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Tag: GPS

Getting Camera Time Right to Match Photos with GPS Track Logs

Have you ever tried to match photos with a GPS track log and ended up with pictures placed miles away from where they were taken. If your photos don’t line up with your GPS track log, or show up in the wrong place on the map, the camera clock is almost always the reason.

You might have been standing at a scenic overlook… but your photos show up a few steps or streets away—or even in the wrong city entirely. That’s not a GPS problem. It’s a camera time problem.

HoudahGeo matches photos to locations by comparing photo timestamps with GPS track logs. If those timestamps are even slightly off, the resulting locations will be too.

The Camera Setup window in HoudahGeo 7 exists for one reason: helping HoudahGeo understand how your camera recorded time. Once that’s clear, HoudahGeo can accurately match your photos to GPS track points and place them on the map exactly where they belong.

Camera Clock Setup: Fast and Easy Way to Perfect GPS Sync

At first glance the window might look technical. In reality, it’s solving a very practical problem most photographers run into sooner or later — usually right after their first trip where they forgot to update the camera clock.

Here’s how each part works, and a few tips to make it go smoothly.

Continue reading Getting Camera Time Right to Match Photos with GPS Track Logs

HoudahGeo 7.1: Viewing Direction Comes to the Built-In Map

We are pleased to announce the release of HoudahGeo 7.1, a focused update that delivers one of the most requested features: visualization of viewing direction on the built-in map.

This release also:

  • improves map behavior with an off-screen target indicator
  • adds location coordinates copy & paste support from Apple Photos
  • introduces a French localization
  • and significantly reduces memory usage for photo previews.

Viewing direction indicator

    HoudahGeo 7.1 – viewing direction visualized on built-in map

Continue reading HoudahGeo 7.1: Viewing Direction Comes to the Built-In Map

HoudahGeo 7.0 Video Tutorial

Todd Oltoff over at ScreenCastsOnline just published a full walkthrough of HoudahGeo 7, and it’s one of the more thorough tutorials we’ve seen of the app.

ScreenCastsOnline has been around for over 17 years and has built a solid reputation as a go-to resource for Apple software tutorials.

Their video goes through the entire HoudahGeo workflow from start to finish — loading photos from a camera or SD card, syncing a GPX track log to place images on a map, reverse geocoding coordinates into actual place names, and writing everything back to your files (or XMP sidecars, if you prefer).

Continue reading HoudahGeo 7.0 Video Tutorial

No GPS Track? Create a Visual Journey from Geotagged Photos with HoudahGeo

HoudahGeo geocodes and geotags your photos and videos, embedding location information directly into the EXIF or XMP metadata—just like a GPS-enabled camera. If you’ve recorded a GPS track using a dedicated device or a smartphone app, HoudahGeo can precisely match your photos to locations along your route.

This makes it easy to see where each photo was taken and even export a Google Earth (KML) file to view your images placed along the recorded track.

But what if you didn’t record a GPS track?

These days, most of us rely on smartphones for photography. Fortunately, most modern phones automatically geotag your photos with location data. Even without a separate GPS track log, this metadata allows HoudahGeo to reconstruct a visual path of your journey.

Turn Geotagged Photos Into a Track Log

HoudahGeo can generate a track log from geotagged photos, linking them in the order they were taken. This creates a path that approximates your travels and places each photo at its location—perfect for viewing in Google Earth or mapping your trip retrospectively.

Create a GPS track log from photos
Create a GPS track log from photos

Continue reading No GPS Track? Create a Visual Journey from Geotagged Photos with HoudahGeo

Introducing HoudahGeo 7.0: Geotagging Photos and Videos Has Never Been Easier

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of HoudahGeo 7.0 — the biggest update ever to our flagship geotagging solution for Mac.

Since its debut in 2007, HoudahGeo has helped photographers and travelers document their journeys by adding precise GPS location data to their photos. With version 7.0, HoudahGeo steps into a new era: it’s now also your go-to tool for video geotagging.

Whether you’re a photographer, filmmaker, or digital storyteller, HoudahGeo 7.0 gives you powerful tools to build a location-aware media library that goes beyond still images.

