Can you import geodata ONLY?

[JonSF]

Hey All,

I shoot live music and events. I sometimes come home with thousands of images. My process is that I import all of em into Lightroom, flag the photos I edit using the star system, then filter on the unrated ones and delete those completely, including the ones on the disk.

I then use an external program to geotag all of my raw images with a location.

So... Lightroom doesn't know about that new geotag until I do "Read metadata from file." Problem is, that seems to wipe out all of my changes.

I COULD geotag ALL of my raw's before I import - I suppose that's a workaround, but it takes FOREVER to geotag 1000s of images. I'd prefer not to do that.

My question is - can you JUST import your geotag data in Lightroom? There doesn't appear to be an obvious way to do that...

Thanks all!

- Jon

[Rick Spaulding -]

We need a bit of information to help. What version of Lightroom are you using?

What software are you using to geotage your photos?

Which specific metadata is being overwritten?

Thanks

^RCS

[dj_paige]

I then use an external program to geotag all of my raw images with a location.

So... Lightroom doesn't know about that new geotag until I do "Read metadata from file." Problem is, that seems to wipe out all of my changes.

You need to tell LrC (if that is what you are using) to automatically write the metadata to xmp, then do your geotagging (hopefully whatever software you use will insert the geodata into the xmp file) and then in LrC you do the Read metadata from files. In this way all of your editing and metadata and geotagging wind up associated with the file after Read metadata from files.

What software do you use for geotagging?

[JonSF]

Hey Rick and DJ,

Since posting this, and after realizing that LR Classic has a Maps module, I switched to Classic, and can just use the Maps module from now on...

I WAS using an app called Geotag (https://www.snafu.org/GeoTag/) to tag my photos. After tagging them with this app, I saw that LR was NOT using that data, so when I tried to import my metadata, I saw that all of my edits went away. It would be good for people that are trying to do this kinda thing to be able to only import specific metadata...

Like I said - it's no longer an issue for me.

- Thanx

- Jon

[dj_paige]

It would be good for people that are trying to do this kinda thing to be able to only import specific metadata...

or they can follow the procedure that I explained, which I have been used for at least a decade now. Which has a significant advantage over using the LrC Map Module, which is why I continue to do it the way I do it. The advantage is that the locations from the external geotagging program are automatically "committed" to the photo. In the LrC map module, you have to commit the locations manually, one field at a time, or use John R. Ellis' AnyTag plugin.

[JonSF]

Oops, you are right. Sorry bout that.

What do you mean "one field at a time"? If I drag and drop a bunch of photos to a location on the map, what am I not setting in the metadata?

- Jon

[dj_paige]

You have to commit the Sublocation field manually. Then you have to commit the City field manually. And so on.

If you have 75 photos all at the same GPS, you can commit the Sublocation field for all 75 in one action. If these 75 photos do not have all the same GPS, then you have to repeat the process individually 75 times.

Really poorly designed by Adobe.

[JonSF]

Ah I see. Thanks @dj_paige 

- Jon