Useful or fluff?

[+user13371]

Something I've heard people mention but never used myself. Is it a big deal to be able to look at a digital photo and pinpoint the location on a map?

 

This feature built into next Mac OS X but I'm not sure how I might use it.

 

http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9801747-39.html

Edited October 22, 2007 by lee_rimar

[+Prime Suspect]

Something I've heard people mention but never used myself. Is it a big deal to be able to look at a digital photo and pinpoint the location on a map?

 

This feature built into next Mac OS X but I'm not sure how I might use it.

 

http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9801747-39.html

To semi-automate the process, sync your camera's clock to your GPS's clock, and turn on the tracking. If you've got a Garmin X unit, turn on the option to store track data to the memory card. Go out and shoot some pictures, keeping your turned-on GPS with you. GeoTagging software can then match up the time codes of the pictures to the track points, and adds the track point coordinates to the picture's EXIF data block. Then you can do such things as open up the pictures in Google Earth, with the photo's showing up in the locations where you shot them.

Edited October 22, 2007 by Prime Suspect

[+EScout]

Something I've heard people mention but never used myself. Is it a big deal to be able to look at a digital photo and pinpoint the location on a map?

This feature built into next Mac OS X but I'm not sure how I might use it.

http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9801747-39.html

Can't comment on the Mac utility, but to answer your first question, it is a lot of fun. I always log my hikes, and trips, and enjoy photo shooting. My favorite program is GPicSync. Just match your track to the photos and they are all stamped. Some things I like about this program:

If you did not sync your camera and GPSr at the start, you can make an adjustment in the program.

It keeps a copy of your photos untagged in a new sub-folder.

It does a quick batch tagging. It lets you manually tag. It will do a batch file re-naming with date/time/lat-lon.

The best part is the creation of a .kmz file for Google Earth that shows your track with photo icons that you click and the photos pop up.

 

Another program to try is Claude GPS2KML. This is a nice program that takes your track and converts it to .kml for Google Earth and adds things to the track such as arrows and pop-up graphs of elevation and speed. It also summarizes your track (time, distance, speed and elevation min/max/avg.) Drag some photos into the program and it will add the camera icons along your track that you click and your photos will pop up.

[-Oz-]

I love gpicsync, its so slick and awesome. It even renames the pictures. http://code.google.com/p/gpicsync/

 

I did an entire hike of the grand canyon syncing all the pictures to my gpx tracks and it was soooo nice.

 

Here's my map from that trip My Photos

[Michael Lee]

Dan,

 

I very much like what you did with your geotagged images. The album is very nice.

 

I have developed a new tool (GPStamper) that I'd like you to try out, if you will.

It takes the information that you've inserted into your image during geotagging and imprints it on your photo. You can select what information you want to imprint (stamp) on your photo. You can stamp descriptive location (entered into your image by reverse geocoding), lat/long, date or date/time, or comments of your choosing.

This (rather extreme) example of stamping shows some of what might be imprinted. What makes GPStamper really special is the stamping is a lossless JPEG process, where only the pixels where the text appears are recompressed, the rest of the image remaining 100% original, to preserve image quality.

 

 

Please let me know what you think of GPStamper. GPStamper is available from my website www.freewebs.com/leelim2 and is free for personal/non-commercial use.

 

Michael

[+JaeCee]

I use Houdahgeo and mostly love it. I'm very much looking forward to that new feature in OS X. I love that when I'm developing photos in Adobe Lightroom I can click on the little arrow by the coordinates and it'll bring up a Google map where the photo was taken.

 

I haven't figured out how to get altitude data in feet, as opposed to meters, though.

 

I use Gallery 2 as well for displaying photos. How did you get that Google mapped version up there? I like that. It'd be even cooler if you could display your track on the map. I'm still figuring out how to best display geotagged photos, trails & topographic info, since for the most part I've been without a camera until recently.

Edited October 23, 2007 by JaeCee

[SiliconFiend]

I use Houdahgeo and mostly love it. I'm very much looking forward to that new feature in OS X. I love that when I'm developing photos in Adobe Lightroom I can click on the little arrow by the coordinates and it'll bring up a Google map where the photo was taken.

 

I haven't figured out how to get altitude data in feet, as opposed to meters, though.

 

I use Gallery 2 as well for displaying photos. How did you get that Google mapped version up there? I like that. It'd be even cooler if you could display your track on the map. I'm still figuring out how to best display geotagged photos, trails & topographic info, since for the most part I've been without a camera until recently.

I'm one of the developers for the Google Map module for Gallery 2 (it's a third-party plugin), which is what -Oz- is using. It can read the coordinates from the EXIF header (which is what geotagging writes to your photos). It can export to Google Earth as well. A planned feature is to allow you to include any data on the map via KML (so you could include your tracks that way).

