The ExifTool geotagging feature adds GPS tags to images based on data from a GPS track log file. The GPS track log file is loaded, and linear interpolation is used to determine the GPS position at the time of the image, then the following tags are written to the image (if the corresponding information is available):
| GPSLatitude | GPSLongitude | GPSAltitude | CameraElevationAngle | GPSPitch |
| GPSLatitudeRef | GPSLongitudeRef | GPSAltitudeRef | GPSDateStamp | GPSRoll |
| GPSTrack | GPSSpeed | GPSImgDirection | GPSTimeStamp | |
| GPSTrackRef | GPSSpeedRef | GPSImgDirectionRef | GPSHPositioningError | |
| GPSCoordinates | AmbientTemperature | GPSMeasureMode | GPSDOP |
Note: GPSPitch and GPSRoll are not standard tags, and must be user-defined. GPSCoordinates is written to the preferred QuickTime group when writing QuickTime-format files.
Currently supported GPS track log file formats:
Geotagging is accomplished in ExifTool through the use of three special
write-only Extra tags:
Geotag, Geosync and Geotime.
The Geotag tag is used to define the GPS track log data. The
geotagging feature is activated by assigning the name of a track log file to
this tag. As an example, the following command line adds GPS tags to all images
in the "/Users/Phil/Pictures" directory based on GPS positions stored in the
track log file "track.log" in the current directory:
exiftool -geotag=track.log /Users/Phil/Pictures
For convenience (and to make this feature more prominent in the
documentation), the exiftool application also provides a -geotag
option, so this command is equivalent to the one above:
exiftool -geotag track.log /Users/Phil/Pictures
Multiple GPS log files may be loaded simultaneously by using more than one
-geotag option or -geotag= assignment in the same
command, or by using wildcards in the filename argument of the
-geotag option. This allows batch processing of images spanning
different tracks with a single command. When using wildcards the argument may
need to be quoted on some systems to prevent shell globbing, but note that
wildcards are not supported with the -geotag= syntax. See the
examples below.
Deleting the Geotag tag (with -geotag=) causes the
GPS tags written by the -geotag feature to be deleted.
A special feature allows writing of only GPS date/time tags when there is no position available by specifying a log file name of "DATETIMEONLY" (all capitals).
Programmers: You may write either a GPS log file name
or the GPS log data as the value for Geotag. If the value contains
a newline or a null byte it is assumed to be data, otherwise it is taken as a
file name.
The Geosync tag is needed only when the image timestamps are not
properly synchronized with GPS time. The value written to Geosync
may take a number of different forms, but the basic format is that of a simple
time difference which is added to Geotime before interpolating the
GPS position in the track log. This time difference may be of the form "SS",
"MM:SS", "HH:MM:SS" or "DD HH:MM:SS" (where SS=seconds, MM=minutes, HH=hours and
DD=days), and a leading "+" or "-" may be added for positive or negative
differences (positive if the GPS time was ahead of the camera clock).
Fractional seconds are allowed (eg. "SS.ss").
For example, "-geosync=-1:20" specifies that synchronization
with GPS time is achieved by subtracting 1 minute and 20 seconds from the
Geotime value. See the Time Synchronization Tip
below for more details.
Note that a single decimal value is interpreted as
seconds when written to Geosync. This is different from of other
date/time shift values where a single value is normally taken as hours.
The Geosync value may also be specified using 3 different
formats which provide a GPS time and a corresponding camera clock time. While
these formats may be used for a simple (constant) time synchronization offset,
they are necessary when performing a clock drift correction (with multiple
synchronization points), and are described below.
Camera clock drift correction:
A more advanced Geosync feature allows the GPS time and the
image time to be specified together, facilitating a time drift correction if
more than one synchronization point is provided. For this, the value written to
Geosync takes one of the following forms:
Format Notes FILE Both GPS and image timestamps are extracted from the specified file. eg) -geosync=image.jpgGPSTIME@FILE GPS time is taken from the Geosyncvalue and the image timestamp is extracted from the specified file. eg)-geosync="12:58:05@image.jpg"GPSTIME@IMGTIME Both GPS and image timestamps are taken from the Geosyncvalue. eg)-geosync="12:58:05@2010:01:02 12:25:26"
The values of GPSTIME and IMGTIME specified on the command line may contain a date, but it is not necessary.
