How to Geotag your images

[colinsp]

I decided to have a go at geotagging some images. I found it easier than expected. I have written my experience up as a 5 page pdf document. It does include screenshots and it only uses free software. It is about 1 meg in size so if you are not on broadband it may take a while to download.

http://www.macameraclub.com/Geotagging.pdf

If I have got anything wrong or you have something to add to it please let me know.

[highbarger]

Thank you for the tutorial, I've been wanting to try this myself.

[ranchjp]

Question for you, please.
Just boughta Garmin HCX for my trip to the 4 corners.
I shoot RAW. If I process my images first after I get home, and then convert to jpg perhaps a week later, what date is used? The original date of the image, or the next date that is was last saved?
I should probably save the gps file daily?
Jerry

[colinsp]

Jerry
I am not familiar with the GPS that you mention but the think with tracks is that they rely on the amount of internal memory that the GPS has. Depending on the frequency of storing a track point 9every 10 seconds, every 10 minutes etc) this will give an indication of how long you can go before downloading the track information. Have a look in the manual and it will give you some indication BUT I would expect it to give you a days tracking before download.

The geotagging software that I mentioned uses the time the photo was taken from the EXIF data not the time last edited. So shooting in RAW and converting a week later to JPEG and then tagging your images won't be a problem.

Let me know how you get on.

[ranchjp]

Colin
I'm going to try it today during a bike ride at lunch.
Need to get a microSD card first. Interestingly they are considerably less expensive that SD cards. More later today (my time).
Thanks
Jerry

[colinsp]

I have had a look at the info on your GPS on the Garmin site. It stores 10,000 track points, and from what I read I understood that these are stored on internal memory and the sd card is only for storing the maps. So with 10,000 points if you set it to log every minute (which is probably regular enough for geotagging) that would give you nearly 7 days of 24 hours a day logging.

[tcom]

I also have a Garmin Vista HCx. The tracks are saved into the internal memory, up to 10'000 points. But the GPS also records the tracks into GPX-Files (xml file with the GPS coordinates) onto the microSD card. It writes there one file per day. The gpx files can be written as long as there is free space on the sd card, so there is nothing to worry about.

[ranchjp]

I bought a 4 GB card last night, and uploaded some topo maps for my Four Corners trip.
I'm recording a track now. I'll go for a bike ride at lunch, take some pics, record the track, see how it all works when I get home tonight

Jerry

[tcom]

Originally Posted by ranchjp

I bought a 4 GB card last night, and uploaded some topo maps for my Four Corners trip.
I'm recording a track now. I'll go for a bike ride at lunch, take some pics, record the track, see how it all works when I get home tonight

Jerry

Ok, 4 GB should be more than enough.

Just remember one thing, geotagging works by comparing the camera time with the timestamps found in the track logs. The GPX files your GPS will record will have GMT time as timestamps. You will have to enter the offset between the camera time and the GPS time somewhere in your geotagging software, or it will not work.