GPS Metadata format

[hb91549841]

Hi all,

Am I getting this wrong or is the format that GPS metadata is presented as in Bridge strange?

I had to extract the data using Gimp to get the proper format:

Bridge format:

35,31.312N
23,51.4365E

Proper format:

35° 31' 18.720"
23° 51' 26.190"

Proper as in being able to look up the coordinates using Google maps.

Anyone else having problems with this?

Thanks,

Carl

[gary_sc · Accepted solution]

Hi Carl,

You've brought up a very interesting subject. Thank you.

To be honest, I've never really paid much attention to how the numbers were laid out as one who just relied upon whatever device I was working with to deal with it. Never was a boy scout.

I looked this up to see what the master (Google) had to say and I learned that the correct way is the way that those you are dealing with work the rules. For example, punctuation in the US has quotation marks AFTER punctuation ("My gosh," he said.) whereas in the UK, it's after ("My gosh", he said.). Both are correct but depending on where you are one of them is wrong.

I did find this site: that breaks this down quite a bit:

Symbols for degrees, minutes and seconds

However, I strongly suggest you let Adobe know about your needs here:

Adobe Bridge Feedback

Let them know why their approach is not recommended and why it should be changed. To whom would this make a difference.

Please understand that Bridge has had it this way for at least 15 years and as such, might not be so inclined to just change how it displays metadata. But, if you make a good argument, it could be changed. At a minimum, I suggest you ask for a preference for coordinates to be presented. This would be no different than asking for time with a 12 hour clock or a 24 hour clock. Or, using Imperial measurements or metric. All are valid, some conditions control which ones.

[hb91549841]

Hi Gary,

thank you so much for your complete reply. I suspected my query had an answer like yours coming 😉

I will try contacting Adobe about this (have done so before to no avail) maybe usggesting they implement a way to choose format of how the coordinates are displayed. Kind of like Microsoft does when it comes to currency and time.

Until they change anything I picked up InfranView who displays the coordinates properly, like Gimp. Just annoying having to use two applications in order to get the metadata right.

Thanks Gary!

Brgds,

Carl

[lesleyr71913699]

Hi Carl,

The coordinates in Bridge have been driving me mad for sometime in their format. I have discovered that if I save the converted raw files to Adobe photoshop they appear in Photoshop in the correct format for Google maps (degrees). You can find this information by opening the file info. box to the file you are viewing in Photoshop. Click on FILE in the top left hand side of the window and click on "File info" which appears in the drop down box. From the File info box that appears click on GPS data - this will show you the position in degrees. It saves some time.

Best wishes, Lesley

[gary_sc]

Hi Lesley,

This is very interesting. I am a tad confused by what you are doing here and wish a bit more information.

When you say "if I save the converted raw files to Adobe photoshop," do you mean "opening a raw file in Photoshop" (which means that ACR is opening the file before it hands the open interpreted image off to PS). 

I'm also a bit confused by your phrase "converted raw files," what do you mean by that? Do you mean the opened files after they've been interpreted?

Thank you very much for this extra information.

[lesleyr71913699]

Hi Gary,

I always take raw CR2 files with my camera rather than JPEG files. I then
copy them into Adobe Bridge on my desktop computer from my camera. I can
then select the CR2 raw files to be converted by right clicking open them
in Camera Raw. Once I have edited them I then save them as JPEG edited
files to my "Pictures" folder in my D drive. I can then open them in Adobe
Photoshop as JPEG files to edit them further if necessary. The File info.
shows the coordinates in Photoshop in the degree format which Google maps
and Google Earth recognises. I am not at all a technical person or a
professional photographer, but I have for years always taken Raw images and
this is the process I follow. I am sorry I have confused you by saying
"converted raw files" when I should have said JPEG files converted from Raw
files. I hope that helps, but it is a case of me having found a way of
locating where images were taken, to return to the same spot later, and
just wanting to help. I didn't explain it very well. Sorry.

Lesley

[glamorous_Moonbeam5D99]

It's helpful to know you can see the GPS correctly formattted in Photoshop but it's not possible to copy and paste that information from the information window, so this is not user friendly.  Sigh!