Geotagging DSLR photos automatically with a phone and Lightroom 4

[@ZafarKhan-te4dr]

I wish to thank you, Mr. Tanaka, for this video for LightRoom. Yours is better than many so-called gurus of LR and PS.

[@EricSareyka]

Splendidly, Forrest Tanaka! Yesterday I have bought PHOTOS GEOTAG PER, after I have investigated longer on the Internet. It was maintained that GPP most exactly works. Now I will check this, because today I have made my first GPS Tracking tour. Many many thanks for the helpful video Tutorial!

[@wattage]

I had no idea Lightroom would accept GPX files. That is fantastic! I was doing it the hard way by inputting coordinates into the metadata section in LR. Thank you Forrest for putting together such a great and easy-to-understand video. This will be a huge timesaver!

[@ForrestTanaka]

That’s a BlackRapid R-Strap. Googling that takes you right to it. Mine is the first generation and has been great. A friend showed me his second-gen one, and the strap material showed a lot of wear, so I’m not sure if the quality went down since I got mine.

[@larryc43230]

Thank you for the clear and easy-to-follow explanation, Mr. Tanaka! I used this method with my Samsung Galaxy S8 and the app you recommended, and it worked well overall. The resulting GPS track wandered a bit farther from my actual route than I'd hoped (there were a couple of points where the track was more than 50 feet off). For most purposes, this might well be close enough, and certainly better than not having geotagging. I also have a handheld GPS unit (a Garmin Oregon 650), and I tried using that to create the GPS track. At least with this unit and the proper settings, the track was in GPX format and was perfectly readable in Lightroom. Also, the GPS track was much more accurate. Of course, the Oregon 650 is a dedicated GPS unit, so the better accuracy wasn't a surprise. An additional benefit of using the handheld GPS: It doesn't drain the batteries on my phone. :-)

[@ForrestTanaka]

One option in the app displays the current time on the phone large, and then you set the time on your DSLR to match. You can just use whatever clock app to do that though, including the built-in one.

[@CoryLievers]

I saw this video quite a while ago, and bought the ios app, but never got around to using this. Went to Florida a few weeks ago and did the gps while visiting gatorland/wild florida/legoland, and then used lightroom 5 to geotag the photos. It was so easy. Thanks so much for creating this video.

[@jbar6618]

A tip, before each day's shoot take a picture of your gps's time hh:mm:ss. so you can determine the difference in time if any between your camera and gps's clocks. It makes it easier to sync picture times with gps location time later. The gps time is calibrated to atomic clock and is always accurate, however your camera's clock will drift over time.

[@Viv3kArya]

Forrest, this video is very informative, very clear to understand and most importantly exactly to the point. I am thankful for stumbling across your video which has been really helpful for my upcoming travel. I use aperature myself, but after a bit of googling i've found the same premise applies. Great work and thanks so much for uploading and sharing this great video.

[@StephenSmith]

Thanks so much for making this video! I was so glad this existed that I downloaded the app before your video even finished.

[@mlcmuk]

This was a really handy tutorial. Thank you.... Now me, my 5D and Geotags Photo Pro are all in location harmony! Superb stuff.

[@CoryLievers]

Thanks Forrest, helpful as always. This is a great idea and nice to see how it's done. I have yet to get LR 4, but that Map feature looks great.

[@flyacl]

Great video Forrest, Thanks for taking the time!

[@PaulCiura]

Thanks for sharing this tip ForrestTanaka. It's a keeper.

[@its22dm1]

Fantastic ! thanks a lot, works perfectly, and I was about to spend $200 on a GPS device for my SLR !!

[@ssmith278]

This is a lot better than buying using a clunky and expensive GPS tracker on your camera. Thanks!

[@lindaitken3321]

Just tried it for the first time and am quite disappointed. Spent the weekend at a photo workshop on the Outer Banks. We stopped and walked around at the Bodie Lighthouse.The result for this batch of pictures was 33 photos taken from the location of our parked vehicle while the pictures were taken at locations all around the property. Furthermore, there were somewhere around 50 pictures taken from two locations about 100 yards apart. These showed up on the map as groups of 2 and 3 spread from Bodie Light to Hatteras Light. Don't know if the problem is with my phone's GPS or because I was using Lightroom 5, but the results from this trip are pretty much useless.

[@9H1RA]

Great tutorial as always... i have been following you from start. thanks again keep up the great work. from Ray in Malta Island.

[@thatmaheshrs]

this was SUPER informative. thanks for this gr8 tutorial mr. tanaka. I just have 1 question: how do I sync the time on camera with my phone? Put another way, is it ok for them to be off by a few seconds, as they obviously would be?

[@MarkJansenJavadu]

Thanks, works great with runkeeper gpx output

[@KalabDark]

Loved the cat interruption. Have you tried the GPS4CAM app?

[@Bobcatou]

Nice video Forrest. I might try this with my older D70

[@franka7691]

Thanks again for sharing, Forrest.

[@MrMacdurbin]

Thank you for your video Forrest. I used the app you recommended in conjunction with LR and it worked nice!

[@KevinMullarkey]

How much 'drift' is allowed between the two clocks? Nearest seconds, minutes etc?

[@liverpool_of_life]

thank you very much for your review!

[@AfGun01111]

Thanks for making it very easy and understandable.

[@robertog3148]

Do you have to send your file after each start and stop

[@rezjrprod]

good stuff bud/ interesting..how do you sync the time code with canon?

[@special-photos280]

Great video Forest, will be trying this in the wilds of Scotland next week! Many thanks. Mike

[@rezjrprod]

Hey do you know why lightroom might be saying "no matching photos"?

[@ForrestTanaka]

That sounds like the time on the GPS and the camera were so out of sync that they didn’t overlap. That’s my guess.

[@19Photographer76]

Great job and thanks for a well done vid. Now I have a reason to use Lightroom.

[@strycinek]

Excellent manual, thank you for sharing.

[@0d0man]

Great tutorial, thanks Forrest. I guess it works the same way on Lightroom 5 - which is the version I have. I've downloaded GPS Stone to try out. Going to Sorrento, Italy next month so will be great to get locations for all my shots without having to guestimate on Google Earth ;o)

[@clarification007]

Super! Well done and explained. Thanks.

[@jadben]

Get Geotag Photos for iPhone, it does support RAW and uploads automatically to your Dropbox folder as well ! Booyah

[@Mostafarefaie]

YOU SAVED MY MONEY!!!

[@mohammadhejazi]

Does it work with Raw image ?

[@JTK52]

Thank you! Very helpful.

[@FelipeFujimori]

Hello everyone, does anybody knows if this app would work without internet connection, can it still collect data? I was planning to use it outside my country, so if anybody knows and can answer me, thanks.

[@brunodedeken]

Normally gps data does not require an internet connection. Obviously you will need internet connectivity to send the data to your e-mail account, dropbox account, ... If you want to be certain, you could just disable data and try it at home, see if it works.

[@patricknadeau2817]

Helpfull.

[@rezjrprod]

ok thanks I thought I missed a sync button or something..On video we had a time reset button for reset the time code so I thought maybe I missed that lol

[@rezjrprod]

I seem to be having trouble with this...hmmm might be my phone..