Notes:
Geosync value is defined.The Geotime tag specifies the point in time for which the GPS
position is calculated (by interpolating between fixes in the GPS track log).
Unless a group is specified, exiftool writes the generated tags to the default
groups. If a value for Geotime is not given, it is taken from
unformatted value of DateTimeOriginal for each image (as if
"-Geotime<DateTimeOriginal#" had been specified), but the value
may be copied from any other date/time tag or set directly from a date/time
string.
If the date/time tag does not include a timezone then one may be added (eg.
"-Geotime<${CreateDate}-05:00"), otherwise the local system time
is assumed. Decimal seconds are supported in the time value.
By default, in image files GPS tags are created in EXIF and the corresponding
XMP tags are updated in only if they already exist. In QuickTime-format files
the XMP tags are created by default as well as writing QuickTime:GPSCoordinates
in the preferred location. However, an EXIF, XMP or QuickTime group name may be
specified to force writing only to the specified location. For example, writing
XMP:Geotime or EXIF:Geotime will write the generated
GPS tags only to XMP or EXIF respectively. Note that when written to XMP, the
GPSLatitudeRef and GPSLongitudeRef tags are not used,
and the XMP GPSDateTime tag is written instead of the separate EXIF
GPSDateStamp and GPSTimeStamp tags. Using
QuickTime:Geotime disables writing of XMP tags to QuickTime-format
files creates the GPSPosition tag in the preferred QuickTime location (ItemList
by default), but ItemList:Geotime, UserData:Geotime or
Keys:Geotime may be specified to write to a specific location.
See the Examples section below for sample command lines illustrating various aspects of the geotagging feature.
Programmers: Note thatGeotimemust always be specified when geotagging via the API (the default value ofDateTimeOriginal#is implemented by the application). Also,Geotimemust be set after bothGeotagandGeosync(the exiftool application reorders the assignments to ensure this).
Geolocation city, state/province and country tags may be written automatically based on the geotagged GPS position by setting the Geolocate tag to "geotag". For example:
exiftool -geotag track.gpx -geolocate=geotag c:\images
See the "While geotagging" section of the Geolocation page for more information.
ExifTool supports input log files in CSV format with the first row containing headings in the form of ExifTool tag names or descriptions. Valid column headings are:
Column Heading Description GPSDateTime Date and time in standard EXIF format, or other format specified by the -doption if used.
Time is assumed to be in UTC unless the values contain another time zoneGPSDateStamp Date in standard EXIF format GPSTimeStamp Time in EXIF format. UTC is assumed unless the values include a time zone GPSLatitude Latitude in flexible ExifTool format (see FAQ 14) GPSLongitude Longitude in flexible ExifTool format (see FAQ 14) GPSLatitudeRef String beginning with "S" for southern coordinates (used only if GPSLatitude isn't signed or doesn't specify hemisphere) GPSLongitudeRef String beginning with "W" for western coordinates (used only if GPSLongitude isn't signed or doesn't specify hemisphere) GPSAltitude Altitude in meters relative to sea level (negative for below sea level) GPSSpeed Speed in knots, or specified units if "(km/h)", "(mph)" or "(m/s)" appears in heading GPSTrack Compass heading in degrees true GPSImgDirection Camera compass direction in degrees true GPSPitch or
CameraElevationAnglePitch angle in degrees with positive pitch upwards GPSRoll Roll angle in degrees
Required columns are GPSDateTime (or GPSDateStamp and GPSTimeStamp), GPSLatitude and GPSLongitude. All other columns are optional, and unrecognized columns are ignored.
