Photo Geotagging (Mac)

 

GPS and Geotagging Overview

GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr enables users to review and browse photos geographically to show where photos were taken. The GPS data includes longitude, latitude and altitude which will be set for each photo automatically by the PhotoTrackr software. The program is also capable of linking all geotagged photos in Google Earth and Google Map Gallery as well as the website with geotagging support, such as Flickr.

In PhotoTrackr, the photo location is expressed as a WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984) coordinate value, WGS84 coordinate system is also adopted by GPS (Global Positioning System). The latitude need to be a number within -90 to 90 degrees (a negative number is for South, and a positive number is for North). The longitude need to be a number within -180 to 180 degrees (a negative number is for West, and a positive number is for East). The elevation is an altitude number in meters (a negative number is for below sea level, and a positive number is for above sea level). GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr Users can directly see and edit the latitude, longitude and elevation values for a photo in the information section.


 

Camera Time calibration

Before you start using your PhotoTrackr, you will need to perform a time synchronization in your digital camera with UTC time. Make sure your Mac is synchronized with the time server. Then adjust your digital camera time to the time displayed in your Mac's system time and you should be all set to start geotag your photos.

You can also synchronize the camera time by click the button below:



Time different retrieve
If you forgot to sync your camera before your trip, PhotoTrackr provides two ways to calibrate photo's capture time in order to compensate. You should find two menu items in Calendar extra panel, click the Gear gearbutton to choose Time difference retrieve or Correct capture time. These two methods provide a way to change the photo's capture time to match the GPS time in case you forget to perform the time sync before using your PhotoTrackr or you are traveling across time zones.


* GPS always gets standard time from GPS satellites. So if your GPS unit doesn't have a monitor to display time, you can just find the standard time on your computer (Both Mac OS X and Windows can set date & time automatically with time synchronizing service).

Quick start with GPS

If this is your first time using PhotoTrackr, please refer to the following Quick Start Guide:


Geotagging Assistant

Step 1. Create a photo album

Step 2. Go to Menu->GPS & Geotag->Geotagging Assistant

Step 3. Import Photos - you can drag-and-drop photos directly into the thumbnail view window. Then click Next to proceed to the next step.

Step 4.

  1. Make sure your PhotoTrackr is turned on before plugging it into the Mac computer.
  2. Click "Download from GPS logger..."

Step 5. Select the following configuration and click "Import" to download the track data

If you have PhotoTrackr CD111/CD110BT or PhotoTrackr Lite DPL700:

If you have PhotoTrackr Mini DPL900:

Step 6. Select the proper time zone where the photos were taken. Then click Next to proceed.

Step 7. Once everything is ready, click "Go Ahead" to geotag the photos.

Step 8. Export album to Google Earth or Google Maps





Locating photos with tracks

Tips: track is a series of GPS data points.

Import tracks from external file
Besides directly download tracks from GPS devices, you can click button 'GPS Importing' to get more importing options. GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr enables user to import GPS tracks with GPX and NMEA format. Select 'Geotag' tab in extra drawer and click "GPS Logs...". Then click the button 'GPS Importing', and select item 'Import from GPS log files' in pull-down menu.

List tracks
All downloaded tracks are listed in 'GPS Log' panel. To correctly display the correct time for the tracks, please select the time zone which the track was recorded. Click the button with pencil icon to change the name of current selected track. Click the button with (-) icon to delete current selected track.

Match photos with tracks
Click button 'Automatic Locating' in 'GPS Log' panel, and select item 'Match all photos with GPS tracks' in pull-down menu. GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr will add geographical information (longitude/latitude) to the photos.

You can also choose 'Match selected photos with GPS tracks' to geotag the selected photos only.

After geotagging the photos, you can go to menu item 'EXIF Tools'-> 'Merge GPS Metadata into JPEG' to write location information into original JPEG files.



Locating photos with waypoints

Tips: Waypoint is a single GPS record.

Import waypoints
Please refer to the previous section. Select "Download Waypoints" in the Download from GPS logger windows.

List waypoints
All downloaded waypoints are listed in 'GPS Log' panel. Click the button with pencil icon to change the name of current selected waypoint. Click the button with (-) icon to delete current selected waypoint. Click the button with (+) icon to add a waypoint manually.

Locate photos with waypoint
Select photos in Thumbnail view. Then go to Geotag tab and click "GPS Logs". Then click the button 'Manual Locating' and select item 'Locate photos with selected waypoint' in pull-down menu. GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr will add geographical information to the selected photos with the current selected waypoint.



Locating photos manually

PhotoTrackr software provide a way for you to geotag photos manually:

Select a photo in Thumbnail view. Click button 'Manual Locating' in 'Geotag' extra panel, and select item 'Point photo location on map' in pull-down menu.


1. Search the map, enter the name of a place or an address to quickly move the map to a specified place.

2. You can also hold mouse button and drag mouse to move the map, move the position where the photo was taken into the central target.

3. Click button 'Locate Photo!', GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr will add geographical information (longitude/latitude) to the photo according to the targeted location.

4. Click left arrow or right arrow button to continue to geotag more photos in this album.



Navigating photo map

User can review and browse photos with a Map view in GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr Mac version*.



All photos with longitude/latitude information are indicated as a series of orange dots in Map view in album window. You can switch the mapping mode for the map view here with clicking either 'NASA' or 'Google Maps' button. When click 'NASA', the base map will use NASA Blue Marble satellite image (1 pixel for 2 kilometers) that is pre-installed in GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr. Click 'Google Map', GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr will connect to the Google online mapping service to retrieve the detailed maps.

A small global map, a photo preview box and a toolbox are attached to the map view. The bounds and origin position of current map view are displayed in the global map.


Map tools
You can select a tool button to set mouse action for the map view.

Info Pointer
Click - Preview the photo.
Select Area - To find photos taken in the selected area, and highlight them in thumbnail view.

Zoom In*
Click - zoom in
Select Area - To zoom in map as the selected area.

Zoom Out*
Click - zoom out

Move
Drag - move the map


Other options

Show Waypoints - Select checkbox 'Show Waypoints' to enable waypoints display in map view. The waypoint is displayed as a red flag with a name label.

Show Tracks - Select checkbox 'Show Tracks' to enable tracks display in map view. The track is displayed as a yellow curve in the map.



Google Earth and Google Maps

Besides navigating photos in Map view page in GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr, you can also link your photos ( and GPS tracks ) on Google Earth or Google Maps. In Map view page, there are two buttons you can click.




Link photos in Google Earth

Click button 'Link photos to Google Earth' to launch Google Earth on which links all located photos, or generate KMZ or KML file that can be opened with Google Earth.

(A Google Earth window showing photos and tracks)

KML - KML is a XML file that can be opened with Google Earth. GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr exports the location data of the photos (and track data) into a specified KML, this file will be saved on disk with the referenced album package together. KML file is only an index file, it doesn't contain any photo data. In this case, to share this KML file with others, you must copy both the KML file and the album package.

KMZ - KMZ is a compressed package file that can be opened with Google Earth. GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr exports all location data of the photos (and track data) as well as all referenced photo files in one binary package. To share this KMZ package, you just need to copy this file and send it to others.


Make Google Map web gallery

Click button 'Make Google Map web gallery' to make a dynamic web gallery to link located photos on Google Maps (Please refer to Making Google Map Gallery for more details).

(A Google Map Gallery)