This article is intended to give you a walkthrough of the process that I use, and the types of software that are needed, in order for you to find specific hardware and software solutions that work for you.

What is this geotagging?

Adding location data to your photos is a great way to show people where a shot was taken, or remind yourself where you took your favourite photographs!

Geotagging your shots doesn’t need to involve tagging each individual shot, you just need the right kit and a few bits of software to get the photos linked to a location.

What you’ll need

• A camera, any type will do
• A GPS device, or a phone with GPS (ideally one that uses the .gpx format)
• A computer (and preferably the internet)

Here’s a list of what I use:

• A phone with GPS (the HTC Touch Diamond)
• Canon EOS 450d (Rebel Xsi) camera
• Some free software to track location called GPSed
• A plugin for Adobe Lightroom 2

I’ll talk you through the method that I use, this method can be adjusted to be used with other GPS track loggers, cameras and software. The process should always be the same.

The “How to”

Step 1 – Do you have the time?

The way that the location data is stored against your photo is by the time that the photo was taken. The only way that this can be done accurately is if the various devices know what time is it, so:

Set the correct time on your camera, AND your phone/gps device!

Get them as close as possible to get accurate results.

Step 2 – Get the GPS up and running

If you have a dedicated GPS device then you can skip this step as it’s a simple as turning it on.

Otherwise, we need to get some software on your phone to track your position. The best one that I’ve found so far for my Windows Mobile phone to get an accurate track is GPSed. You sign up for an account and this can be used as a way of accessing your data online if you’d rather sync via a data connection than a cable.

They offer software for several types of phone, the downside is that it’s quite power hungry. I can only get a few hours use before the phone complains that it’s out of power – not ideal if you’re in the middle of nowhere and need a way to contact others! I’d recommend taking a spare phone or battery if you’re going anywhere risky.

Get the software installed, check the settings to make sure that it’s found your GPS receiver, and start a track, if you decide to use GPSed then there’s no need to sync to any services for now unless you want to, just let it track where you are and save a bit of battery life.

Step 3 – Shoot

Get shooting, there’s no need to tell the GPS device when you’re taking shots, it’ll remember where you are at that time and use this information later to add the locations to the photographs.

Step 4 – Upload the GPS data

If you’re using GPSed, then now is the time to sync your track to the web. Go to the list of tracks from the menu and tell it to upload it to the website, you can choose public or private depending on who you want to see it.

Step 5 – Get it all on the hard drive

Once you’re at a computer, get the photos copied off your camera, and get the GPS track stored with them. I personally put the GPS track file in the same folder as that batch of photos just in case I need to use it again.

If you decided to use GPSed then you can simply go to their website, log in, click My Tracks, and then be able to download the .GPX file of your track. This is what the software will use to merge the GPS data with your photos.

If you’re using a dedicated GPS device, then download the GPS track from it. The software options that link the location to the photograph seems to use .GPX files as a standard, but a lot are compatible with other formats.

Step 6 – Merge the data

Now that you have all of the elements organised, you can get the location information added to the photos.

I personally use a plugin obviously named “Jeffrey’s GPS-Support Geoencoding” for Adobe Lightroom 2 that allows me to select the batch of photos, point it to the GPX file and click “go”, and it tags the photos all in one go, all within my library interface.

There are several other programs such as Geosetter that do the same task of batch processing photos to a single GPS track, however I found geosetter a bit overwhelming with it’s options compared to some other alternatives, just take some test shots to play with the settings first.

You’re done!

Your photographs now have the location taken stored in their metadata, and this can be used by many services such as Flickr, Google Earth, Picasa etc to show you exactly where you’re shot was taken. As seen from my pictures on Flickr.

Enjoy.