1. Geotag all images in the "c:\images" directory from position information in a
GPS track log ("c:\gps logs\track.log"). Since the Geotime time is
not specified, the value of DateTimeOriginal# is used. Local
system time is assumed unless DateTimeOriginal# contains a
timezone:
exiftool -geotag "c:\gps logs\track.log" c:\images
2. Geotag all images in directory "dir" from the GPS positions in "track.log" (in the current directory), for a camera clock that was running 25 seconds slower than the GPS clock:
exiftool -geotag track.log -geosync=+25 dir
3. Geotag an image with the GPS position for a specific time:
exiftool -geotag t.log -geotime="2009:04:02 13:41:12-05:00" a.jpg
4. Geotag all images in directory "dir" with XMP tags instead of EXIF tags,
based on the image CreateDate:
exiftool -geotag log.gpx "-xmp:geotime<createdate" dir
5. Geotag images in "dir" using CreateDate with the specified
timezone. If CreateDate already contained a timezone, then the
timezone specified on the command line is ignored. (Note that in Windows,
double quotes (") must be used instead of single quotes
(') around the -geotime argument in the next 2
commands):
exiftool -geotag a.log '-geotime<${createdate}+01:00' dir
6. Geotag images for which the camera clock was set to UTC (+00:00), using
the time from DateTimeOriginal:
exiftool -geotag trk.gpx '-geotime<${DateTimeOriginal}+00:00' dir
7. Delete GPS tags which were added by the geotag feature. (Note that this does
not remove all GPS tags -- to do this instead use -gps:all=):
exiftool -geotag= a.jpg
8. Delete XMP GPS tags which were added by the geotag feature:
exiftool -xmp:geotag= a.jpg
9. Geotag an image with XMP tags, using the time from
DateTimeOriginal:
exiftool -xmp:geotag=track.log a.jpg
10. Combine multiple track logs and geotag an entire directory tree of images:
exiftool -geotag a.log -geotag b.log -r dir
11. Use wildcards to load multiple track files (the quotes are necessary for most operating systems to prevent filename expansion):
exiftool -geotag "logs/*.log" dir
12. Geotag from a sub-second date/time value with a sub-second time synchronization (only possible if the EXIF sub-second time stamps are available):
exiftool -Geotag a.log -Geosync=+13.42 "-Geotime<SubSecDateTimeOriginal" dir
13. Geotag images with a piecewise linear time drift correction using the GPS time synchronization from three already-geotagged images:
exiftool -geotag a.log -geosync=1.jpg -geosync=2.jpg -geosync=3.jpg dir
14. Geotag MP4 videos by writing Keys:GPSCoordinates (add
-api QuickTimeUTC to this command if CreateDate in your
videos is UTC):
exiftool -geotag a.log "-keys:geotime<createdate" -ext MP4 dir
15. Geotag images in EXIF by DateTimeOriginal and videos in UserData by CreateDate:
exiftool -geotag a.log "-exif:geotime<datetimeoriginal" "-userdata:geotime<createdate" dir
Geotagging may be configured via the following ExifTool options. These
options may be set using either the -api option of the command-line
application, the Options() function of the API, or the
%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Options hash of the config file. (See the
sample config file for details about how to use the
config file.)
Option Description Values Default GeoMaxIntSecs Maximum interpolation time in seconds for geotagging. Geotagging is treated as an extrapolation if the Geotime value lies between two fixes in the same track which are separated by a number of seconds greater than this. Otherwise, the coordinates are calculated as a linear interpolation between the nearest fixes on either side of the Geotime value. Set to 0 to disable interpolation and use the coordinates of the nearest fix instead (provided it is within GeoMaxExtSecs, otherwise geotagging fails). A floating point number 1800 GeoMaxExtSecs Maximum extrapolation time in seconds for geotagging. Geotagging fails if the Geotime value lies outside a GPS track by a number of seconds greater than this. Otherwise, the coordinates of the nearest fix are taken. A floating point number 1800 GeoMaxHDOP Maximum Horizontal (2D) Dilution Of Precision for geotagging. GPS fixes are ignored if the HDOP is greater than this. A floating point number, or undef to disable undef GeoMaxPDOP Maximum Position (3D) Dilution Of Precision for geotagging. GPS fixes are ignored if the PDOP is greater than this. A floating point number, or undef to disable undef GeoMinSats Minimum number of satellites for geotagging. GPS fixes are ignored if the number of acquired satellites is less than this. A positive integer, or undef to disable undef GeoSpeedRef Reference units for writing GPSSpeed when geotagging.
