Embedding geotags in master photo and video using Aperture

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Level 1

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Embedding geotags in master photo and video using Aperture

My iPhone 4 geotags photo and video, as does my handy (Canon) compact camera. Photos store the geo information in the EXIF data I believe, and a bit of research suggests the geo information in the videos is stored in the actual H.264 video rather than the 'container'.

To my question.

I have a library of photos from the last couple of years taken with a different camera that I would like to retrospectively (and I appreciate quite roughly - e.g. by city) geotag. I'm a bit of a stickler for information management and I want these geotags embedded in the master images and videos.

I have found Aperture, even when I ask it to, does not do this. It seems to hold the geo information I add in its library file, but if I look at the master through a different piece of software it doesn't see the geotag.

A workaround is to geotag an image and then export the master, and the exported version will have the geotag embedded.

I have no workaround for video files - geotags work within Aperture (again presumably stored in the library's database file) but won't stick on the master video whatever I try. I believe this could be because some of my old videos are in formats that don't support the geo metadata. I plan to try converting to an .m4v with h.264 video, that I hope can then accept embedded geo data. The old videos are fairly poor quality anyway, so i'm not precious about running them through a converter, if i can get the metadata added properly as a result! (They are so old that many can't even hold basic metadata such as 'date taken', which I also want to add!).

So, any advice would be appreciated.

Can I get Aperture to embed geotags into masters (I use a referenced library if that matters) without the need to export then re-import?

Can it do the same for video, and if so what video formats can accept this metadata?

Thanks,

Rich

Aperture 3, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Mac Mini

Posted on Mar 21, 2012 3:45 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Mar 21, 2012 9:54 AM in response to richjhowell

Hello Rich,

no solution - sorry; only a work-around:

I do two things to ensure my masters are geotagged as well:

For new imports, I do the geocoding before I import into Aperture.
For older images, that need geotags, I send them to an external editor that can add geotags; I use GraphicConverter for that; I bought it for other reasons, but it can add geotags as well. Since Aperture sends a new master to the exernal editor, you have essentially the same behaviour as when you are exporting your image.
And yes, you certainly should make sure the masters are geotagged as well - it is so easy to forget, that only the versions carry the tags - I made that mistake several times.

Video? no idea ...

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 2

richjhowell Author

Level 1

25 points

Mar 22, 2012 1:36 AM in response to léonie

Thanks Leonie

I have looked at GraphicConverter and I'm considering a purchase. I have been trying various free tools for fiddling with metadata but none have ever been entirely satisfactory.

What I particularly like about Aperture's geotagging is that you can drag and drop on to a Google map - nice and easy. But I hate that I have to export the image in order to embed - I have a decent DSLR now so there's no way I will run those original images through an export process - Aperture definitely does interefere with the image as well as the metadata! I wish Aperture would allow proper writing of metadata to masters - other forums confirm it can only write IPTC metadata, and even that appears to be flaky! I don't want all my information to be tied in to Aperture - each master file should 'stand alone' with all its relevant information intact, for any tool I choose to use to interact with it, or if I should send it to anyone else.

I can't see from their website - is there a user-frendly interface in GraphicConverter for geotagging including a map drag-and-drop? Or do you manually have to enter coordinates in to metadata fields? I assume you can edit IPTC and EXIF metadata to add keywords and things? This would be a useful tool alongside Aperture, to make up for its shortcomings.

I could use GraphicConverter to add geotags (and keywords) prior to import in to Aperture as part of my import process. At least until I get a camera with GPS and then all this will be a thing of the past!

I will investigate with videos and post back here with any results.My research on the web is very inconclusive and it looks like different manufacturers use different conventions for video geotags, so I'll see what I can do!

Personally I find geotags one of the most valuable pieces of metadata I can attach to my personal images and videos, alongside date and time, so i am determined to find a way to do both!!

Rich

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,260 points

Mar 22, 2012 1:46 AM in response to richjhowell

You can download a free trial of Graphic Converter to explore the possibilities.

I guess I don't understand what you have to write the data back to the Master while you're still in the Aperture ecosystem. It's available to the shot, and if you're moving out of the Aperture ecosystem then you'll be exporting anyway, no?

Regards

TD

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Mar 22, 2012 2:09 AM in response to richjhowell

Rich, if you are considering to buy a program just for geotagging newly taken pictures, then look at Jet Photo Studio or Geotagalog first. Both are cheaper than Graphic Converter, and it is very easy to match your images to imported GPS tracks or to point to a location on the map and to assign the coordinates to a set of selected images at once. Jet Photo Studio is what I am using now to tag my images prior to importing to Aperture, and it works well with raw images.

Graphic Converter I use for single, already imported images that are missing GPS tags. GraphicConverter uses GoogleEarth for geotagging. You can assign the position that is currently selected in Google Earth to the image you are editing in GraphicConverter. It is not a workflow I would recommend for large collections of images. It is quite a lot of work and error prone.

