GPS Metadata For Your DSLR

It's becoming increasing popular to include location shooting information (GPS) in digital image metadata. Being able to insert GPS information with each digital image file ensures that the orignal location can be identified and shared in the future. Since the major camera manufacturers don't include this capability as a "built-in" function on their latest generation of DSLRs, there has been an increasing number of DSLR GPS solutions appearing on the Internet.

Many of these products rely on synchronizing the device's internal clock with the camera's timing circuit. These units are NOT attached to the camera and track your physical location while you're shooting by keeping a log in memory. When you return from your day of shooting and download your pictures, the software that comes with the GPS devices then writes the GPS coordinates into each image file based on the time recorded in the metadata of each image.

To this aging brain, this process seemed overly complex and easily corrupted if the times were not synchronized or something went wrong with either clock. I couldn't understand why a GPS device couldn't be attached to the camera and the GPS data be written to each image AS it was being shot. This would reduce the complexity to making sure the unit was attached to the camera and turned on.

Well, I found one. At least, I found a rugged unit that is designed to work with most Nikon cameras and Fuji's Pro S5. Since I'm a Nikon user for a good part of my work, I was delighted.

Geomet'r GPS Receiver

The unit is offered by Macsense and is called the Geomet'r GPS Receiver. It's about the size of an Apple Shuffle player. Best of all it attaches easily to the DSLR and has only one, non-confusing on-off button. The cost of the unit is $150. I ordered and received the unit within 5 days.

Geomet'r GPS Receiver attached to a Nikon D200

Shown above is the simple attachment of the GPS receiver to the accessory socket of a Nikon D200 (red circle). The on-off button is located on the socket connector (yellow circle). The unit also includes a velcorized bracket for placing the unit on the camera's flash shoe. I have gotten into the habit of attaching mine to my camera strap.

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS: Turn on the GPS Receiver. Give the unit about 30 seconds to figure out where in the world it is currently situated. Take pictures.

That's it. As each picture is taken, the GPS location coordinate data is included in the metadata automatically.

Lightroom Metadata Window

Shown here is the metadata portion of Adobe's Lightroom Library workspace. The GPS and Altitude information were entered into this image file when the picture was taken (red box). The GPS data is now permanently embedded information that will always travel with the digital file.

Notice the small arrow at the right side of the red box. Click on this arrow, and here's what you'll see:

GPS Image Coordinates Shown in Google Maps

That's right. Google Maps opens in your browser to show you the exact location of the coordinates recorded in the image metadata.

How cool is that?

Now any picture service that makes use of GPS metadata (like Flickr) will be able to display the location where the picture was taken. Send your best vacation or creative photographs to members of your family, and they will be able to see your pictures and the location.

Things you need to know:

• The Geomet'r draws its power directly from your camera's battery. This requires you to charge your batteries more frequently or carry spares. When not in use, TURN THE UNIT OFF or it will continue draining your battery.
• Like any other GPS unit, the Geomet'r will not work reliably inside a building. In these cases, I take a picture of the outside of the building to have one image from the session with the exact coordinates. I can add this GPS data to the indoor images later in my digital editing program.

I have found the Geomet'r to be extremely accurate, reliable and rugged. So, if you have been looking for this capability and own a Nikon or Fuji DSLR, check out the Geomet'r.

Footnote: As of this post, Nikon has announced an accessory GPS unit similar in size and function to the Geomet'r called the GP-I. However, the pricing information is not readily available. I have seen price estimates ranging from $200 US to $800 US.

Table of Contents

On this page you can see the whole list of posts published.

To show the full table of contents, please click on the link below (this may take a few moments to load)

Show table of contents

Proportions in Photography

Proportions have always been a source of confusion for beginning photographers. The confusion is apparent in the questions I'm frequently asked at seminars and workshops:

• Why can't I make an 8x10 print from the picture I took?
• I enlarged my original image file to 8"x10", and now it looks funny. What's wrong with my camera?

Well, there's nothing wrong with the camera or the computer editing program. It's all about proportions. In these cases, physics dictates that some things just can't be done.