K, k or km/h = km/h M, m or mph = mph (anything else) = knots undef
ExifTool reads orientation information from the PTNTHPR sentence generated by some Honeywell digital compasses. This is a proprietary NMEA sentence which contains information about heading, pitch and roll angles. When this information is available, the heading is written to GPSImgDirection (and GPSImgDirectionRef is set to "T"), and pitch to CameraElevationAngle, but no standard tag exists for roll. Regardless, ExifTool attempts to write GPSRoll (and GPSPitch). For these tags to be written, appropriate user-defined tags must be created. Below is a simple config file which defines the necessary EXIF GPS tags. Corresponding XMP-exif tags may also be created. See the config file documentation for more information.
%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined = (
'Image::ExifTool::GPS::Main' => {
0xd000 => {
Name => 'GPSPitch',
Writable => 'rational64s',
},
0xd001 => {
Name => 'GPSRoll',
Writable => 'rational64s',
},
},
);
1; #end
1. "No track points found in GPS file"
If you see the above message, either exiftool does not yet support your track log file format, or your track log does not contain the necessary position/timestamp information. For instance, in KML files each Placemark must contain a TimeStamp. If you believe your track log contains the necessary information, please send me a sample file and I will add support for this format.
2. "No writable tags set" or "0 image files updated"
If you see these without any other warning messages, it is likely
that Geotime didn't get set properly.
Be sure that the necessary date/time tag exists in your image for copying toGeotime. Unless otherwise specified, the required tag isDateTimeOriginal. The following command may be used to list the names and values of all available date/time tags in an image:exiftool -s -time:all image.jpgEven if there is no metadata in the image you may be able to setGeotimefrom the filesystem modification date for the image (which will appear asFileModifyDatein the output of the above command). In this case you may also want to include the-Poption to preserve the original value ofFileModifyDate:exiftool -geotag track.gpx "-geotime<filemodifydate" -P image.jpgWithout the-Poption,FileModifyDateis set to the current date/time when the file is rewritten.
3. "Warning: Time is too far before track in File:Geotime (ValueConvInv)"
If you see a warning like this, you may have a time zone problem, or a time synchronization issue. Keep in mind that GPS times are in UTC, but the camera times are typically in your local time zone.
To see more details about what ExifTool is doing, try adding the-v2option to your command. You should then see messages like this if the GPS track log was loaded successfully:Loaded 372 points from GPS track log file 'my_track.log' GPS track start: 2009:03:30 19:45:25 UTC GPS track end: 2009:04:03 11:16:04 UTCIf the number of points loaded and start/end times seem reasonable, then the problem is likely in the time synchronization. Also printed will be the UTC time for the image:Geotime value: 2009:04:03 10:57:01 UTC (local timezone is -05:00)The "Geotime value" must lie within 1/2 hour of a valid GPS fix in the track log for a position to be calculated. (1/2 hour is the default, but this can be configured via the geotagging Options.) The time calibration relies on proper synchronization between the GPS time and your camera's clock. If a timezone is not specified, the local system time zone (as set by the shell's TZ environment variable) is printed in the above message and used to convert theGeotimevalue to UTC. You should specify the timezone forGeotimeif your images were taken in a different timezone (see Examples above). If the camera clock was wrong, theGeosynctag may be used to apply a time correction, or the ExifTool time shift feature may be used to adjust the image times before geotagging -- see the Time Synchronization tip below for examples.
