone download "mytracks" by google to log your walking.


......Although if you have a Samsung galaxy S with original firmware you may find you took a short jaunt through the north sea between Hyde park corner and Piccadilly.........
 
The eyefi explore card has gps tagging built in. Think it is SD card only unfortunately.
 
hollis_f said:
And Lightroom 4 has it all built-in.
Click to expand...

It has, it has just been released and so far it looks great! Well worth the £60 upgrade from V3.

Incidentally, one of the reasons I use the Wintec track logger I mentioned in my earlier post is that it lasts more than 24 hours on one charge and takes a micro SD card which gives you enough capacity to log at once per second for months on end. Very handy when you are on holiday and no access to a PC to download and you don't want to flatten your smart phone battery very quickly.
 
ChrisJ_SLH said:
It has, it has just been released and so far it looks great!
Click to expand...

I have just ordered Lightroom 4 and am waiting for it to be delivered. When you say it has it included, which aspects do you specifically mean?

Obviously I will still need some form of GPS logger, (which is the best app for iPhones?), but can everything else be done inside LR4 without the need for external plugins and software etc?
 
ChrisJ_SLH said:
...and a plug-in for Light Room by a chap called Jeffrey Friedl.
Click to expand...

Unfortunatley this only works with LR3 and the metafile tags it adds into LR3 catalogue doesn't get exported to LR4, if you used the plugin, and go to LR4 you (currently) has to start again !
 
richarb01 said:
I have just ordered Lightroom 4 and am waiting for it to be delivered. When you say it has it included, which aspects do you specifically mean?

Obviously I will still need some form of GPS logger, (which is the best app for iPhones?), but can everything else be done inside LR4 without the need for external plugins and software etc?
Click to expand...

Download the trial and get cracking with it! You just need to input the serial number from the box when it arrives.

I use an app called GPX logger on my iPhone and it worked with the LR 4 Beta.
 
KC Leblanc said:
I think some Eye-Fi cards do geotagging.
Click to expand...

Yes they do but they use the database of wifi locations rather than an actual gps receiver so they won't work if here is no wifi in the area.
 
richarb01 said:
I have just ordered Lightroom 4 and am waiting for it to be delivered. When you say it has it included, which aspects do you specifically mean?
Click to expand...

There are two ways to attach location information to an image. You can search for a place and LR will show a map. Drag an image, or images, to a point on that map and they will be tagged with latitude and longitude (not sure if altitude is included).

The second way is to supply a .gpx file. These are produced by many GPS devices, or can be easily created from other devices using GPSBabel. Select a batch of images taken while the GPS data was acquired. As long as your camera's clock matched the GPS clock then LR can look at the time an image was taken, look for the GPS data for the same time point and attach that data to the image.

It is quite fast once the .gpx file has loaded. It took just a few seconds to tag over 500 images from my Kenya trip.


richarb01 said:
Obviously I will still need some form of GPS logger, (which is the best app for iPhones?), but can everything else be done inside LR4 without the need for external plugins and software etc?
Click to expand...

I don't like using an iPhone for GPS logging as it totally chews up battery life. I use a Genie BGT-31. It's not cheap, but the battery lasted 3 days of continuous logging and it kept a signal in a case, inside a bag, inside a seat pocket, inside a bus.
 
vizzair said:
Unfortunatley this only works with LR3 and the metafile tags it adds into LR3 catalogue doesn't get exported to LR4, if you used the plugin, and go to LR4 you (currently) has to start again !
Click to expand...

My bad:bang:
You can get the GPS data from LR3 into LR4, just a bit long winded, and you need to keep LR3 to do it.

The instructions are in the plug-in in LR3.:)
 
vizzair said:
My bad:bang:
You can get the GPS data from LR3 into LR4, just a bit long winded, and you need to keep LR3 to do it.

The instructions are in the plug-in in LR3.:)
Click to expand...

This wasn't the case for me. After installing LR4 and letting it create an upgraded catalog, as expected the shadow gps data wasn't present. I then installed the latest version of JF's plugin and it went and grabbed all the shadow gps data and created it in the new catalog. It took a while to process but I didn't need to fire up LR3 at any point.
 
wildman said:
Now its getting to the point where I wish I had location information available for all the shots I take. Is it possible to get some kind of GPS unit that you can insert your CF card into that will then auto tag all the photos based on time if the GPS clock and A700 clock were synced ?
Click to expand...

A few options, you can buy the £40 or so bluetooth/GPS logger units that sit in a pocket and download the track.
The other option is most smartphones have GPS track logging software available for free. Just use that and download the track and synchronise with Geosetter or Lightroom 4 etc. I use "My Tracks" on Android.

only problem is that GPS use on a smartphone eats battery & it may not last a full day.
Click to expand...

True, i get about 8 hours of logging out of a battery. But i carry a spare battery in my wallet so i can just change in 30 seconds if needed. A spare no-name battery is about £10.
 
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ChrisJ_SLH said:
This wasn't the case for me. After installing LR4 and letting it create an upgraded catalog, as expected the shadow gps data wasn't present. I then installed the latest version of JF's plugin and it went and grabbed all the shadow gps data and created it in the new catalog. It took a while to process but I didn't need to fire up LR3 at any point.
Click to expand...

again I jumped the gun and tried before looking for the new plugin:bonk:, I could keep LR3 as it was actually on the trial period, luckily LR4 came out just 5 days before the LR3 trial ended. Now just have to wait for pay day to convert the LR4 trial:lol:
 
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