P: Ability to geotag photos

[uvagris]

I would love the ability to geotag photos within lightroom directly using standard files -> KML or GPX. Please provide also the possibilty to geotag a photo by dropping it on a map or putting a needle on a map

[Benjamin Warde]

Jeffrey Friedl's plugin will give you some of what you want. Downloadable right now, and free.

http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-good...

-Ben

[Geoff the kiwi]

Benjamin - you may be correct but I certainly would like the ability to add GPS in Lightroom. I have a camera + GPS unit which doesn't work inside buildings (as expected) but the ability to add the data from a shot taken outside the building would be useful i.e. copy from one file to another.

[uvagris]

I would like to see this ability to be integrated into Lightroom itself. The plugin is great but has to work with "shadow Data". The process of writing GPS data to the exif fields is kind of awkward.

[Benjamin Warde]

Request noted. 🙂 Just trying to help by telling you what you can do right now, if you so choose.

-Ben

[uvagris]

Thank you. It would be even better if I could see all the places where I took photos on a map.

[Ross Dillon]

Love to be able to add GPS coordinates to photos without blowing away all the old metadata or using a secondary database

[AngerMgmt]

Why *are* the geotagging fields hidden unless you import a photo that already has geocoded metadata? If the idea was to preserve geotagging data integrity, this approach seems almost backwards to me!

The OP is basically describing Aperture's "Places" feature. He may be as envious of it as I am. While searching my Lightroom collection via old-school location fields is great, it is indeed the "old" way. On the other side of the fence, as great as Jeffrey Friedl's Geoencoding Plugin is (now with reverse geoencoding support!), it's still a plug-in... one with its own "shadow database."

It's wonderful that there are more and more new cameras with built-in geotagging. The same goes for the increasing number of accessories that enable cameras to do geotagging that otherwise couldn't. However, until the technology is pervasive, it would be great if Lightroom gave us the option to add geographic metadata.

[I posted a similar response on this topic on the old LR forum's site a long time ago, but I'm re-posting since the topic has come up again.]

P.S. - Why doesn't Adobe just hire Jeffrey Friedl already?! 😉

[Babar_e]

There already is a similar topic (asking among other the integration with google earth) It would be nice to merge them.

Having geocoding into Lightroom (without plugins) would really be great.
And do not forget to add bearing data. More and more camera include this ( I know at least 4 different compact doing this and all Nikon DSLR and Pentax DSLR have attachable GPS unit that can provide this metadata).It is really great then to look at the photo in Google earth with the correct orientation.
Geosetter is one of the few programs that allow you to set this info and/or view it as well.

Last it would be great to make a filter based on geodata (position, altitude and bearing) as do one of Jeffrey Friedl plugins (but not convenient as it forces you to create more tables in the database,...)

regads

[quidquomodo]

Or allow a better integration with Jeffrey Friedl's plugin, so that shadow metadata isn't necessary anymore (i.e. this will get rid of the extra step consisting in reading metadata from file).

[Arnie47]

I would like a function to geotag my photos like it is possible using GeoSetter http://www.geosetter.de (using maps or synchronising with GPS-Tracks). As an addon the possibility to use this feature offline (e.g. with pre-downloaded maps) would be fine for shootings without net-connectivity.

[mrwoodyman]

I would also like to see better GPS importing features in Lightroom. Currently I use Geosetter for geotagging (as it creates sidecar files) and Lightroom has not probs with reading it. But idealy,

I would love to be able to import a GPX or similar file right into Lightroom and have the GPS metadata added to the files.

[areohbee]

Maybe ingestamatic would help?

http://imageingester.com/ingestamatic...

[J453]

Check out the Map Module in Lightroom 4:

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photosh...

[Babar_e]

Hi,
Great module there.
And I have a few more suggestion to make absolutely perfect ( which means for me: no need to use geosetter any more)

I would like to see 3 more geoinformation editable:

-the altitude or elevation of the photo. Espescially when photos are taken from above the ground (aircraft, paraglider, high building,...) Currently if the info is available it will be shown, but you won't be able to edit it or add it.

-The image direction. Very useful information. More and more camera embed this info as well. Currently you cannot even see it when present in the metadata

-Location of subject: the GPS location is from where you took the photot but what about the subject you were photographying. In many cases it would be nice to be able to set its position

(I do not see how to post image so see my next post for imge of how you could make the ui)
regards
Eric

[Babar_e]

here is how I would see the ui to add the info:

altitude : just type it if not available
even better if you could retrieve it from google map (when photo is at ground level)

image direction : type it , or click a button (in the image I provide it would be the small compass in front of the text field area ) and drag and drop any where in the map. when you release the mouse button the coordinate of where the mouse is , is used to compute the image direction for all the selected photos

Location of subject: type it or click a button (in the image I provide it would be the small cross in front of the text field area ) and drag and drop any where in the map
when you release the mouse button the coordinate of where the mouse is , is used to both sets the subject location and image direction of the selected photos.



regards
Eric

[Babar_e]

by the way there seem to be a bug:
when I zoom to much and the photo are not clustered any more they disappear from the map.
It would be nice to see the individual photo position when they are not all clustered at the same place. This would also allow for another feature:
if the image position is wrong (example bad gps fix) move the marker rather than drag and drop the image again(it is alittle more natural when the image already has a marker),.

[Benjamin Warde]

Hi Eric,

This is a bug. You should be able to see the individual pins on the map when zooming in. And, though you cannot drag clusters of pins all at the same time, you should be able to drag a pin (representing a single photo) to a new location on the map.

I have intermittently seen the problem that you describe (pins representing individual photos disappear from the map) but can't get it to happen reliably. If you have some steps which cause the problem to happen consistently, please let me know. Please also include info about your operating system and photos (what camera were they shot with, how did the GPS metadata get into the photos, etc.)

Thanks,
Ben

[Babar_e]

Great that then exactly working as I though it should except , that I do not get this behaviour.
I wil try to upload you the photos I am using, let me know how.
I am using windows 7 64bits on a dell precision M6500
intel core i7 q840
16 gb of ram
nvidia quadro 5000m

Some photos have their GPS data set with an olympus tough 810 (include compass info)
Some photos position and direction were wrong so I edited them with geosetter (ie exiftool)

[Babar_e]

Here is example of altitude and image direction use case:

I made photo in a cave. Unless you really well know the cave it is impossible to say where you took the photo.
However with the cave map overlayed on google earth and geosetter, I was able to position quite a few photos:

I used the photo direction to find in which cavity the photo was taken (when the photo was roughly parallel to the cavity direction) and the used the altutide of the photo (from manometer reading - though the camera manometer is not very precise) to adjust the photo position in the cavity (as I had a depth map of the cavity).

adding these data are not too much overkill but I am sure will be used by many.
regards

[Babar_e]

to make it awsome here are a few suggestion:

-add google earth view (ie 3D) it is a lot easier to position photo with a 3D environment
and a lot more fun to view.
-add street view : helps a lot to precisely position a photo
-add possibility to user other map source: openstreet map, or NASA data (no copyright) These sources could be uploaded for offline use, re-use in books, in diaporama, websites,...
Regards
Eric

[Babar_e]

just added separate feature request for each suggestion above

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photosh...

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photosh...

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photosh...

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photosh...

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'd like Lightroom 6 to manage GPS data like Aperture. with my Canon 6d i need to import separately GPS tracking data, convert it with another 3rd part software and the watch my route in a 2nd moment. unbelievable on Aperture it was straight-full and easy as import pictures...the software automatically import GPS position and tracking so i know exactly my position on the map.. the route i did... and even my sight direction when i've shot a given photo!