 

You can download the module via SVN from http://gmap-module.svn.sourceforge.net/svn...2.1/modules/map

(Nevermind the Gallery2.1 in the URL--it works with 2.1 and 2.2+) We are going to release a new version "soon", if you don't want to use subversion.

[+JaeCee]

I'm one of the developers for the Google Map module for Gallery 2 (it's a third-party plugin), which is what -Oz- is using. It can read the coordinates from the EXIF header (which is what geotagging writes to your photos). It can export to Google Earth as well. A planned feature is to allow you to include any data on the map via KML (so you could include your tracks that way).

 

You can download the module via SVN from http://gmap-module.svn.sourceforge.net/svn...2.1/modules/map

(Nevermind the Gallery2.1 in the URL--it works with 2.1 and 2.2+) We are going to release a new version "soon", if you don't want to use subversion.

 

Very cool, thanks for the info! I've never used subversion before, but unless "soon" is within the next week or so, I think that'll be changing.

[BoudreauxLA]

I just returned from a trip to TN and used RoboGEO to geotag over 1100 pictures (running Vista 32bit). I use Lightroom for my photo management and it shows me a Google map of where the picture was taken (with one click). Very nice when trying to figure out exactly where a picture was taken.

[SiliconFiend]

I'm one of the developers for the Google Map module for Gallery 2 (it's a third-party plugin), which is what -Oz- is using. It can read the coordinates from the EXIF header (which is what geotagging writes to your photos). It can export to Google Earth as well. A planned feature is to allow you to include any data on the map via KML (so you could include your tracks that way).

 

You can download the module via SVN from http://gmap-module.svn.sourceforge.net/svn...2.1/modules/map

(Nevermind the Gallery2.1 in the URL--it works with 2.1 and 2.2+) We are going to release a new version "soon", if you don't want to use subversion.

 

Very cool, thanks for the info! I've never used subversion before, but unless "soon" is within the next week or so, I think that'll be changing.

I can't guarantee that it'll be that soon (we had planned a release in May...) But it's good to learn Subversion anyway--it's widely used in open-source projects. If you're using Windows, a good way to get started might be TortoiseSVN--it integrates into the Windows shell. If you have any questions about it, please post on the Gallery2 third-party plugin support forum (http://gallery.menalto.com/forum/75). I monitor that and respond there as well.

[+geognerd]

I always log my hikes, and trips, and enjoy photo shooting. My favorite program is GPicSync. Just match your track to the photos and they are all stamped. Some things I like about this program:

If you did not sync your camera and GPSr at the start, you can make an adjustment in the program.

It keeps a copy of your photos untagged in a new sub-folder.

It does a quick batch tagging. It lets you manually tag. It will do a batch file re-naming with date/time/lat-lon.

The best part is the creation of a .kmz file for Google Earth that shows your track with photo icons that you click and the photos pop up.

Thanks for the tip, EScout. I've been looking for a good free geotagging program for a while. I hadn't been able to find a free and easy to use program until now. I bring a camera with me while out caching and photograph things along the way. I always save my tracklogs too. Now I can bring the tracklog and photos together instead of relying on my memory (which is still fairly good, I'm young) for the photo's location.

 

My only problem is with the KML output. I bring it into GE and when I click the point for a photo, the photo is missing from the callout box that appears. I was able to fix it manually in the KML by putting in the full path to the photo; the original KML file only had the photo's file name. Easy to do, though I suspect it would get tedious if I had a bunch of photos associated with the tracklog. My main reason for geotagging was having the photo automatically placed on the map when I upload to Flickr, so the KML thing is fairly minor.

[+imajeep]

If you're a hiker, geotagging is very cool. For example, I recently did a hike to the top of Yosemite Falls, and recorded a GPS track of the hike. Afterwards, I used GPicSync (Google) to Geotag the photos. It also bundled the photos and the track into a Google Earth KMZ file. So, not I can open the file in Google Earth, and it will show the track with clickable icons at the point where I took each picture. The display is particularly cool if I swing the view around to make it 3D:

 

 

 

Each of the camera icons can be clicked to open the picture that was taken at that point.

[+EScout]

Geonerd:

In the post above, imajeep has done what I often do, create a .kmz file which is complete and can be sent to others. It contains your track and all of your photos. It is one of the Tools in GPicSync.

[tttedzeins]

I use Robogeo amd it is extremely good. It provides numerous output options and has free updates for life.

 

I lost my activation code and got emailed it within 2 days which is amazing considering the time difference.

[+geognerd]

Geonerd:

In the post above, imajeep has done what I often do, create a .kmz file which is complete and can be sent to others. It contains your track and all of your photos. It is one of the Tools in GPicSync.

