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Once you've selected valid images and have geocoded them, they can be processed.
You don't have to process the images if all you want to do is create a web page that uses Google Maps, export a KML or KMZ file to Google Earth, upload to Flickr, export a shapefile, export a DXF file, export to MapPoint or export a GPX file.
You have 3 options for processing the image's latitude, longitude, altitude, direction and time information:
1. Stamp the actual images.
2. Write the data to the EXIF.
3. Do both operations at once.
To rename or redate images, all you have to do is select them, i.e. they don't have to be geocoded first. However, when renaming images, you won't be able to use the pattern items that relate to location and direction.
Unless you've changed the program option for doing so, the images will first be copied to a new folder that you choose and then processed from there. If you're renaming images, you can override this behavior and force the original images to be renamed by specifying the AlwaysRenameOriginal option.
All of the images must be geocoded before you can process them with location data. If some are not, you can either delete them from the list or manually assign the latitude, longitude, and altitude information. You can quickly access these options by double clicking on the image or by typing directly into the grid. Optionally, you can use the 'Edit' pull down menu. If ungeoreferenced images exist when you select this option, you'll be prompted whether to automatically remove them before proceeding.
You can automate any of these processes by using the appropriate command line parameter(s).
Select this option to rename the image based on the EXIF date, EXIF time, latitude, longitude, altitude, photo direction, image title, associated dictation file, numerical sequence, literal characters or any combination of those.
The new file name will be based on the pattern that you specify. The pattern can consist of literal characters that are used as-is and the pattern items listed below. Note that pattern items are always preceded with a '$' character:
$date - EXIF date of the form YYYYMMDD.
$time - EXIF time of the form HHMMSS.
$lat - Latitude of the form N32-12345.
$lon - Longitude of the form W092-12345.
$alt - Altitude of the form A00745f.
$dir - Photo direction of the form 045.
$title - Title with invalid characters either removed or replaced.
$audio - The associated audio file name.
$seq - A unique numerical sequence.
Except for $title, $audio and $seq, all pattern items are fixed length. The length of $title depends on the actual title length. The length of $audio depends on the length of the associated audio file. The length of $seq depends on the number of images in the set. For example, if there are 100 to 999 images, $seq is 3 characters long. Altitudes below sea level are preceded with 'B' ('A' if it's above sea level) and if the units are meters, it's terminated with 'm' instead of 'f'. $dir is measured clockwise from true north. Decimal points in the latitude and longitude values are replaced with dashes.
As you type the pattern, the resulting file name for the 1st image is displayed as a sample.
For example, if your pattern is MyImage$seq-$date, the resulting file name would look something like MyImage004-20060704-163000.jpg. For a simple pattern like $seq, the file names would be 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, etc. The renamed file extension is always the same as the original extension.
Select this option to modify the disk file date of the currently selected images. Note, this is different from changing the EXIF time. When you redate the images, you're changing the actual dates of the disk files.
You can specify a specific date or redate the images per the EXIF timestamp. If you're redating the images to match the EXIF timestamp and if a timestamp doesn't exist, the image will be skipped and not processed.
If you simply want to preserve the image disk dates when they are processed, set the PreserveImageDiskDates option to True.
Select this option to stamp the latitude, longitude, altitude and time information at the bottom of the image. If the images have titles and if the StampTitle option is True, the titles will also be stamped at the top of the images. You can choose the format of the location coordinates and the header/footer font properties. View a sample image.
If there's no altitude information for the image, as would be the case if you're using an older Garmin model, it will not be included in the footer.
Unless you explicitly set it, the font size is automatically determined so that it's in proportion to the image's width and height.
RAW formats such as DNG, NEF, CR2, MRW, and ERF must be converted to JPG format before they can be stamped.
When a JPG file's raster data (pixels) is changed and saved, it must be recompressed. The amount that it's compressed will depend on the image quality that you've specified in the program options. The default image quality of 98 should be suitable for most applications.
The time is expressed as local time with a value indicating the UTC offset. For example, if the UTC offset is -4.0, it means the image's local time is 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time, which would be the case for the eastern coast of the USA during daylight savings time. If the offset is +2.5, it means the image's local time is 2 hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT.
Unless you've set custom preferences, The latitude and longitude values are expressed in decimal degrees. Positive latitudes and longitudes are in the northern hemisphere and east of Greenwich England, respectively. Areas in the USA will have positive latitudes and negative longitudes.
The altitude units will be as defined in the program options and are relative to mean sea level, abbreviated MSL.
After processing, you can quickly view the processed image by double clicking on it and then selecting 'View' followed by 'Processed Image' from the resulting pop-up menu.
Select this option to write the latitude, longitude, altitude, direction, GPS timestamp, photographer copyright notice and the other required information to the image's EXIF headers. The process is lossless, so no image quality is lost. If there's existing EXIF, IPTC or Adobe XMP metadata, it's preserved when the new data is written.
If your images are BMP, PNG or a non-EXIF JPG format, they'll need to be converted to a JPG EXIF format before the data can be written. Additionally, if an image doesn't have an EXIF compatible file extension, as would be the case with BMP and PNG files, it'll also need to be renamed so that it has the .JPG extension. If the resulting file name already exists, a number will be added to the end of it until a unique file name is obtained. So, for example, if you have 3 files named pic.jpg pic.bmp and pic.png, the resulting file names would be pic.jpg pic1.jpg and pic2.jpg.
Unlike when you're stamping images, you can write directly to a RAW file's EXIF (DNG, NEF, CR2, MRW, and ERF) without first converting them to JPG.
Regardless of the altitude units you're using, EXIF altitudes are always written in meters. If your GPS can't transfer the altitude units, nothing will be written to EXIF altitude fields.
Once the data is written to the EXIF headers, make sure that you don't edit the image in a graphics program that doesn't support EXIF. If you do, the information will be lost.
You can also write the EXIF copyright and artist fields by specifying the appropriate options in the preferences.
After processing, you can quickly view the EXIF data by double clicking on it and then selecting 'View Meta Data' followed by 'Processed Image' from the resulting pop-up menu.
Selecting this option will both stamp the images and write the EXIF headers.
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