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Known Participant
January 30, 2016
Released

P: Map view/module - Ability to geotag photos

  • January 30, 2016
  • 156 replies
  • 12535 views

I'm probably at the low end of the prosumer category when it comes to photography. I've been using Lightroom for a couple of years. I love the multiple platform feature on the new CC, but geotagging images has always been important for me (enough so that onboard GPS is a mandatory feature when I look for a camera). I had been adding locations to older images in what's now CC Classic. 

Are we going to get that ability in the new CC? 

Even more importantly, will the new AI-based search allow us to do things like pull pictures based on location? And, if so, will we be able to do things like define a radius? This was all possible when we had the maps panel, but seems to be challenging now.

156 replies

Participant
April 29, 2020
Sorry - open since three years, not two!
Participant
April 29, 2020
This is open since two years and has a very high ranking in terms of votes. Why is there still no indication if this is going to make it into the list of features or not? I would accept a "no" if there is a different opinion of Adobe about where the focus should be. But I start to struggle with Adobe not commenting at all.
kirkster501
Inspiring
April 12, 2020
I like to look at the locations I took my pictures. Classic nails this so well.  This is a table stakes feature.

I would really like to move to Lightroom CC and conceptually I "get it" that the cloud share is the way of the future.  However, for me at least, the lack of the map module capability present in classic rules Lightroom CC out for me until it is developed.  I so hope Adobe will add this to LR_CC.



Antoine HLMN
Known Participant
January 27, 2020
I don't know Google Photos but Apple Photos has a map function and works incredibly well. The storage plans are also (un)comparable:

Apple:
50GB: $0.99
200GB: $2.99
2TB: $9.99

Adobe:
1TB "Cloudy": $9.99
20GB "Classic": $9.99
1TB "Classic": $19.99
Note: they say monthly but you can't take only one month, it's yearly



Participating Frequently
January 27, 2020
Don't know about Apple Photos, but Google Photos doesn't geotag photos from a tracklog or have a map view (just a mini map with the location of a single geotagged photo), and Microsoft Photos doesn't show any metadata at all...
Inspiring
January 27, 2020
Google Photos and iCloud Photos are reasonable suggestions. As it happens, I have already attempted to use them both for this project and in both cases hit some limitation which made them undesirable.

LR is currently the least annoying of the 3 for my specific needs. With a basic map view and decent keyword UI it would be a powerful tool for my family to collaboratively (through sharing an account) organise generations worth of photos.
Antoine HLMN
Known Participant
January 25, 2020
I was going to say the same as above: LR is really not the best tool for family sharing and casual photography, but rather a photographic focused ecosystem. I’d go for Goold Photos or apple photos. Plus you’ll probably have much cheaper storage and see more innovations from big tech companies than on LR.
Community Expert
January 24, 2020
I am sure it is in the works. Adobe seems to be very slowly (but probably deliberately) adding in features that are present in Lightroom Classic. Even though I love Lightroom and even like the cloud version for all its major shortcomings, I would caution against using Lightroom Cloud for a family repository though. There is no real sharing of images between accounts nor can you share storage space. You can share web galleries but that is a faint shadow of real sharing. Lightroom is also not a simple thing for people to understand even in the highly simplified cloud version. You're far better off using something like Apple's photos (if you're a Mac iOS ecosystem family) or Google Photos. I think Microsoft offers something like this too as does dropbox and others. They have robust geotagging, easy sharing between accounts and sharing of purchased storage in the cloud (i.e. family accounts). Also typical non-photographer family members tend to just get how they work and how you share.
Inspiring
January 24, 2020


I'm currently trying to convince my family to centralise on Lightroom (the cloud version) as our family photo repository.

I'm inevitably asked if it has a map view? We look for photos by location, date or who's in the image. The latter two have dedicated areas, but there's currently (Dec 2019 release macOS) no good way to find an image based on where it was taken (i.e. search by place name is inadequate).

Is a map view (a la the map module in lightroom classic) on the road map?
Inspiring
January 10, 2020
I've been using Lightroom for well over 10 years and loved this program for effective cataloging, organisation and publishing to cloud. Will be reluctantly be cancelling my subscription and moving to an alternate program. Unfortunately made the change to Lightroom CC and when making changes to my PC lost Lightroom 5. So can't revert to my perpetual license copy. Had hoped they would do something about adding .... file renaming capability (not just on export), geotagging, smart albums, colour coding. These were all critical for my workflow and for photo/file organisation. Suspect they are not interested as particularly photo renaming makes gives a level of future "portability". 
Whilst I could change to the Lightroom CC / Classic / Photoshop plan, this only has 20 GB of data removing one of the key benefits of having all the photos available on mobile devices. 
As someone who is very much a casual photographer, at $181 AUD/year this is too much. Especially considering there are no indications some of this functionality will be added and being an ongoing fee. 
Our household is basically all Apple products, so will be capturing via photo / iCloud (only have around 100gb of photos / videos). Export to ON1 for updating and re import to iPhoto to have modified photo's available on all devices. Whilst this is a nowhere as neat as all in Lightroom, as there is an extra import / export step. However will mean I always have access to photos and through ON1 can enhance photos, rename, add GPS data and colour coding. All for a nett cost of $60/yr (iCloud) plus pay for software update only when required. Compared with $181 for current plan (without functionality I need) or $360 for the full photography plan giving the functionality I require. 
ON1is also developing some type of sync between devices, this might allow bypassing Photo app ... lets wait and see