I just looked into the Tools menu and saw the KMZ Generator tool. Only noticed the "Create Google Earth file" button before, which makes the KML. Very nice program.

[+imajeep]

RoboGeo and GPicSync (free) seem to be the kings of this field. I used GPicSync for a while and just switched to RoboGeo. It has a really nice feature where it will resize your pictures (copies, not originals) to fit a Google Earth balloon before it bundles them up into a KMZ. That reduced my Yosemite Falls hike KMZ from 15 MB to 900 KB. It also has some very nice features that allow you to title your pictures and add descriptions for the KMZ.

[Hiker2008]

I've used RoboGeo and Google Map API hosting the results on my server (see http://techonadesk.com/hikes/map.htm)

 

When I first started doing this I don't think this was possible with Google Maps on their server, just Google Earth locally. It looks like google has added a bunch of stuff to Google Maps. I'll have to check them out

[SiliconFiend]

I'm one of the developers for the Google Map module for Gallery 2 (it's a third-party plugin), which is what -Oz- is using. It can read the coordinates from the EXIF header (which is what geotagging writes to your photos). It can export to Google Earth as well. A planned feature is to allow you to include any data on the map via KML (so you could include your tracks that way).

 

You can download the module via SVN from http://gmap-module.svn.sourceforge.net/svn...2.1/modules/map

(Nevermind the Gallery2.1 in the URL--it works with 2.1 and 2.2+) We are going to release a new version "soon", if you don't want to use subversion.

 

Very cool, thanks for the info! I've never used subversion before, but unless "soon" is within the next week or so, I think that'll be changing.

I can't guarantee that it'll be that soon (we had planned a release in May...) But it's good to learn Subversion anyway--it's widely used in open-source projects. If you're using Windows, a good way to get started might be TortoiseSVN--it integrates into the Windows shell. If you have any questions about it, please post on the Gallery2 third-party plugin support forum (http://gallery.menalto.com/forum/75). I monitor that and respond there as well.

Okay, so it was sooner than I thought. Map module version 0.5.3 for Gallery2 has been released. You can grab it from the Sourceforge downloads page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gmap-module/ I'll get it into DownloadablePlugins soon so you can download and install it from your Gallery site admin page.

[-Oz-]

Okay, so it was sooner than I thought. Map module version 0.5.3 for Gallery2 has been released. You can grab it from the Sourceforge downloads page: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gmap-module/ I'll get it into DownloadablePlugins soon so you can download and install it from your Gallery site admin page.

Yea, that'll be nice, I'll have to update now. It took me awhile to get SVN It is a great plugin though.

[topografix]

For those of you who don't want to learn a new program, geotagging is now built into EasyGPS, ExpertGPS, and GeoBuddy. Click Add Photos on the Photo or Tools menu to get started.

[+Trucker Lee]

Can someone offer a tutorial? Do I need a particular camera, or just make a waypoint as I travel?

How do the gps and camera interface, or is everything done in the 'puter? This capability sounds too cool as I participate in the Trucker Buddy Intl. program, and currently have to go back and caption every picture.

Thanks in advance for getting me pointed in the right direction.

[+geognerd]

Can someone offer a tutorial? Do I need a particular camera, or just make a waypoint as I travel?

How do the gps and camera interface, or is everything done in the 'puter? This capability sounds too cool as I participate in the Trucker Buddy Intl. program, and currently have to go back and caption every picture.

Thanks in advance for getting me pointed in the right direction.

Everything is done in the computer. Just make sure to have your GPS receiver turned on while you are taking photos. When you are done taking photos, save the tracklog from your GPS receiver and convert it to GPX format using your program of choice. Put the GPX file and the photos you took all into the same folder on the computer. You might want to make a backup of your photos (GPicSync can do this for you) first. Basically, you tell the geotagging program where the photos and GPX tracklog are on your computer. The program will compare the time the photo was taken (recorded by the camera automatically in Exif data for each photo) with the time stamp from the GPS tracklog. The program assumes that if the time of the photo matches the timestamp for a point in the tracklog, the photo must have been taken at that location. You have to make sure the time in your camera and GPS receiver are synchronized, otherwise the photos will be tagged with the wrong lat-long data.

 

I just tried the geotagging function in EasyGPS, and it was...easy. Just remember to hit the save button so the Exif lat-long tags are saved to the photos.

[+JaeCee]

Holy crap. I just gave Flickr a shot the other day. Geotagging support on that is pretty damned sweet.

[+vespax]

This option is also built into DNRGarmin for those using ESRI/GIS products...

 

And 'Ole Google Earth has a geotagging feature in companion with Picasa.