Sunday, July 6, 2008

GPS Photography

GPS Photography

This is from: http://www.wonderfulphotos.com/articles/cameras/gps_photos/

How would you like to travel and keep track of all the cool places you've been?How would you like to be able to go back to that awesome photo location you found while hiking? How would you like to share your favorite locations with friends and family?

You can do it easily thanks to GPS! By carrying around a portable receiver, you can now keep track of everywhere you've been and know exactly where each photo was taken!

Combine your GPS information with the timestamps in the photos, upload your photos to the web, and they'll be automatically mapped out on the globe!

1. Purchase a portable GPS receiver.

If you're on a budget, you can pick up the inexpensive Sony GPS-CS1. All you do is turn it on, give it a moment to lock onto the satellites, clip it onto yourself, and start shooting!





If you're looking for a more sophisticated device with mapping capabilities, receivers by Garmin and Magellan are excellent. I use the Garmin GPSmap 60CSx and it works beautifully.

2. Synchronize your GPS receiver, computer, and camera's clocks.

Your GPS receiver's clock is extremely accurate since it synchronizes with the atomic clocks embedded within the satellites. Your camera's clock needs to be synchronized with the GPS clocks and there's a number of ways to do this (see thje article http://www.wonderfulphotos.com/articles/cameras/gps_photos/ for more details)

3. Go out and shoot!

Enable your GPS receiver's "tracklog" feature so that it actively records everywhere you've been. Every few seconds, your GPS device will log where you are on the globe, along with the current time.

If your GPS receiver has mapping and navigation abilities, that's an added bonus in case you want to return back to a location you visited earlier, such as coming back to a previously scouted location for golden hour. Outdoor Navigation with GPS is a handy little book to help you out there.

4. Software installation and Image conversion.

Now that you've been out and about taking photos, it's time to match up the GPS receiver's tracklog timestamps with each photo's EXIF timestamp.

Sony's GPS-CS1 comes with Sony's custom software package which, quite frankly, is pretty lousy. Regardless of which GPS receiver you purchase, download a copy of RoboGEO.

Note: Camera manufacturers are constantly changing the specifications for their custom proprietary RAW formats which makes it tougher on software developers who have to keep releasing updates to maintain support for the latest and greatest cameras. RoboGEO's author has chosen NOT to support Canon's .CR2 and .CRW raw formats or Nikon's .NEF format.

If you shot in a RAW format, you'll need to convert to one of RoboGEO's compatible formats such as .DNG, .JPG, or .TIF. (The Canon 1D raw format is .TIF and it WILL work with RoboGEO, despite being a RAW format.)

5. Add GPS data into your photos' EXIF information.

Fire up RoboGEO and plug your GPS receiver into your computer. See the 3 steps in the full article http://www.wonderfulphotos.com/articles/cameras/gps_photos/

6. Combine your photos with maps!

Now what? Let's share your photos and locations with the world!

Add your photos to Google Earth by submitting your geolocated images to Panoramio.

Submit your photos to Flickr or Smugmug and they'll automatically map out your collection of images.

Pixelpost, the popular photoblog application, supports mapping through a Google Maps addon.

Webmasters can even add maps directly to their websites using the Google Maps API.

I found an update to this here:

http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/this-week-in-the-digital-photography-school-forums-50/

Weekly Poll
This week we asked people if they geotag their photos. With more and more sites letting you put in location information with your photos, you are faced with deciding whether or not to geotag your photos. Most people answered that they didn’t, but there were a few that do. Here’s what they had to say:

waffles said, “I see it as nothing but extra work. And I think in some ways it can take away from the picture. If I see something and think that it reminds me of somewhere I used to go as a little kid, then I’ll like it. But if I know it’s somewhere in Utah, then it loses some of the appeal to me.”

digirebelva on the other hand, said “if for nothing else, years later, I may not remember where the photo was taken, but I can always reference the tag for location..I learned that from my Dad..”Hey dad where was this taken”….”Don’t know been to long forgot”…Live & Learn”

And last but not least, Mandy73 said “I’ve just started Geotagging by hand on my Flickr account, basically because someone asked me where I had taken a photo. I don’t do all of them (at the moment) I’ve just been doing my favourites. I didn’t know anything about it because I thought you had to have the special gear and a GPS. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found out I could do it by hand and in my Flickr account. Very easy and nice and handy!”
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From http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/this-week-in-the-digital-photography-school-forums-50/

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