[SGVLUG] Quick geotagging example / done mostly w/digikam

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

I'm finding that digikam is really neat -- not only will it geotag the
photos, but upload to flickr as well (with the geotag data) making the
whole process from shooting the photo to sharing with the world /really/
easy

So, here are some photos I took while on a "walking tour" of Magdeburg:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/21860839@N04/sets/72157605075070748

Since I was walking, this gave my GPS plenty of time to be "in synch",
and sure enough, the "map" shows where I took each photo -- almost down
to which side of the street I was on!  (unfortunately, the satellite
imagery doesn't go down to that detail :( )

So, for those of you wanting to try this on your own, here are the
really brief instructions:

  1) get a GPS that saves "track" data WITH TIMESTAMPS
     -- note: I've seen/heard/read that some GPS units will lose the
"timestamp" information if you save a "track"...

  2) synchronize your camera to the GPS (or at least to the hour -- you
can then adjust for "timezones")

  3) go some place and take pictures -- carry your GPS with you (and if
paranoid, check that the display has stabilized before taking the photo)
-- also check periodically that you have  a signal (doesn't work well
indoors; may be glitchy inside of a vehicle...)

  4) download your "track" and photos

  5) use "gpsbabel" to convert the track to a GPX file.

  6) in digikam, use the "image / geocorrelation" function to read the
GPX file and apply tags to the photos.  You may have to adjust the
"timezone", and will likely have to enable "interpolation" if your GPS
logs by distance moved rather than time (i.e., every second...)

  7) use digikam to apply other tags, captions, etc.
  7a) and to "edit" photos (lighten/darken, rotate, crop, etc.)
  7b) organize into a digikam "album" [not required, but makes the next
step easier]

  8) upload to flickr from digikam -- you can either pre-select the
photos (press ctl-a BEFORE you start the upload process, this will
select ALL the photos in the "album") or select them afterwards (using a
more-or-less standard file selection box, though laid out in three
columns: albums, photos, and stats on what was selected in column 2 --
again, ctl-a will select all photos once you've selected the album)

  9) in flickr, you can then arrange what you /just/ uploaded into sets,
(and move the sets into a category, if you wish) and everything you did
in steps 6 & 7 will already be done [note: you have to enable the "use
GPS tags" option IN FLICKR /before/ you start the upload -- by default,
this is turned off (which was a waste of an upload session...)]

 10) send links like this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21860839@N04/sets/72157605075070748 to
promote your photos...

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