Just want to reinforce what James_N has recommended in a couple places scattered in the forums for geotagging photographs.
Jeffrey Fiedl's Genecoding Plugin for Lightroom II is a very easy way to geotag photographs with GPS data. It includes location, direction, speed and possibly other items.
It uses an interpolation method. It reads a GPS tracking log and and processes it against a set of selected photographs from within LR. When it has a hit it creates a sidecar file that holds "shadow" GPS data.
It is not as nice as geotagging directly into the EXIF at shutter time but is a very reasonable and dirt cheap alternative. (Friedl requires registration after 6 weeks that you purchase with a donation... that donation can be 1 cent)
Once setup it all works neatly and quickly from within Lightroom II.
If you always use a default folder to hold your incoming tracking log then geotagging is as easy as selecting the photographs you want to geotag, selecting "Geoencode..." in "Plugin Extras" under the "Edit" menu and clicking the "Geoencode Images" button. Geoencode does the rest.
Geoencode reads the tracking log right out of my GPS without the hassle of a GPSBabel translation or any other file manipulation. I simply upload the tracking log at the same time as I upload the pictures. Then after importing the pictures into LR I simply select them all and run the Geoencode Plugin. I have not used it extensively with hundreds of photos yet so can't tell if it is industrial strength, but it has worked like a charm so far.
All of Jeff's plug in's are really good. This is one I wish I could use.. alas, I don't want to have to carry a GPS logger with me (or buy one for that matter). Holding out on an app for my Pre, heh.
randomlinh wrote:
All of Jeff's plug in's are really good. This is one I wish I could use.. alas, I don't want to have to carry a GPS logger with me (or buy one for that matter). Holding out on an app for my Pre, heh.
But kudos to Jeff for his plugin work
Geoencode is the first plugin of Jeff's that I have used but from what I've read in various places his work is very highly respected.
My biggest photography project involves hiking in very remote places. A GPS is necessary when you go out like that. I had a loaner GPS unit but it was bare bones and I needed a better one to support the project for find the photo ops, discovering new ones and tagging images with geopositions for both photographic and scientific purposes.
If the camera happens to be a Nikon DSLR from D5000 to D3X, then things will be easier. With an external gps such as Easytagger gps, Nikon gp-1, the gps information can be written into the exif the same time when taking the photo. And it is simple and easy to open a photo with gps information in exif in lightroom.
Going to Vietnam on hols, so thought I check out the GPS offerings. Bought a Garmin, which allows the data logging files to be easily downloaded to the computer.
I looked at Jeff program, then found out my Breezesys' Downloader Pro does it as well, and very seamlessly. Their BreezeBrowser also helps you set up web pages with all the google maps link automatically.
I use a Qstarz BT-Q1000x GPS tracker for some time - small low cost and very effective. Comes with geotagging software.
Download images, then download the track. Point the track data at the photo folder and the s/w looks at the date/time on the photo, looks up where you where at that date/time and adds the appropriate GPS data to the exif...
The track can also be superimposed on Google Earth...