1. Time Synchronization
One way to accurately synchronize your images with GPS time is to take a picture of the time displayed on your GPS unit while you are out shooting. Then after you download your images you can use this image to synchronize the image timestamps for geotagging. This is done by using an image viewer to read the time from the GPS display in the image, and exiftool to extractDateTimeOriginalfrom the file. For example, if the time in the GPS display reads 19:32:21 UTC andDateTimeOriginalis 14:31:49, then for this image the camera clock was 32 seconds slow (assuming that the timezone of the camera clock was -05:00). There are various ways to use this time synchronization to improve your geotagging accuracy:
A) Use theGeosynctag to specify the time difference while geotagging. Using this technique the existing image timestamps will not be corrected, but theGPSTimeStamptag created by the geotagging process will contain the correct GPS time:exiftool -geosync=+00:00:32 -geotag my_gps.log C:\Imagesor equivalently,exiftool -geosync=19:32:21Z@14:31:49-05:00 -geotag my_gps.log C:\Images(Note that this technique may also be used for a more advanced time drift correction. See the Geosync section above for details)
B) First fix the image timestamps by shifting them to synchronize with GPS time, then geotag using the corrected timestamps:exiftool -alldates+=00:00:32 C:\Images exiftool -geotag my_gps.log C:\ImagesC) Do both in the same command:exiftool -alldates+=00:00:32 -geosync=+00:00:32 -geotag my_gps.log C:\ImagesThe examples above assume that your track log file (my_gps.log) is in the current directory, that the images were downloaded to theC:\Imagesdirectory, and that the computer and camera clocks are in the same timezone.
ExifTool also has the ability to create a GPS track file from a series of
geotagged images. The -p option may be used to output files in
any number of formats. This section gives examples for creating GPX and KML
output files from a set of geotagged images, or from a geotagged video file.
(But note that the -ee3 option must be added to the commands below
to extract the full track from a video file.)
(This is different from what is sometimes called "reverse geocoding", which is the ExifTool Geolocation feature.)
The following print format file may be used to generate a GPX track log from one or more geotagged images:
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# File: gpx.fmt
#
# Description: Example ExifTool print format file to generate a GPX track log
#
# Usage: exiftool -p gpx.fmt -ee3 FILE [...] > out.gpx
#
# Requires: ExifTool version 10.49 or later
#
# Revisions: 2010/02/05 - P. Harvey created
# 2018/01/04 - PH Added IF to be sure position exists
# 2018/01/06 - PH Use DateFmt function instead of -d option
# 2019/10/24 - PH Preserve sub-seconds in GPSDateTime value
#
# Notes: 1) Input file(s) must contain GPSLatitude and GPSLongitude.
# 2) The -ee3 option is to extract the full track from video files.
# 3) The -fileOrder option may be used to control the order of the
# generated track points when processing multiple files.
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#[HEAD]<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
#[HEAD]<gpx version="1.0"
#[HEAD] creator="ExifTool $ExifToolVersion"
#[HEAD] xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
#[HEAD] xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0"
#[HEAD] xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/0/gpx.xsd">
#[HEAD]<trk>
#[HEAD]<number>1</number>
#[HEAD]<trkseg>
#[IF] $gpslatitude $gpslongitude
#[BODY]<trkpt lat="$gpslatitude#" lon="$gpslongitude#">
#[BODY] <ele>$gpsaltitude#</ele>
#[BODY] <time>${gpsdatetime#;my ($ss)=/\.\d+/g;DateFmt("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ");s/Z/${ss}Z/ if $ss}</time>
#[BODY]</trkpt>
#[TAIL]</trkseg>
#[TAIL]</trk>
#[TAIL]</gpx>
This example assumes that the GPSLatitude,
GPSLongitude, GPSAltitude and GPSDateTime
tags are all available in each processed FILE. Warnings will be
generated for missing tags. The output GPX format will invalid if any
GPSLatitude or GPSLongitude tags are missing, but will
be OK for missing GPSAltitude or GPSDateTime tags.