🎥 Geotag Videos Alongside Photos

This is the #1 feature request we’ve received — and it’s finally here: video geotagging.

You can now tag your travel videos with GPS coordinates just as easily as photos. Whether you’re working with drone footage, action cams, or smartphone videos, HoudahGeo 7.0 helps you enrich your entire collection with meaningful location data.

HoudahGeo 7 main window
Documenting a Kilimanjaro trek with HoudahGeo 7

Continue reading Introducing HoudahGeo 7.0: Geotagging Photos and Videos Has Never Been Easier

Video Tour of Photos Workbench

This 5-minute guided tour of Photos Workbench rushes you past all the landmarks and leaves you wanting. The tour guide encourages you to download Photos Workbench to satisfy your curiosity.

Continue reading Video Tour of Photos Workbench

Add Locations to Photos Using Photos Workbench

Photos Workbench offers several methods of adding locations to photos:

    • Drag-and-drop photos on a large map
    • Automatic geocoding use a track log from a GPS device or iPhone app
    • Incremental geocoding places photos along the path you traveled

Location information will allow Apple Photos to show your images on a map. It will help you look up images that you did not otherwise file or tag.

Knowing – and showing – where you took a photo adds to its “story”. On the map in Photos and Photos Workbench you get a bird’s-eye view of where you took your photos and the route you took to get there.

Let’s see Photos Workbench in action.

HoudahGeo 6: A New Way of Lining Up Photos with a GPS Track

Automatic geocoding in HoudahGeo matches photos to a GPS track log. A track log is a record of where you have been. A GPS app or track logger records your current position and the current time. It does so every few seconds and thus creates a breadcrumb trail of your travels.

HoudahGeo figures out where you took a photo by matching the timestamp on the photo with the times in the GPS track log. While the GPS device gets accurate time information from satellites, your camera clock is probably not accurate. Most cameras also do not record time zone information: the photo coming out of the camera may say it was taken at 12 PM, but there is no telling if that is to be understood as 12 PM east coast or west coast – a 3-hour difference.

Timestamps in HoudahGeo

HoudahGeo needs to know the exact time a photo was taken. That is why HoudahGeo asks about camera clock settings when you import images.

There are 4 ways you can tell HoudahGeo about your camera clock settings. The first 3 are found in the Load > Camera Setup… panel. This panel pops up automatically when you import photos that lack time zone information.

You can skip Camera Setup… – accept the current settings – and proceed to import more images and GPS track logs. We will correct the camera clock settings later by matching a key photo to a spot on the track log. Continue reading HoudahGeo 6: A New Way of Lining Up Photos with a GPS Track

What’s New in HoudahGeo 6.1?

HoudahGeo 6.1 builds upon last year’s HoudahGeo 6 release to bring you the most comprehensive photo geocoding and geotagging solution for Mac.

KESTREL Weather Log Files

HoudahGeo 6 can add weather information – ambient temperature, air pressure, and humidity – to your photos. Such data can be recorded using KESTREL Drop devices. HoudahGeo 6.1 adds support for more variants of the KESTREL CSV log file format.

Weather Data From GPX Files

Some GPS devices can record weather information along with tracklogs. HoudahGeo 6.1 can now read weather data from GPX files that use the Garmin TrackPointExtension format to store such data.

Scuba Dive Data From GPX Files

HoudahGeo 6 can add scuba diving information like depth below water to your photos. Typically this information is obtained from UDDF dive log files.

Some dive computers and dive logging software can create GPX tracklog files. HoudahGeo 6.1 can now dive log data from GPX files that use the Garmin TrackPointExtension format to store such data.

Apple Aperture on macOS Catalina and Big Sur

HoudahGeo now works with Aperture versions modified by Retroactive to run on recent versions of macOS. Read more…

Further Enhancements

Adobe Lightroom: HoudahGeo now supports Lightroom libraries set up with symbolic links to preview files.

Apple Photos: HoudahGeo now reads malformed XMP sidecar files created by the Export Originals function of the Apple Photos application.

Performance: HoudahGeo 6.1 improves performance when working with large projects.

Window Layout: HoudahGeo now remembers the width of the media browser and inspector panes when switching between processing steps.