Simple Guide to using your Iphone 4 to map and Geotag DSLR RAW files


Cheep and easy guide to geotagging your RAW DSLR files using Iphone 4

I had been looking at buying GPS data logger / photo tagger off ebay and was indecisive about which to buy as the prices ranged from £20-£50 one of the things I did not like is that a lot of the programs supplied with the photo taggers would only tag jpeg’s which is not much use if you only shot RAW.
Since looking I had upgraded to the Iphone 4 and decided to have a crack at using the inbuilt GPS to do the same as the £20-£50 data loggers do but going one better and coming up with a solution that will tag Camera RAW files.
Here is my guide to using your Iphone to geotag your RAW Camera files.

Before we begin, this information is provided as-is and if you follow this guide you accept that I will bare no responsibility for any issues/loss etc. I am also in no way affiliated with any of the programs featured.

This guide is also available in Video format Click here to view

Step 1,
Using your PC navigate to http://www.java.com/ download and install the latest version.

Step 2,
Navigate to http://sourceforge.net/projects/geotag/files/ and download file clicking the download now button save to desktop (or somewhere easy to find).

Step 3,
Navigate to http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/ and download save to desktop (or somewhere easy to find).

Step 4,
Purchase this app from the app store (note there is no need to purchase this if you already have an app that outputs to a .GPX file) This is the only chargeable item and is less than £2 / $2 http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=367384269&mt=8

 

Using GPS Tracks
Start the app, click the play button to start tracking once you are happy with the fix take a shot of your screen (this is handy later so you can sync the time)……………
Go take some photos……………
Once you have taken your last shot make sure you go back into the app and click the X to stop data logging (as it does eat up your power)

To send the data log to your PC press the folder button and click on the Track you have just done then scroll to the bottom and email it to yourself.
GPS Tracks Iphone 4 Screen Shot GPS Tracks Iphone 4 Screen Shot GPS Tracks Iphone 4 Screen Shot


Once you have saved the file track log (?) .GPX to your desktop it is time to use the programs you downloaded earlier

Step 5,
Open Geotag from your desktop, you will get the following message (just close it) Geotag 1st Time Open Message

Click on File, Settings, + on external programs, + on Exiftool, click Exiftool Path and click on the three dots at the button to locate the Exif tool, Click OK

Exif Tool Path

Next add your files you have just shot (File add image click OK)

I have only loaded one file for this tutorial but as you can see there I a difference between the camera time and the GPS data (as I am in UK DST at the moment) so in this example all you need to do is right click the time and select your time zone.

Geotag Screen 1

(this is where your 1st image that you took of your fixed location comes in useful as all you need to do is set the time for that image then on the same menu and copy time offset to all images)

Geotag Screen 2

Step 6,
Click File, Load Tracks From File, select the data log file you sent from GPS Tracks on your Iphone app and click OK Right click on your 1st image and click find locations.

All your images will then have their location added which you can fine tune using Google maps (I am not going to go into this feature have a play) once you are happy with simply click Flie, Save New Locations, Select either all or single file.Geotag All Done

Job done if you then view image with an exif viewer such as bridge you will see that the location shows up under GPS heading in the metadata.

Once you have finished working with your files you will likely want to delete the original files (which are renamed in the saving process to file name_original.

Back to text version

 

All photos © Anthony Woodhouse & all rights reserved.