GPS data confusion

[pedz]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom Classic version: 11.0.1 [ 202111111509-eae8952e ]

Operating System

1. macOS 12 Monterey

The new R5 does not have native GPS. Rather, you start an app on your phone and via bluetooth, the camera gets the GPS from the phone. This is fine as long as you remember to start the app AND take your phone with you when you stop, get out of the car for some pics. All this to say, some of my pictures have what I'll call "native" GPS data and some do not.

As a backup plan, I have another app running that logs a track. I can then download the track and sync the images with the track.

So, that's what I did except there was an offset in the time stamps. So, what I'd like to do is start back over from scratch and erase the "non-native" GPS data but that's the hang up. The develop history of the images doesn't indicate that the GPS data was added.

I'm trying to figure out the least painful way to do this -- which might include deleting the images from LR and re-importing them -- but that sounds rather desperate. I'm hoping there is an easier, safer way.

 

[stevedo]

I use Jeffrey Friedl's geoencoding plugin for Lightroom and can highly recommend it.

Take a look here:- http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/gps to determine if it would work for you.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

So, that's what I did except there was an offset in the time stamps. So, what I'd like to do is start back over from scratch and erase the "non-native" GPS data but that's the hang up. The develop history of the images doesn't indicate that the GPS data was added.

So what exactly is the question? That you want to have a way of finding images that have ‘manually’ added GPS coordinates versus images that had ‘native’ coordinates? For that you would have to use a utility that can search through embedded metadata rather than the Lightroom catalog.

 

[pedz]

So what exactly is the question? That you want to have a way of finding images that have ‘manually’ added GPS coordinates versus images that had ‘native’ coordinates? For that you would have to use a utility that can search through embedded metadata rather than the Lightroom catalog.

Yes, that is essentially what I'm asking. I'm using exiftool on the original images and making a list of files that don't have GPS data.

I've come across another small angst. If you hover over a track in the Map module, it displays the time you were at that point. The small angst is the Time Zone offset doesn't seem to be added in to the time being displayed.

 

[pedz]

I use Jeffrey Friedl's geoencoding plugin for Lightroom and can highly recommend it.

Take a look here:- http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/gps to determine if it would work for you.

I've used that before LR had the Map module. I'll go look at it again and see what features it has.

 

[PhilBurton]

I use Jeffrey Friedl's geoencoding plugin for Lightroom and can highly recommend it.

Take a look here:- http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/gps to determine if it would work for you.

Have you been able to use it with Google?

 

[SaraLH]

I record a track with my phone using a gps app (GPSLogger makes a good track and uses little battery power) and then syncronize my photos with the track in the LR map module. The caveat being that the time in the phone and the camera are the same. But even if you forget to check this beforhand (forget to change time zones or the camera clock loses a minute or two), you can always use the Metadata/Edit Capture Time tool to change the time on a group of photos so that they are placed correctly on the track.

Then I use the JFriedl plugin to reverse geoencode the images. Works like a charm.

 

[johnrellis]

You don't need to use a plugin or another app, nor do you need to use Edit Capture Time to change photos' capture times. Instead, use the Map module's Map > Tracklog > Time Zone Offset command:

Track logs record time in UTC (née GMT) without a notion of the local time zone. So LR converts those UTC times to the local time zone (the time zone of the computer running LR).

Cameras generally record the capture date you've set in the camera's clock, which most people set to the local time where the photo was taken.

If the time zone of your computer is different than that of the local time to which you set your camera, then the track log times won't match up with the camera-recorded capture dates. You need to use the Time Zone Offset command to tell LR how many hours should be added or subtracted to the time zone of your computer to get to the time zone where you took your photos.

For example, if your computer is running in MST (UTC - 7), but you took your photos in PST (UTC - 8), specify an offset of -1.0 hours.

 

[johnrellis]

"I'm using exiftool on the original images and making a list of files that don't have GPS data."

