GPS image tagging

Image GPS tagging

There are several GPS units which can be used to track your location. I'm using the Sony GPS CS1. When turned on, this will record your location every 15 seconds. When you connect the device to your PC, it will show up as a new drive, which then holds a number of GPS files.

Sony deliver the Picture Motion Browser software with the device, but this software cannot handle RAW files, and also stores information in some "strange" locations on your harddisk. If you want to use GPS tagging of your pictures, I recommend using Geosetter , which is an excellent application. For JPG files, the information is saved directly in the file, and for RAW files, XMP "sidecar" files are created, which are automatically read by Adobe Lightroom.

My recommended workflow is:

  • Copy the images from the camera to your PC
  • Copy the GPS log files to your PC. Recommend saving all the log files in one directory
  • Run Geosetter to match the pictures with the images, and then save the information. For JPG files, the location information is stored within the file itself (in addition to creating backup files for all updated JPGs). For RAW files, an XMP "sidecar" file is created.
  • Remove the JPG backup files.
  • Import the images into Adobe Lightroom. This will work for both .JPG and .RAW files.