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Adjust Photo Times to Match Local Time

This summer, we travelled to Florida. I did not bother to adjust the clock on my camera to match local time. I left it set to my home time zone: Central European Summer Time (CEST).

When the time came to geotag photos from the trip, I just had to tell HoudahGeo that the camera clock was set to CEST. With this extra bit of information, HoudahGeo was able to figure out at what exact time each photo was taken. It then matched these times to GPS track logs to find where the photos were taken.

This photo of a Key Deer was indeed taken on Big Pine Key, Florida.

Key deer at 4 PM EDT. Or as the camera had it: 10 PM CEST
Key deer at 4 PM in Florida. Or as the camera had it: 10 PM European time.

According to my camera, the above photo was taken at 10 PM. This is at odds with what we see in the picture: broad daylight.
Continue reading Adjust Photo Times to Match Local Time

What is the difference between geotagging and adding locations in Apple Photos?

The Places maps in Apple Photos is a great way to find and explore photos.

Geotagged photos taken with iPhone or another GPS-enabled camera are automatically added to the map. To add other photos, you can assign them locations in Apple Photos. You will, however, also want to geotag these photos.

How is geotagging different from assigning locations in Apple Photos?

Continue reading What is the difference between geotagging and adding locations in Apple Photos?

How to Access Hidden Folders

In macOS, it’s possible to hide folders. The user Library folder, for example, is hidden by default. Hidden folders are invisible to the Finder and don’t show up in open/save dialog boxes.

What can you do if you need to access a hidden folder, e.g. when searching for a specific file within? Continue reading How to Access Hidden Folders

Geotagging for Apple Photos 2.0

The newly released macOS 10.12 Sierra includes a major update to the Apple Photos application. In Photos 2.0, the Places feature makes a comeback. The Places album lets you explore your photos on a beautiful world map. The new Memories feature also includes a map showing where the photos in the collection where taken.

Being able to organize and find photos by location is one of the best reasons to geotag all your photos.

Starting with Photos 2.0, it is now possible for HoudahGeo to update places information in the Photos library. This allows you to use the many options HoudahGeo offers for geocoding to add locations to photos in your library.

Continue reading Geotagging for Apple Photos 2.0

Fill Geotagging Gaps Left by Slow-to-Start GPS Camera

In order to save battery, many GPS-enabled cameras power their GPS receiver only once you turn on the camera. It then takes anyhwere from a couple of seconds to several minutes for the GPS to know where you currently are.

If you take a photo during this power-up phase, the camera is left with the option to use a previously recorded GPS location or forgo geotagging the photos.

At the end of the day, you will have a set of photos where some images lack geotags. This can easily be fixed with HoudahGeo.Geocoding gap left by GPS camera

Continue reading Fill Geotagging Gaps Left by Slow-to-Start GPS Camera

Save HoudahSpot Searches as Finder Smart Folders

In Mac OS X’s Finder, you can save searches as “Smart Folders”. These give you quick access to all your files that meet certain criteria. For example, all Microsoft Word files modified this month. All JPG photos taken with a specific camera. Or all e-mails you’ve received from certain senders within the last seven days.

Because Mac OS X Smart Folders are actually saved searches, they differ from regular folders: they don’t actually hold anything – they only list files stored elsewhere. The content of Smart Folder is not static but dynamic. It is updated continuously as new files come to meet the smart folder’s search criteria. This means that its content changes every time files on your Mac are added, changed, or removed.

With HoudahSpot (4.1 or later), you can easily set up a search and export it as a Finder Smart Folder.

Continue reading Save HoudahSpot Searches as Finder Smart Folders

Incremental Photo Geocoding Using Maps

Manually geocoding a long list of photos can be daunting. With HoudahGeo it’s a snap. Follow the workflow outlined below and you’ll be done in no time.

The workflow takes advantage of the fact that the distance travelled between two photos is often rather short and easy to retrace. Once you have determined the location of the first photo, you just need to make incremental adjustments to geocode subsequent photos. It takes but a nudge to the map and a click for each photo.

Continue reading Incremental Photo Geocoding Using Maps

Creating Snippets in HoudahSpot

In HoudahSpot, snippets let you to set aside frequently used combinations of search criteria. HoudahSpot comes with a few pre-installed snippets, but you can also define your own.

Snippets can hold a single search criterion or a group of criteria that serve a certain purpose. The pre-installed snippet “Date Created range”, for example, holds two criteria in an “All of the following are true” group: “Content created before” and “Content created after”. Use this snippet whenever you want to find files created in a range of dates.

HoudahSpot's Sidebar & Refine Pane
Drag the snippet from the sidebar to refine pane (example: Date range snippet)

Continue reading Creating Snippets in HoudahSpot

Efficient Geotagging: HoudahGeo’s Places Feature

The Places feature introduced in HoudahGeo 5 allows you to save frequently used locations as favorites. This makes manual geotagging – picking locations from a map – way more efficient.

Places can be used in two different ways: as presets for location coordinates and names or as map bookmarks. Continue reading Efficient Geotagging: HoudahGeo’s Places Feature

Stash Extra Criteria in Search Templates

In HoudahSpot, you can temporarily disable individual search criteria. This is particularly useful in combination with templates: have different criteria preconfigured, enable them as needed. Continue reading Stash Extra Criteria in Search Templates