You an use the Any Filter plugin to search with Exiftool within LR:

 

[pedz]

You don't need to use a plugin or another app, nor do you need to use Edit Capture Time to change photos' capture times. Instead, use the Map module's Map > Tracklog > Time Zone Offset command:

View attachment 17556

Track logs record time in UTC (née GMT) without a notion of the local time zone. So LR converts those UTC times to the local time zone (the time zone of the computer running LR).

Cameras generally record the capture date you've set in the camera's clock, which most people set to the local time where the photo was taken.

If the time zone of your computer is different than that of the local time to which you set your camera, then the track log times won't match up with the camera-recorded capture dates. You need to use the Time Zone Offset command to tell LR how many hours should be added or subtracted to the time zone of your computer to get to the time zone where you took your photos.

For example, if your computer is running in MST (UTC - 7), but you took your photos in PST (UTC - 8), specify an offset of -1.0 hours.

Yes. But the small yuck I hit is when you hover over the track in the Map module, it pops up a time. That time isn’t adjusted by the Offset Time Zone setting.

I use Jeff’s plugin before LR had geotagging. Then I used LRs until this past evening I used Jeff’s again. It has a few nice features.

 

[pedz]

"I'm using exiftool on the original images and making a list of files that don't have GPS data."

You an use the Any Filter plugin to search with Exiftool within LR:

View attachment 17557

Genius! I saw that plugin and thought “Hmm… that could be useful” but didn’t connect the dots to use exiftool.

 

[stevedo]

Have you been able to use it with Google?

Hi Phil, yes I managed to get it to work with Google. I use it occasionally to reverse geocode my images using Google. However, I mostly find the results I get using OpenStreetMap to be better. For example, sublocations are more reliable with OpenStreetMap. Often Google will not populate the sublocation or come up with a value such as "unknown road" whereas OpenStreetMap will fill in the road name. I guess it all comes down to what dataset each uses.

I have been working on geocoding and reverse geocoding approx. 40,000 photos from a motorcycle trip through North, Central and South America so I have been using the tool pretty extensively lately. I find using the tool to geoencode my images from my GPS tracklogs so much better than relying on anything LrC has to offer e.g. LrC completely ignores the altitude data contained in my tracklogs!!!

 

[pedz]

Hi Phil, yes I managed to get it to work with Google. I use it occasionally to reverse geocode my images using Google. However, I mostly find the results I get using OpenStreetMap to be better. For example, sublocations are more reliable with OpenStreetMap. Often Google will not populate the sublocation or come up with a value such as "unknown road" whereas OpenStreetMap will fill in the road name. I guess it all comes down to what dataset each uses.

I have been working on geocoding and reverse geocoding approx. 40,000 photos from a motorcycle trip through North, Central and South America so I have been using the tool pretty extensively lately. I find using the tool to geoencode my images from my GPS tracklogs so much better than relying on anything LrC has to offer e.g. LrC completely ignores the altitude data contained in my tracklogs!!!

Very interesting and heart warming that Open Street Maps is so good. Plus, I suppose you can add to the dataset. I've done that a few times for restaurants I frequent.

 

[jjlad]

Something I just learned.
I was manually placing photos onto the map, in connection with a trek taken a few years ago that had no GPS info.
I file into folders by Year, then subfolders for each Month and each Day
So in one day I place 40 markers. Then I go to the next day and want to place many more on the same locations, but low and behold ...no markers are shown despite the map displaying the same general area.
What I discovered is that I had Library/Show Folders in Subfolders turned off. Once I turned it back on, all my locations turned up.
That was about 20 minutes of frustration so just thought I'd share it in case anyone else runs into the same issue.