Note that the order of track points in the output GPX file will be the same
as the order of processing the input files, which may not be chronological
depending on how the files are named. The -fileOrder option may be
used to force processing of files in a particular order. For example, the
following command processes files in order of increasing GPSDateTime:
exiftool -fileOrder gpsdatetime -p gpx.fmt /Users/Phil/Pictures > out.gpx
Since no directory was specified for gpx.fmt, this file must
exist in the current directory when the above command is executed. (If the
gpx.fmt file can't be found then the -p argument is
interpreted as a string instead of a file name, and the text
"gpx.fmt" is sent to the output, which isn't what we want.)
The -if option may be added to ensure that only files containing
GPS information are processed. For example, the following command creates
"out.gpx" in the current directory from all pictures containing
GPSDateTime information in directory "pics" and its
sub-directories:
exiftool -r -if '$gpsdatetime' -fileOrder gpsdatetime -p gpx.fmt pics > out.gpx
Note: In Windows, double quotes (") must be used instead of
single quotes (') around the -if argument above.
The "fmt_files" directory of the full exiftool distribution contains this sample format file ("gpx.fmt") as well as a sample which creates GPX waypoints with pictures ("gpx_wpt.fmt").
Below is an example of a print format file which generates a Google Earth KML file from a collection of geotagged images. This example uses the SECT feature added in ExifTool 10.41 to divide the placemarks into folders based on directory name:
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------ # File: kml.fmt # # Description: Example ExifTool print format file for generating a # Google Earth KML file from a collection of geotagged images # # Usage: exiftool -p kml.fmt -r DIR [...] > out.kml # # Requires: ExifTool version 10.41 or later # # Revisions: 2010/02/05 - P. Harvey created # 2013/02/05 - PH Fixed camera icon to work with new Google Earth # 2017/02/02 - PH Organize into folders based on file directory # 2018/01/04 - PH Added IF to be sure position exists # 2020/01/11 - F. Kotov Limited image preview size to 500px # # Notes: 1) Input files must contain GPSLatitude and GPSLongitude. # 2) Add the -ee3 option to extract the full track from video files. # 3) For Google Earth to be able to find the images, the input # images must be specified using relative paths, and "out.kml" # must stay in the same directory as where the command was run. # 4) Google Earth is picky about the case of the image file extension, # and may not be able to display the image if an upper-case # extension is used. # 5) The -fileOrder option may be used to control the order of the # generated placemarks when processing multiple files. #------------------------------------------------------------------------------ #[HEAD]<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> #[HEAD]<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0"> #[HEAD] <Document> #[HEAD] <name>My Photos</name> #[HEAD] <open>1</open> #[HEAD] <Style id="Photo"> #[HEAD] <IconStyle> #[HEAD] <Icon> #[HEAD] <href>http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pal4/icon38.png</href> #[HEAD] <scale>1.0</scale> #[HEAD] </Icon> #[HEAD] </IconStyle> #[HEAD] </Style> #[SECT] <Folder> #[SECT] <name>$main:directory</name> #[SECT] <open>0</open> #[IF] $gpslatitude $gpslongitude #[BODY] <Placemark> #[BODY] <description><![CDATA[<img src='$main:directory/$main:filename' #[BODY] style='max-width:500px;max-height:500px;'> ]]> #[BODY] </description> #[BODY] <Snippet/> #[BODY] <name>$filename</name> #[BODY] <styleUrl>#Photo</styleUrl> #[BODY] <Point> #[BODY] <altitudeMode>clampedToGround</altitudeMode> #[BODY] <coordinates>$gpslongitude#,$gpslatitude#,0</coordinates> #[BODY] </Point> #[BODY] </Placemark> #[ENDS] </Folder> #[TAIL] </Document> #[TAIL]</kml>
This example file is included in the "fmt_files" directory of the full ExifTool distribution. See this forum post for more useful tips about creating KML files.