The DSLR image format

The picture above illustrates the full format of most DSLR cameras. As the picture is taken, it is ideally proportioned to produce a 4"x6" print that contains the ENTIRE image. In ratio terms, that's a 2 to 3 relationship between the height and width of the print.

Any print that violates this 2:3 relationship will be a distortion of the original image. That's worth repeating. Any full-frame print you make from the camera's original digital file whose sides are not in the ratio of 2 to 3 will not be a true representation of the image you saw through the viewfinder.

Enlarging a 4x6 print to 8x12 (the height and width dimensions are enlarged by the same factor)

Here's an example of an enlargement that is proportional to the original image file. Increasing the size of a print from 4"x6" to 8"x12" is proportional and will not be distorted. The clue is: If you increase both dimensions by the same multiplication factor (in this case 2), the resulting picture will be in proportion to the original.

So, does that mean I can't make an 8"x10" print and keep everything I saw through my viewfinder in the final print without distortion?

Yes it does.

Here is an 8x10 print size (black lines) with the width of the original image set at 10 inches in Photoshop.

The picture above is the same image file enlarged to produce a print that is 10 inches wide. Notice that this sizing produces a picture with a large white border at the top and bottom of the print. But the picture is proportionally correct and will NOT be distorted.

This same image can be enlarged to include everything in the original photo, but distortion will be visible and distracting. (The image will look funny.)

To produce a print that captures all the elements of the orginal file this picture must be scaled in only one direction. As a result, the picture will always appear distorted.

The vertical lines are elongated and distorted to create this full 8x10 print from the full frame of a DSLR camera.

The picture above has been "scaled" (stretched) to fill the entire 8"x10" piece of paper. Simply put, the DSLR full image frame can only be enlarged in a 2:3 ratio and contain the entire original image. Said in another way, both the height and width must be multiplied by the same number to remain exactly proportional.

Can that be true? I see professional photographers selling 8x10 prints all the time.

You're right. But the professional photographer understands this "fact of nature" and crops for the 8"x10" print while he/she is taking the picture.

Photographers understand the area of an image that will be included in an 8x0 print (the red box) when they are taking the picture.

The red box superimposed on the picture above is burned into the mind of long-time photographers. They understand that the original picture must be taken with the final print size in mind. In this case, if the end result is to be an 8"x10", the photographer will keep his entire printable image within the boundaries of the red box. That portion of the image will enlarge to a perfect 8"x10" and the remaining image at each end will be discarded.

By the way, the 8x10 proportion is also applicable to other standard photographic print sizes -- 4"x5", 16"x20" and 20"x24".

Some professional cameras will have this (and other) proportion indicators physically etched into the viewfinder's ground glass to provide an exact visual reference for the photographer.

From a practical and beginner's standpoint, when in doubt leave a little extra room around your image as you take the picture to allow you to eventually make a print that contains all the elements you intended in the picture.

Below are two versions of another picture to illustrate correct and incorrect proportions in a digital image. The distortion caused by scaling (stretching) an image to fill an area that is not proportional to the original is easiest to visualize in "people" pictures:

This picture is shown in the native 2:3 proportion of the original DSLR image.

The same image when forced to fit into the 4:5 ratio of an 8"x10" print via Photoshop's "Scale" function.

Obviously the contorted effect caused by the disproportionate scaling is objectionable and not a true rendering of the subjects. At the same time, notice that every picture element in the original 2:3 ratio photo is contained in this version as well. But each element has been elongated to fit the format while grossly distorting the image.

Finally, there is one more alternative. The actual dimensions of the picture area of the third picture in this post are approximately 10 inches by 6.7 inches. Remember this picture is proportional to the original image file. There is nothing wrong with a 10"x6.7" picture. It just won't fit in a normal frame (like 8"x10") or pre-cut matt. But that's not necessarily bad. You can cut a 10"x6.7" matt or have a framing store cut one for you. For example, a framing company could cut a matt with the outside dimensions of 11"x14" and a cut out measuring 10"x6.7". The resulting matted print would then fit inside a standard 11"x14" frame.

If you have questions or comments, just let me know.

