Exif Data Geographic Coordinates

SKLund

Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2016
Messages
459
There are some really snappy photog's in this forum and with that in mind, y'all know all about your EXIF and metadata. Heck these days if you have a cell phone, you are a photographer. With cell phones and some regular cameras, you probably have a GPS enabled. This means of course that your EXIF data is embedded with coordinates if the GPS signal is strong enough.

...Therein lies the potential problem. In this forum and elsewhere, are photos of rare, endangered, and precious artifacts that would be better obscured in location rather then exposed. Exposure means potential destruction. That is why I am posting this. It's easy to forget that the picture of the really cool thing can lead to bad things happening to it.

If you have a cell phone of GPS enabled camera, consider turning that feature off or perhaps purging or editing that data out. I won't get into the methods for doing so but there are plenty apps that do either. Do these things and keep the joy of discovery intact.
 
Last edited:
I always wanted a private museum of things...........
 
Bob is being facetious... Most of our non-smart-phone cameras (like Bob's) don't capture geolocation or we block it. Good advice, nonetheless.
 
Bob is being facetious... Most of our non-smart-phone cameras (like Bob's) don't capture geolocation or we block it. Good advice, nonetheless.
Many modern cameras released in the last few years have GPS functionality built in, which is often enabled as default on buying the camera. Many folks aren't even aware of it or what it does, let alone know that they'd possibly need to turn it off.

Personally, I do add GPS co-ordinates to my photos in Lightroom. I find it useful and kinda cool to be able to know and see exactly where photos were taken, Google Photos (where I back up my pics) also makes great use of the GPS data for auto-creating albums of pics taken in the same place etc.

However, when I'm sharing photos online with the "general public" and particularly if they're of sensitive places, I'll always remove GPS data either by disabling it in Lightroom or using Photoshop's "Save for web" option which strips out all EXIF info. Alternatively, Google Photos also provides an option to hide GPS information when sharing photos or albums to protect privacy.

It's definitely something worth being aware of though!
 
Many modern cameras released in the last few years have GPS functionality built in, which is often enabled as default on buying the camera. Many folks aren't even aware of it or what it does, let alone know that they'd possibly need to turn it off.

Personally, I do add GPS co-ordinates to my photos in Lightroom. I find it useful and kinda cool to be able to know and see exactly where photos were taken, Google Photos (where I back up my pics) also makes great use of the GPS data for auto-creating albums of pics taken in the same place etc.

However, when I'm sharing photos online with the "general public" and particularly if they're of sensitive places, I'll always remove GPS data either by disabling it in Lightroom or using Photoshop's "Save for web" option which strips out all EXIF info. Alternatively, Google Photos also provides an option to hide GPS information when sharing photos or albums to protect privacy.

It's definitely something worth being aware of though!

I didn't know "save for web" did that. Cool.
 
I didn't know "save for web" did that. Cool.

I've used Save for Web to strip all the EXIF data for many years now. It is a good feature. But you have to limit your horizons too. There are some folks who can find your spot with a little spatial perception ability and a horizon. I have found some of the places in the photographs of others that way. I know some folks who have done the same with photos of others, even some pretty old photos.
 
Bob is being facetious... Most of our non-smart-phone cameras (like Bob's) don't capture geolocation or we block it. Good advice, nonetheless.
Sorry.......My geo is off on my phone
 
Similar threads
Thread starter Title Forum Replies Date
M Dark Canyon Complex Water Data Trip Planning 4
Nick Historical Weather Data Trip Planning 8

Similar threads

Back
Top