The world as frankps sees it!
Posts tagged Geotagging
Outdated Flickr Maps
Nov 30th
One of the few things that I really dislike with Flickr, is the use of outdated maps. I don’t know if that is a common problem, only a problem in Europe or in Norway. But I more and more often see that the maps that I’m using to geotag my photos with, are outdated. So also today. This weekend I was downtown making some photos of the Opera House in the harbor here in Oslo. The map provided from Flickr (Yahoo Maps?) must be at least 6-7 years old. Perhaps even older! So my question is, what is the update frequency on maps and satelite pictures in Yahoo Maps?
Another thing is the automatic naming of the places. It is also often horrible wrong. So also this time. Flickr mistakenly adds St. Hanshaugen to the map and the picture, which is a kilometer away and a quite different part of Oslo.
Here are some more pictures that according to Flickr and Yahoo Maps don’t excist:
Map powered by MapPress
iMapFlickr
Nov 12th
The map service is perhaps the weakest service on Flickr, and I have been looking for alternatives. This week I found one. iMapFlickr lets you easily create custom Google Maps from your geotagged Flickr Photos, and it, of course, let you embed the maps to your website or blog. You can even link the maps up on Facebook or Twitter. And best of all, it’s free!
iMapFlickr is a great mashup tool with customizable map settings (photo size, map height and pin style), and you can save your maps for later use as well. The tool is one of many Flickr tools that are available at Flickr App Garden.
I learned about possibility of Combining Map Flickr and Flickr on Digital allows for easy Online Mapping on Digital Photography School.
Can Expono battle with Flickr and Picasa?
Jul 24th
I have had access to Expono for a while, but never gotten around to use it. Before you read this review, know this: I have been using Flickr 3-4 years already, and have all my pictures there. I have only briefly tested Picasa. It is difficult to review Expono as a start-up company, as it is competing directly with two of Internet’s biggest players, Google and Yahoo. Both Google’s Picasa and Yahoo’s Flickr are popular services and just about feature complete. So the questions for this review are: Is there space for Expono and what extra does Expono give, that should make established users of Picasa and Flickr consider to move. I consider it wrong to ask the question: If I was to start sharing pictures today, what would I choose?
There are a fair number of photo sharing sites available, and it was therefore strange to see the announcement of Expono opening for the public on the very same day as Fox Interactive Media lays off one third of the staff (of 120) at the competing photo-sharing site Photobucket. I hope Expono makes it.
Expono is fairly easy to use and comes with a clean and simple user interface for most of it’s functionality. I found the connections to Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed a mess. The uploads have an ok speed, but miss not having the possibility to upload directly from Adobe Lightroom and Windows Live Photo Gallery. Perhaps someone will make a plugin in the future? Expono has all the features you expect to find on a media sharing site: Online backup, easy sharing, albums and tagging (also face and geo tagging), find duplicates and iPhoto photocast support. It also comes with a fine-grained access control, actually quite a bit better then the one in Flickr. Just take a look at Expono’s feature list,�and you will be convinced. There are a lot of people that has not chosen a photo sharing solution yet, and Expono has timed there launch well, opening their service to the public in July. Just in time for people to upload and share their holiday memories.
Launching after Flickr and Picasa gives them the advantage of knowing what functionality users want, and also an opportunity to implement the features in better ways! Expono is for instance far easier/better on creating a new album and then adding photos to the album. And these functions are key functionalities in any photo sharing solution!
Expono is also one of the best examples I have seen of cloud computing so far. The company does not have their own server park, but have rather based their service on Amazon AWS (Amazon Web Services) combined with RightScale Cloud Computing Management Platform.
Lightroom and geo data (GPS)
Mar 14th
I recently bought a copy of Lightroom 2.0 and have it installed on my Windows 7 x64 installation. I was quite surprised that Lightroom didn’t have any features for geo data. I found that I couldn’t merge geo data from my Sony GPS-CS1 GPS unit. But it was not more then one search on Google with the words “lightroom gps” and I was on the track of getting my problem solved. On LightroonNews I found the article GPS metadata in Lightroom and Google Maps, and it turns out that basically, if you have GPS metadata embedded in an image file, Lightroom will let you link directly to Google Maps and locate exactly where that photograph had been taken. Lightroom does not allow direct input or in-line editing of GPS data, in fact the GPS fields only appear in the metadata panel when you’ve selected an image that has GPS data already embedded.
So the big question is how do I get the metadata merged in to the pictures on my Nikon D60? On my Mac, I use HoudahGeo to get the geo data in with the rest of the EXIF metadata stored within the pictures. I found that the photo entusiast Jeffrey Friedl has made a Geoencoding plugin for Lightroom 2.0. It is distributed as “donationware”. That basically means that it is provided as free. So also in this case for the first six weeks, after which it becomes limited to geoencoding 10 photos at a time until registered. Registration is only 1 cent. So I guess I will end up paying the normal 15-20 dollars, as I do for most of the shareware I buy. But first, I would like to try it!
Installation is fairly easy. Just install the plugin in to the following directory: \Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Plugins\
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