A Primer on Built-In DSLR Flash

I was amazed at how detailed the twinkling stars appeared as I was watched the first game of the 2008 World Series on an HDTV. Then I realized the game was taking place in the Tampa Bay Devil's enclosed Tropicana Stadium. Those weren't stars. They were thousands of individual electronic flashes capturing the first pitch of the game.

At that same instant, my mind flashed back to the first days of my photographic career when I managed a color lab and processed literally millions of similar pictures for amateur photographers. The events and pictures varied from Friday night high school football games from the top bleacher to parents recording their child's graduation from seat ZZ10, but the results were always the same -- great pictures of the backs of peoples' heads seated 3 to 4 rows in front of the photographer and no image of the event taking place 300 to 400 feet away.

The moral of the story is -- like Dirty Harry would say -- "a man (or woman) has to know his limitations." Limitations is the story of your camera's built-in, electronic flash. The camera's built-in flash is extremely convenient and useful within its effective range.

When taking a flash picture, the light rapidly spreads out to illuminate the subject (above). A portion of the light strikes the subject and is reflected back to the camera's lens. Because of the spreading of the light and the distance that light is required to travel (to and from the subject), much less light returns to the camera than was originally emitted by the flash unit. It's the returning light that determines the aperture setting needed for a correct exposure.

The illuminating power of a photographic flash unit is normally expressed as a guide number. A typical guide number for a flash built into today's DSLR is 40 feet at an ISO of 100. Photographers have used this guide number for years to determine the correct aperture setting (temporarily forget about the automatic flash function on your camera).

The math is simple. Divide the guide number by the distance from the flash to the subject. The result is the aperture setting. For example, a flash with a guide number of 40 and a distance to subject of 5 feet would require an aperture setting of f/8. (40 divided by 5 equals 8)

Back to the automation in your camera. DSLR cameras with an automatic built-in flash are capable of electronically determining the distance to subject and performing the math to set in the proper aperture setting.

So why did I drag you through this explanation and 4th grade math?

Knowing the guide number of your flash unit and this simple equation speaks volumes about what pictures you can and cannot take. If the subject in the example above had been 10 feet away from the camera, the required aperture setting would be f/4. (40 divided by 10 equals 4) This is probably very close to the maximum possible aperture setting of your camera. By the time the subject is 20 feet away from the camera, the required f/2 aperture setting isn't available on your camera. You have exceeded the effective range of the camera's built-in flash.

As shown in the illustration above, the typical effective range of the built-in flash units in today's DSLRs is from 10 feet to 20 feet. As you exceed the maximum effective range of the camera's flash, the subject will become increasingly underexposed (darker) until it is completely lost.

Remember using a telephoto lens does NOT help this situation. The effective range of flash illumination is always determined by the distance of the flash unit to the subject -- regardless of the lens being used.

Estimating the average distance from the bleacher seats to the pitcher's mound at Tropicana Stadium to be 300 feet to 500 feet or more, is it any wonder why these pictures never turn out as expected?

Even most professional external electronic flash units can't take this picture. A typical pro unit might have a guide number of 150. Doing the guide number math with this guide number yields a maximum flash-to-subject distance of 50 feet to 60 feet. (Probably explains why professional sports photographers are seldom found taking pictures of night games from the bleacher seats.)

But someone will say, "Hey, I took a similar picture, and it didn't look too bad." Truth be told, in these instances, the flash played NO visible role in the exposure. What produced the image was the available light provided by the stadium's lighting -- not the flash unit. Certainly the photographer saw the flash fire, but not enough light returned from the subject to make any visible exposure. It was the stadium light that made the picture possible.

If you find yourself in one of these seemingly impossible situations, try turning off the flash and use the light that's available in the arena. It may be necessary to increase the ISO setting to 800 or higher, but it's better than losing the picture opportunity.

Note: Guide numbers are directly related to the ISO setting of the camera. The higher the ISO setting the greater the effective distance of the flash unit becomes. This alternative provides a small gain in effective distance, but the trade off will be pictures that show more and more visual noise (grainy appearance) at each higher ISO setting.

One final cautionary note: Light emitted by the built-in flash unit "spreads out" at all angles when fired. One of these directions is downward.