 

[jjlad]

Just an update. That fix worked for about 10 seconds and then it reverted to not displaying all the pins. I've restarted LR twice to no avail.
My Show Folders in Subfolders is turned on. I'm starting on the next day and the locations tagged the prior day are not showing up.
Here's an example where Day 1 has 17 photos tagged for one location. Then I go to Day 2 and open the map and none of those that display when in the prior folder are showing up. I drag 3 of them onto that same location and it displays the total number there as being 3. I believe this is a BUG! It makes manually positioning images very difficult because unless one is at exactly the same zoom setting on the map, positioning new photos at the same location is almost impossible ...particularly when the location has no map name to use as the anchor point. I guess I'll do a bug report

 

[PhilBurton]

Hi Phil, yes I managed to get it to work with Google. I use it occasionally to reverse geocode my images using Google. However, I mostly find the results I get using OpenStreetMap to be better. For example, sublocations are more reliable with OpenStreetMap. Often Google will not populate the sublocation or come up with a value such as "unknown road" whereas OpenStreetMap will fill in the road name. I guess it all comes down to what dataset each uses.

I have been working on geocoding and reverse geocoding approx. 40,000 photos from a motorcycle trip through North, Central and South America so I have been using the tool pretty extensively lately. I find using the tool to geoencode my images from my GPS tracklogs so much better than relying on anything LrC has to offer e.g. LrC completely ignores the altitude data contained in my tracklogs!!!

@stevedo

Thanks for this info. Back around LrC 8 days, I was using Jeffrey's plug-in but ran into some weird bugs that even Jeffrey did not understand. Being busy with other things, I put this issue aside. From what you are saying, I was wrong in assuming that Google would yield better sublocation results than Open Street Map. Thanks for saving me time and grief with Google and their cockamamie licensing system.

 

[Philippe Coudé du Foresto]

Just an update. That fix worked for about 10 seconds and then it reverted to not displaying all the pins. I've restarted LR twice to no avail.
My Show Folders in Subfolders is turned on. I'm starting on the next day and the locations tagged the prior day are not showing up.
Here's an example where Day 1 has 17 photos tagged for one location. Then I go to Day 2 and open the map and none of those that display when in the prior folder are showing up. I drag 3 of them onto that same location and it displays the total number there as being 3. I believe this is a BUG! It makes manually positioning images very difficult because unless one is at exactly the same zoom setting on the map, positioning new photos at the same location is almost impossible ...particularly when the location has no map name to use as the anchor point. I guess I'll do a bug report

It's not a bug. LR shows the pin for the photos in the filmstrip. If you select 2 folders, showing all their photos in the filmstrip, you will get the pin for photos of both folder. (Tht's why it worked when you set "show photos in subfolder).

 

[jjlad]

I'm using it that way now but like I've been saying repeatedly ...I didn't have to do this until recently.
Previously I could do a shoot ...say in a rented studio downtown and manually pin those photos on the map.
Then many months or even over a year later, I do another shoot at the same location. I would open the Map module, navigate to the rough location of that place and a pin would show up with the number of photos I took there last time. I was in the 'current' folder only. The previous shoot's photos could even be on an archive drive (plugged in YES and in the same catalog YES) but I certainly did not have that prior folder selected at the same time.
That also worked with travel. Places visited in South America years before would show up on the map years later when working in the NEW folder only, geotagging new photos from that area. That made it easy to add images at the same location.

Sounds like I'm the only person on the planet that worked for but it sure as heck did work. It stopped working with version 11.
I'm not nuts and have been mapping photos manually for years. It just worked so I used it that way not knowing any other way.
I've always worked in the specific Year/Month/Day folder:

I did not have to have any other folder selected. If I pinned a place in 20170101 it would show up in 20170115 and/or the Selects sub-folder under 20170115. If I had tagged photos from 2015 in the same area, they would show up without the 2015 folder being selected. I can't dream this up. It worked for years.
And to me, that's the way it should work. I'm now selecting multiple folders so that pins show up and I can add to them or place pins in the same area. Having all those images in the film strip is a complete pain in the posterior region. It makes what formerly was a pleasure ...a complete trainwreck.

I'm doing it but sure wish someone at adobe would try manually GPS locating photos in similar locations spread across many folders and drives (albeit in the same catalog and all connected).

I simply decided to geotag all my photos as I had previously only done so with about 20% of them. It's a make work project since I have time on my hands but I didn't expect it to be a make PAIN project which it has become now that it works the way it does.