Manchester based professional photographer | Neil Downie

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Do you GPS Tag?

Alongside the Great Glen

 I've long been looking for someway of GPS tagging images I shoot, and the only devices I've  had that do this out of the box are the iPhone and Galaxy SII. You may ask "Why would you want to do this anyway?". Well the answer is simple. I have a memory like a chicken, and if I'm s0mewhere unfamiliar and shooting extensively, then the chances of me remembering where exactly I made a specific image are somewhere between slim and none.

And why should I care? Because more and more, I'm finding that I want to write an article on the area to be accompanied by the images, or I simply need to caption them for stock. GPS Tagging is the simplest most effective solution, and I have a GPS device in my pocket at all times - my phone!

The shore of Loch Garry

So how do I do it, without spending a chunk of cash?

Simple. Go to www.geotagphotos.net, download their mobile app (Android version is $3 I think), synchronise your phone and camera time clocks exactly, and start tagging. When you've finished upload the data from your phone to the website from the road. Then when you're ready to edit, download the gpx file and import into Lightroom. Then it's a simple case of auto-tagging your imported photos. Ta da!

Lightroom Map GPS Tagging

There's a comprehensive tutorial here - "How To: Geotag photos in Lightroom 4 w/ phone GPX track"