How can I batch geotag a large backlog of photos from many GPS track logs in Lightroom?
Asked 7/25/2016
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I have many thousands of photos and a few hundred GPS track logs recorded over time. Lightroom’s built-in map workflow feels too manual when processing lots of separate tracks and photo batches. I’m looking for a way to automatically match photos to existing track logs at scale, ideally with minimal intervention, while still allowing for timezone adjustments and review before writing location data. Is there a Lightroom-based tool or workflow that handles this better than the default geotagging tools?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
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Jeffrey Friedl has written a Lightroom plugin which goes a long way to addressing the concerns addressed in this question.
http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/gps
It appears to be sensibly designed and well maintained, and is offered on a very reasonable donation-ware basis with a generous trial period. Indeed, I had used this plugin in the past, before Lightroom (or at least, the version I was using) had any geocoding support - for some reason I'd vaguely assumed that the LR functionality had rendered it mostly redundant to me, but this is not the case.
The way it handles timezones means that it is necessary to manually do separate batches for data that belongs to different timezones, as this is specified by the user at the time of applying the action. While this does mean that it requires somewhat more manual intervention than I'd hoped for, it reduces it to a manageable level while dealing simply with potential ambiguities that would arise otherwise.
Originally by user2063. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2063
10y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes. A commonly recommended option is Jeffrey Friedl’s Lightroom GPS/geocoding plugin, which is designed to streamline this kind of batch geotagging better than Lightroom’s built-in tools.
Based on the community feedback, it handles the task in a sensible, well-maintained way and is a strong fit for matching large numbers of photos to existing GPS track logs. One limitation noted is timezone handling: if your backlog spans multiple time zones, you’ll likely need to process those as separate batches because the timezone is specified when you apply the action.
That said, for a single user with camera and logger traveling together, this is still much more practical than manually working through tracks one by one in Lightroom’s standard interface. As with any automated geotagging, correct camera time is important; if timestamps are off due to DST or clock errors, review the results before writing metadata.
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