When going through a box of old photographs or viewing the latest digital pictures on your computer, did you ever ask, “I wonder where this photograph was taken?” You can use software tools to record the exact location of every digital picture in your collection. This includes old family photographs that you have scanned as well as new pictures that you or someone else takes with a digital camera.
None of the products I will mention not do the detective work for you. You must still find where the picture was taken in the traditional manner. For instance, “Here is Aunt Millie and Uncle Fred at Niagara Falls” or something similar. You then scan the photograph, saving it as a JPEG image. Once the photograph is on your hard drive, you use a Windows or Macintosh program or an online app “in the cloud” to embed the longitude and latitude information into the photograph in a hidden area of the image. Once the information is recorded, you and future viewers of the image will wonder no more. Even better, with the appropriate software, you can just click on an icon to display a map that shows the exact location.
Even better, pictures taken with iPhones and most Android phones already have the longitude and latitude information embedded into the photograph.
The added information is not visible when looking at the image but can be read by any software that looks for EXIF information. There are several EXIF programs available today, and new ones appear frequently.
Metadata in photography is information that describes the image files. Photography metadata is not visible when looking at the photograph. However, using a program that is capable of reading metadata, the information displayed typically includes information on the data and time the picture was taken. Certain metadata entries are generated automatically by the camera. Lens aperture, focal length, camera shutter speed, ISO sensitivity, whether flash was used or not – all this information is also metadata. Every modern digital camera embeds this sort of information to each image individually and by default. However, other metadata entries – those that describes the image – may also be manually added later, if desired. All that is needed is a piece of software that can read and write EXIF data.
Exchangeable Image File Format, or EXIF as it is normally called, is a standard that specifies the formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras (including smartphones), scanners and other systems handling image and sound files recorded by digital cameras. XIT ios used with JPEG (or JPG) as well as with TIFF images. It is not available with GIF, PNG, or other image formats.
Technical metadata as described by the EXIF standard also can include fields for GPS data, such as geographical latitude/longitude, altitude, and track. The so-called “smartphones” typically add latitude and longitude information automatically as they normally include internal GPS capabilities. Most other cameras do not have GPS capabilities so do not include GPS coordinates. However, there are a few exceptions. A few of the higher-priced digital cameras do have built-in GPS receivers and are capable of automatically recording geographic coordinates in each picture.
Several photo image editing programs, such as Photoshop, allow the user to manually enter the coordinates of the place where the picture was shot and insert them into these hidden fields within the photograph. Other metadata also can be manually edited.
EXIF specifications for GPS data have been in existence for a long time. Google Earth also displays EXIF data. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications that support geo-coding of images are also available today.
To view the EXIF information of a photograph in Windows, a subset of the EXIF information may be viewed by right clicking on an image file and clicking properties; from the properties dialog click the Summary tab. There are several ways to view EXIF information on a Macintosh. One method is in the Preview application included on all Macs. Choose the image you want, then open your photo with Preview. Next, go to Tools -> Show Inspector; Click Exif Tab, you can see the Exif data, GPS data of this photo. For the Photos application; see http://osxdaily.com/2015/06/17/view-exif-data-photos-mac-os-x/ for step-by-step instructions.
Most photo editing programs will allow for viewing and editing EXIF data. In addition, several specialty EXIF editors are also available, including:
Web Based Services
the eXif.er is a FREE (donations are accepted) online service will read the embedded EXIF information (if any) and allow the user to edit the information. Pictures can be edited one at a time or in batches. The program’s documentation is a bit “bare bones,” apparently written by someone who does not speak or write English as his or her native language. Still, with a bit of experimenting, the eXif.er can be a very powerful and useful program. the eXif.er is available at: http://www.thexifer.net
IMGonline.com.ua is another free EXIF, editor for JPEG photos. It may be found at http://www.imgonline.com.ua/eng/exif-editor.php
Both Windows and Macintosh
ExifTool by Phil Harvey is a very powerful, multi-purpose, and FREE program for reading, writing, and manipulating image, audio, and video metadata. ExifTool is available for Macintosh and Windows at http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
Macintosh
The Macintosh has too many EXIF editors to list! The easiest method of finding the latest list of EXIF editors for the Mac is to use your Macintosh, open the App Store program, and search for EXIF. You will find dozens of programs that will read EXIF data and most will allow for editing the data as well. Prices vary from FREE to $40 or more, depending upon the additional capabilities of each program.
Windows
Windows Explorer is actually a wonderful Exif editor. Just right click any image file, choose Properties and click the Details tab. You can now edit a wide range of metadata associated with that image from the camera model to the shooting date to copyright information and more. However, Windows Explorer won’t let you edit GPS related information of photographs.
XnView is a FREE Windows image organizer and general-purpose file manager used for viewing, converting, organizing and editing raster images, as well as general purpose file management. It includes the capability to edit EXIP data. XnView is available at: http://www.xnview.com/en/xnview/
Free Exif Pilot Editor – a free EXIF-editor with support for a paid plug-in for batch editing. Exif Pilot allows reading and editing the following file formats: JPEG, PNG, DNG, NEF, PEF, CRW, PSD, RAF, CR2, MRW, ARW, and many others. Exif Pilot is available at http://www.colorpilot.com/exif.html
PhotoME is a powerful Windows tool to show and edit the meta data of image files. Thanks to the well organised layout and intuitive handling, it’s possible to analyze and modify Exif and IPTC-NAA data as well as analyse ICC profiles – and it’s completely FREE at https://www.photome.de/
IrfanView is a very popular photo viewing program for Windows that includes many capabilities. It will display EXIF data but does not allow for editing the data. IrfanView is available at: http://www.irfanview.net/
The above is a list of some of the more popular Windows EXIF viewers/editors but certainly is not a complete list. You can find more with a Google search: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=exif%20editor
Filed under: Photography 
