Loweske

For years, I have been using a freeware program named "Geosetter". My camera is older and I carry a Garmin gps that records my location every 10 seconds and stores it in a gpx file. I save the photos and the gpx file on my pc then run Geosetter which matches the exif time from the photo with the matching time and location in the gpx file and saves copies of the photos with the geotagged information embedded in the exif data.

The last photo that I take before I download to my pc is a picture of my gps showing the time, so if the clock on my camera doesn't match the clock on the gps, I can dial in the difference and Geosetter will compensate.

Geosetter is kind of old. I use a 2011 version but it works fine with Windows 7 & 10. The developer stopped working on the program in 2011, but has recently resumed the project and released a minor upgrade in 2018 with a whole new version hopefully coming soon.

You can find Geosetter at

https://www.geosetter.de/en/main-en/

bthomas42 Loc: North Ridgeville Ohio

I have a Nikon GP-1 on my d7100. Prior to that I had a Columbus nGPS unit that fit on the Hotshoe to Geo tag all mt pictures when traveling

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Good if he has a <Garmin> GPS?

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Thanks to another Hogger, I learned of an app called FollowMee - start it on your phone when you go to take photos (and be sure the camera click is set to the correct time).

When I return home, I download the gpx file (that’s a standard file format, it’s what Garmin uses too) for the day. Then, in Lightroom, I load that gpx track file and in the Map module it will auto- tag the images based on the time stamps in the images.

It works fairly well, though sometimes it tags a shot in a spot I know is wrong- I can only surmise if I’m out of a cell service area sometimes the phone app doesn’t upload the right data. So, not perfect, but workable.

The OP points out he no longer uses LR, but the general concept would be the same: track movement, download appropriate gpx file, then match them up

Loweske

The OP said that he can download an app to his phone that will create a gpx file. Geosetter should be able to work with that file. It is not Garmin specific.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Cool. I didn't understand that from your post.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Thanks! I'm investigating this!
I like the "pins on the map" history on-line so I can see where I've been in Acadia. (I don't have a hand held GPS.) Looks like it only needs cell service to upload the data, correct?

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Lightroom was my choice, obviously any program that downloads metadata should work.

ClarkG Loc: Southern Indiana USA

Hey tlmy & JimDD! I will definitely try both Geosetter and the GPicSync programs! Thanks for the suggestions!

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

That is my understanding

Frankly, I know the GPS chipset is in the phone and so theoretically should be able to keep tracking even in cell- free zones, but sometimes it apparently does not do that (like when I’m in the middle of White Sands National Monument)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

That's my supposition also.
I did install it. Got the three day info option also so I can track my route.
Now I just have to remember to make sure the camera time and the phone time ar the same.
Many thanks for posting the info!

ClarkG Loc: Southern Indiana USA

Wow! Thanks to all of you for the valuable information! Loweske, thanks for all the tips too! I think I have enough info to get the job done. Thanks to you all!

jastratman

I will second the use of GPicSync in conjunction with a GPS logger. Once you get it figured out, it works great. As a few have mentioned, it is important that your camera clock be set reasonably accurately. To make things really easy, on your computer map out your gpx tracks on Google Earth, etc. If you have a good picture of a single landmark, and can roughly identify it, then you read the EXIF time stamp on the photo while also reading the exact time stamp of the GPS track for that spot. (Remember, the GPS track has THE time reference - exact down to milliseconds). As an example, if your picture's time stamp says 11:42:21, and the GPS time for your track at that location says 11:44:18, then you will know your camera clock was set 1 minute, 57 seconds (00:01:57) late. You can enter that offset into GPicSync, then have it automatically GeoTag all your photos (there is a +/- of a few seconds for rounding). Have that written into the EXIF of the photos, and, if you want, I believe it can also correct the photo time stamp for time/date taken.
What can be fun is mapping your GPS track on a mountain hike on Google Earth, turn on the 3D terrain, and see your track going up the mountain. If you import the pictures, you click on certain points and it shows the pictures.

ianw1951

I started using Geosetter after Google stopped its support of Picasa, which was very good at geotagging. Just a matter of dragging the photo onto the position on the map pane. However, within weeks of Google stopping support, the map pane stopped working due to some change in the Maps API.

I have used Geosetter for several years. It also links to Google maps, but sometimes it also has some trouble linking to these. The map image can be dimmed out and have a watermark across it saying it is For Development Use Only. Geosetter has a bit of a learning curve.

Recently I found a solution on the web and managed to get Picasa's map pane working again by running regedit and going to:
HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\Feature_Browser_Emulation
Then add a DWORD named "picasa3.exe" and set to 2af8.

I don't how long this will work, and it doesn't help if you don't have Picasa, although there are places on the internet where you can probably find it.