Adding meta-data to photos is easy with PhotoGPSEditor.

Once you have loaded the photos you can add four different types of meta-data:

Adding latitude and longitude information

Latitude and longitude information can be added to individual or multiple photos in one of two ways:

First, select the photo or photos and then either:

1. Click the 'Add Marker' button. This will add a draggable marker to the Map on the right-hand side of the window.
2. Move the marker to the position on the map where the picture was taken. The latitude and longitude will be automatically added to the photo(s) meta-data.

Map Controls:

The map can be:

• Dragged: place the mouse over the map, hold down the mouse button and drag
• Zoomed: click on the map zoom button or double clicking the map
• Viewed
  • As a map: click the 'Map' button on the map
  • As satellite images: click 'Satellite' on the map
  • As a combination of a road map and satellite images: click 'Hybrid' on the map

Or:

1. Click on the space next to 'Latitude:' or 'Longitude:' and type in the coordinates.

Note: Positive latitudes are northern hemisphere, negative latitudes are southern hemisphere. Postive longitudes are east and negative are west.

Adding latitude and longitude information from GPS (gpx or NMEA) files

There are two ways of doing this. First, load the GPS data (more information). Once loaded an 'offset' needs to be calculated, that is the difference between the time-stamp in the GPS data and the time-stamp in the photo-file. This can be easily done by clicking the 'Match' button.

Clicking the 'Match' button will try to calculate the 'offset' by finding a 'best-match'. However, this does not always work (particularly if photo and GPS time-stamps are widely different).

If 'Match' does not work then, if it not present, add a pointer to the map and drag it to the location where the first picture was taken, then click the 'Offset' button.

If the photo location cannot be found on the map, and the latitude and longitude of a photo are known these can be entered manually*. Latitude and longitude data can be entered as degrees (e.g. 56.328698); degree and minutes (e.g. 56° 19.72183'); or degrees, minutes and seconds (e.g. 56° 19' 43''). Note, positive latitudes are northern hemisphere, negative latitudes are southern hemisphere. Postive longitudes are east and negative are west. Once the data has been entered clicking the 'Offset' button will calculate the time offset.

Finally, if the 'offset' is known it can be set manually set by adjusting the time settings at the bottom of the page.

Once the offset has been calculated then all the photos in a set can have latitude and longitude data automatically added from the GPS data by clicking the 'Apply to all pictures' button.

* Handy hint: At the start a trip/photo session take a picture of the GPS unit so that the latitude and longitude data can be read. This then provides known latitude and longitude data for a picture so the offset can be calculated.

Automatically or manually add location meta-data

Location meta-data such as town, area /region and country can be added in one of two ways, automatically or manually. Again, information can be added to individual or multiple photos (more information on adding data to multiple pictures).

Automatic: There is really nothing to do. Once the latitude and longitude are entered, either by dragging a marker on the map, by entering the latitude and longitude manually or from GPS data, photogpseditor will query the server at http://terraserver-usa.com/ and find the closest town, area /region and country for the given latitude and longitude.

Manual: Simple click next to 'City:', 'Area:' or 'Country:' and enter the town name, area name or country name.

Note: If town, area and country data are entered manually and then the latitude or longitude are changes the manually entered data will be over-written.

Add a short description to the photo(s) meta-data

A short description for the picture(s) can added in the 'Description:' text area.

Add a longer description to the photo(s) meta-data

A longer description for the picture(s) can added in the 'Comments:' text area.

Change the photo(s) file name

The name of some or all of the photo files can be changed.

Changing one file: To change the name of just one file double click the file name in the photo list (lefthand side of the window) and type in the new name (no need to add the extension .jpg, this will be added when the file is saved).

Bulk changes: To bulk change the names of the photo files just type in the new name you wish to use in the text field just above the 'Change' button and then click the 'Change' button. A sheet will then appear that gives three options:

1. All: Change the name of all the files (the names will be incremented, for example, if you use the name 'Vacation' then the files will become 'Vacation_1', 'Vacation_2', 'Vacation_3' etc.).
2. Selected: Just change the name of the file currently selected.
3. Revert: Change all the file names back to their original file names, that is, the name of the files when they were first loaded.

Next... saving the photos