If you are familiar with commandline tools, you may give exiftool a try:

ExifTool by Phil Harvey: http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

If I remember correctly, you can assign exif to videos with it, but I am not sure about it.

Léonie

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Answer 5

Lt.Tuvok

Level 1

105 points

Mar 22, 2012 2:19 AM in response to richjhowell

I use the GPS settings in the metadata views. After that I write the IPTC data to the master photos. When I export the masters all metadata is included as well.

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Mar 22, 2012 3:40 AM in response to Yer_Man

TD,

It's available to the shot, and if you're moving out of the Aperture ecosystem then you'll be exporting anyway, no?

There is one pitfall with that approach: If you create a new version from the master, this new version will not be geocoded, if the geotags are only contained in the version and not in the master as well.

You always have to stamp the metadata to the the new version to preserve the geotags; that is why I like to be sure that the geocoding is embedded in the master image files.

Regards

Léonie

P.S.: A version (left) and a new "version from master" in "Places" View: the version is geocoded, the new version from master not - no pin 😟

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Mar 23, 2012 7:23 AM in response to léonie

A follow up:

Just looked again at the exiftool documentation:

http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/exiftool_pod.html

exiftool indeed supports various video formats and raw formats, see the introduction of the documentation. If you plan to use it, you could write an automator workflow that hides the terminal commands inside a "run shell script" action.

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Answer 8

richjhowell Author

Level 1

25 points

Apr 29, 2012 7:18 AM in response to léonie

Hi Leonie and Terence, thank you both for your input.

Thanks Leonie for describing why it's important to have Geo-tags in the masters. In my opinion it is a key piece of metadata and I want it fixed to the actual photo permanently. Aperture is just one 'tool' that I might use to interact with pictures, but they should be able to stand alone and retain their contextual data. The export process messes with the actual image itself, where applying a geo-tag to an original image should have no effect at all on the image itself, just the metadata. It's a shame Aperture's 'write metadata to masters' functionality isn't great.

Since writing I have bought a digital camera which has built-in geotagging and it's really quite effective. So for shots taken with that I can now import direct to Aperture.

However, my old pics I am going to treat with Graphic Converter - a great suggestion it has a good interface and does the job perfectly.

Videos I'm afraid I haven't had much luck with. The new camera does geo-tag motion JPEG videos, but the method seems to involve a JPEG file with matadata somehow attached to the motion JPEG video. On the Mac they display as two seperate files. Graphic Converter seems to recognise the 'relationship' and shows the video as located at the JPEG's geotag. Aperture treats them as two individual files and does not see the video as Geo-tagged. I wonder whether the two files may be seen/treated differently on a Windows machine - as examples online suggest it appears as one geo-tagged video.

I may experiement trying to convert my older videos to the same file format that the iPhone outputs, and then see if graphic converter can add geo-tags (it sees geo tags on iPhone videos).

So, photos solved, videos still not quite!

Rich

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Answer 9

burdell1

Level 1

33 points

Jul 14, 2012 9:48 AM in response to richjhowell

isn't there a way to add the the gps info to the IPTC info that is written to the originals? I assumed that Aperture 3 would be able to update the originals (or masters) with the geotag data (without using any other supplement program, but i guess i was wrong. However, is there a way to change the default IPTC data so that the original photos can be updated with the gps information?

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Answer 10

burdell1

Level 1

33 points

Oct 10, 2012 9:24 PM in response to burdell1

Anyone?

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Answer 11

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Oct 11, 2012 1:14 AM in response to burdell1

Anyone?

Just read the thread - nothing has changed since the last posts, sorry.

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Answer 12

Oct 3, 2013 11:57 PM in response to richjhowell

Hey Rich, Léonie, everyone else from this thread,

I came across this post earlier today... Rich's initial post was exactly the same question I was asking! I was wondering what solution/workflow you ended up proceeding with? I'm concerned about imbeding my original images with the proper metadata and would love to hear how it worked out with GraphicConverter and if you ever found a solution for working with video.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Michael

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Answer 13

didole

Level 1

10 points

Oct 6, 2013 1:22 AM in response to michaelzoradi

All,

I am using "HoudahGeo" for this purpose. It is the only tool I have found that can add location information to both the master AND the version(s) from a GPX file to an image in an Aperture (or Lightroom) library. No need to export/import from Aperture, or to add Geotags to the master before importing.

I strongly recommend this app - the UI is a little bit strange, but it's fullfilling the purpose.

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Answer 14

Oct 6, 2013 2:20 AM in response to didole

Thanks for the respond and suggestion! I'll check out HoudahGeo... looks like it could be super helpful!!

One question... Does it only allow you to add GPS info from a GPX file... OR can you also add coordinates for the center of Paris France (for example) to a bunch of photos that you don't have a GPX file for but you know were taken in Paris?

Thanks again for your help!

-Michael

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Answer 15

didole

Level 1

10 points

Oct 6, 2013 2:35 AM in response to michaelzoradi

Actually it can do both: geotagging based on GPX files, or based on the map.

There is a trial version available that will only allow you to save back the data for 5 photos in ones shot.

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