Geotagging Workflow

I started this as an email but thought I’d share how I organize and geotag photos.

In Expression, you can view the lat and/or lon as a view option. I made a thumbnail preset to show all of the tagging information that I use namely, File name, City, State, Keywords, People, Lat. This takes up a lot of space, so I made another preset to only show the image and the rating info (for sorting). That way when I’m in tagging mode, I look at lots of data, and when I’m in sorting mode I only see images.

When you’re ready to add lat/lon info, the easiest way I’ve found is to add Geotagger as a helper application. Geotagger sets a photo’s lat/lon EXIF using Google Earth’s center. When you want to geotag a photo, right-click it and select “Open with > Geotagger”. It took me a while to figure out how to get Expression to show the geotag. You have to “Rebuild Item” [Apple+B] after Geotagger has finished. For some reason, resyncing the metadata [Apple+Option+B] doesn’t update the lat/lon. The nice thing about this method is that it runs in the background and doesn’t require loading/learning a new program, plus you can batch process many images from the same location.

I’ve found it really helpful to make a .kml with the places I tag a lot. You can save a subset of your “My Places” in Google Earth by right-clicking and selecting “Save As.”

I also use “Map the Photo” to verify tagged photos. It opens a Google Map in your browser with the location from the photo.

If you have .gpx data from a GPS you can use GPS Photolinker to sync the tracks with your images very quickly.

Helpful Links
Geotagger
GPS Photolinker
Map the Photo
GPSVisualizer