Flash shadow created by a wide angle lens

This becomes important when using wide angle lenses. The flash picture above was taken with a lens that was too wide for the camera's flash. The result is the shadow seen on the lower half of the wall. The dark area is actually the shadow created as the light was interrupted by the top of the lens. Your camera's manual will indicate the maximum wide angle lens to be used with the camera's flash unit.

I will end this article with two other examples from my days managing a color lab for amateur photographers and processing thousands of pictures everyday. The first occurred when I covered the premier showing of the Star Trek movie for a local newspaper. After two decades of absence from TV, this movie was long anticipated. Sitting in the darkened theater, I couldn't believe my eyes when Captain Kirk first appeared on the screen and dozens of flash pictures were taken. You can't light up light. I saw those pictures pass through the lab the next day. What did these photographers get in return? Pictures of a completely white screen.

The second example occurred every day with a stream of flash pictures people would take of their TV screens. What did they get? Nothing but pictures of a bright flash reflected from the glass of the TV screen.

Know the limitations of the flash.

Shooting Tip - Black and White DSLR Photography

Shoot in color. Convert to black and white in the computer.

Thought I'd get right to the point. Once again, the beauty and simplicity of the black and white image is making its "every 20 years" resurgence. I, for one, am delighted to see this revival. There's something delicate and emotionally compelling about a good black and white photograph that color cannot always convey.

This difficulty in shooting with a black and white image in mind is learning to "turn your color vision off". Learning to see the subtle changes in grays and the important role light plays in each picture is challenging. Taking up the challenge will not only lead to a new skill and admiration for the black and white photo, but it will also improve your color photography.

When black and white was the only choice for photographers, the ability to "think in black and white" was quickly learned. Today, that learning process can take place in front of your eyes on the computer's monitor. When starting down the black and white road, spend time looking at your existing library of color images and convert them back and forth between color and black and white to observe the differences. What happens to trees, rocks, wood, sky, people, details, shadows, highlights, etc. when the color is eliminated? This exercise will begin to train your eye and mind to make the same conversion when you're shooting in the real world.

Now... go to the library. Yes, I said the library -- not the Internet. Look up the works of some of the masters of black and white photography. Ansel Adams is a good place to start. Study these images to gain an insight into how the masters interpreted their world in terms of black and white. I recommend the actual library book because the images in these books were usually printed under the guidance of the photographer. The images in these books reflect how the photographer wanted you to experience his vision. Much of the subtlety and impact can be lost when viewing the same images on your monitor from an Internet photo collection.

So, here's a color image that I took with the intention of producing a black and white photograph. I followed all the rules of exposure (see Hub's Camera primer for "Exposure Is Everything", Parts 1a and 1b) to produce an acceptable and printable color image.

Old Grist Mill, Clark County, Washington

In my image editing program, Photoshop CS3, I used the black and white conversion option under the "Image/Adjustments" menu. In the case of Photoshop CS3, the conversion of color to black and white has been enhanced to allow individual color intensities in the original image to be altered during the change from color to black and white. For example, I could lighten the trees in this picture by adjusting the green channel. Not all image editing programs have this enhanced capability, but all should have an option to convert your color image to black and white. That's OK. Here's my converted image:

Old Grist Mill, converted to B&W in Photoshop

This is what I "saw" with my black and white vision when I was on location. You'll often hear experienced photographers call this "pre-visualizing the image." They have the ability of seeing the color, tones and details of this image in their minds in shades of black and white. That's a very good thing. But take heart, it's a learned skill that you can master. Practice, practice, practice.

As you train your eye, you will learn to pre-visualize the final picture in many forms. Here's a variant of the same image toned to mimic old-style antique toning processes:

Old Grist Mill, toned in Photoshop CS3

In this version of the original photograph, the scene is reproduced in shades of black and brown to render a different look and feel to the image. The possibilities are nearly endless. The trick is learning to see them as you are taking the picture.

I started this discussion by saying "shoot in color and convert to black and white in the computer." Some DSLR cameras have a black and white option in their menus. If you select this option, no color will be recorded -- just shades of gray.

However, you never know when you might want this picture in color for some other purpose. So shoot the picture in color and then convert the image in your computer and SAVE it under another name. This way you'll always have the original color photograph to use later.

If you have questions or comments, please let me know.