IPhoto 09 and Previously Geotagged Photos
I could not wait to try IPhoto 09 Places Features. I have many geotagged photos in my IPhoto database (I don’t know how many - keep reading). Like most IPhoto users who have geotagged photos, the workflow has been:
- import photos into IPhoto
- make any edits using internal editor or external editor like GIMP or Photoshop Elements.
- only then, geotag photos using Google Earth or a GPS Track with HoudahGeo, since photo editors sometimes trash the geodata in exif. IPhoto used to trash exif metadata so I would only geotag after edit.
- optionally, share photos on flickr, which picks up geographic exif data.
I installed and started IPhoto. IPhoto started grinding through my photos performing face recognition. Since Places appears Faces in the user interface display, I figured when that was done, it would take another pass through and extract the geographic coordinates out of existing exif data (which would take what, 90 seconds on 5000 files?). No, it stops after performing Faces. There is still no way to even tell how many photos in IPhoto have geographic metadata. There isn’t even a way to see the exif data - you have to drag to Preview use the Get Info feature.
Apple Product Managers, would you not think the customers who would most appreciate Places, and blog about their experience, and criticise or praise, would be the customers who have already geotagged their photos?
It turns out there is no way to use AppleScript to set the geographic metadata for a Photo within IPhoto either, although it is easy to extract the GPS info from an existing photo in applescript (I have that working).
February 12th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I’m having the same issues with my site: http://www.iPhonePhotoContest.com
The site authenticates iPhone Photos
My users who have iPhoto 09 say that the EXIF data is being stripped.
Apple also has inconsistencies in logging it’s GPS.
All of these bugs are reeking havoc with the usability of my site.