“Take Control of Your Digital Photos,” Chapter 2
It’s easy to think that taking control of digital photos begins when you import the images into your computer, but the truth is that the process starts before you capture your first shot. For example, time stamps are the foundation of photo-management software, making it essential that your camera records the correct time. It is possible to fix errant time stamps later, but doing so throws a roadblock into your workflow. (And if enough roadblocks appear, you may decide to turn around and abandon the endeavor altogether.) The advice in this chapter isn’t complicated, but it goes a long way toward ensuring the photos you shoot will be cleanly imported.
With respect to geotagging methods, you might also mention using a gps logging app on a smartphone, effectively turning it into a GPS logger. One of issues I have with devices (such as standalone GPS's and GPS's in camera) is that it often takes a fairly long period of time to get an initial position. Since smartphones usually use WiFi to assist in this, the tracking almost always is complete before you snap a picture..
Almost any app which can output a GPX file will do, but battery use may be an issue for some of them, as running a GPS logger all day with continuous checking will rapidly deplete the batter. Photo specific apps, like Geotag Photos allow you to specify the frequency of the checks. I usually use 30 sends or 1 minute, which gets the battery use into an acceptable range.
One app, gps4cam, takes a slightly different use to recording the log. It encodes it as several QR code images which you capture with your camera. Using a compatible computer app, you then merge the data with your pictures.
I cover GPS more later in the book, but I wasn't aware of gps4cam. I'll check it out. Thanks Alan!
What's the difference between the Lite and Pro version of Geotag Photos? [Edit] Answering own question: Lite version only will record manually, i.e., when you click record this location.
I usually carry a dedicated GPS for logging, but it's one more device. I've used my iPhone on occasion and Geotag Photos might be a reasonable compromise between accuracy, convenience, and battery life. I have an auxiliary battery for long trips anyway. If the iPhone GPS was more accurate I'd go with it for sure. I am referring to the accuracy with no Wi-Fi and intermittent cell towers, for example, in the woods.
What about leaving your camera on say UST (or home) and setting the time offset when uploading to Aperture or after loading? I ask in part because I get confused by how Aperture handles it; I haven't messed with this in a while, but I remember that the Time Adjustment function (found in Batch Change) really just makes a relative change, even though you select camera time zone and photo location time zone. In other words if you make the change twice Aperture does not respect the actual camera time zone, but uses whatever it may have been set too (in other words, the first time you make a change it does use the camera time zone, but if you change again it uses what was the photo time zone as the camera time zone). Hoping your book will cover that. Or I could spend a couple of hours digging into it.
I use a script based method with gpx logs to relabel, set time and location for my photos. Too complex for general use and not without complications. The main complication comes if I upload the photos while traveling.
We travel several times a year and keeping two or three cameras set is more than I can remember to do while traveling. For example on a recent driving trip to Baja from California, the US has changed to DST and Mexico hadn't; we crossed a time zone going into Southern Baja, and shortly thereafter Mexico changed to DST and then changed time zones returning. We also cross Arizona about once per year and they follow different DST rules. With the script-based approach or while uploading to Aperture I can handle this methodically.
I read these first two chapters right away knowing I am not keeping up with my photos. Looking forward to more chapters and the book.
I am particularly looking forward to the GPS workflow recommendations; I have hundreds of hiking photos and likely thousands of GPS data points that I have not merged mostly because I haven't spent the time to come up with a time-efficient workflow. I have all the ingredients (Pentax Optio weatherproof camera, Garmin Forerunner, HoudahGeo, HoudahGPS, etc.) but lack a good recipe to put it all together.
It happened to me more than once to forget to update the clocks of my cameras. Moreover, the clocks of some cameras seem to drift. There is a nice utility to correct timestamps called shootShifter. I use it also to set the creation date of JPEGs to the date the photo was taken (rather than when produced by an editor).
"The iPhone, cellular-capable iPads (which also include GPS hardware), and many other smartphones automatically record location data when a picture is captured. In the Photos app under iOS, for example, the Places category indicates where photos were shot""
Umm...I don't see any Places category in the PHotos app. I have latest iOS but iPhone 4S. Is it only on the iPhone 5?
On my iPhone 4S running iOS 6, Places is the right-most button at the bottom of the screen.
The only three options underneath a photo are the send to (various options, like Facebook Mail, Twitter, Message, etc), slideshow options and the trash.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. The Places button appears when you're viewing albums, not when you're viewing a single photo.
If you still don't see it, I wonder if perhaps Location Services isn't activated for the Camera and Photos apps. You can check in Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
Right. It wasn't activated for Camera. I had turned a lot of them off while traveling recently, to save batteries and roaming charges and similar. I've turned the Camera location services on again, but there isn't one for the Photo app.
Re 'Clear the Memory Card', I absolutely agree with your tip to do it using the camera's menu system, but I would add that it's best to do it by formatting the card. That way you can be reasonably sure you've removed any errors or corruption that may have crept in - and if it's a big card it's a heck of a lot quicker than deleting all the photos!