Workflow with GPS data (when not there)

[busbahnhof]

I currently add GPS coordinates to my pictures. In some cases, the smartphone has already added them. In very few cases, I had a GPX files to sync with my pictures. A lot of places I know or can find it with help of Google Maps / Streetview. But with quite a number of pictures I have no chance to find GPS data (some old pictures, pictures taken on a flight from X to Y,...). Until now, I just added a label saying "No GPS Data" available instead of just leaving the GPS coordinates metadata empty. So I have any easy chance to filter them. No I run into the problem that I want to use another label for a different property.

Which workflow do you use to get this handled?

[Mario]

Until now, I just added a label saying "No GPS Data" available instead of just leaving the GPS coordinates metadata empty.

IMatch automatically assigns all files without GPS data to the "IMatch Workflow Categories|o GPS data" category. Which allows you to see them with a click and to filter easily via the same category in the filter panel. No extra work need on your part, no label needed. You can also see files without GPS data in the Dashboard, in the Quality Panel.

XMP labels are just text. You can create your own labels and assign a color if you like. And use them for whatever purpose.
But this flexibility also makes interoperability with other software difficult - because there is no standard and each application out there uses different label names.
And some applications even ignore label names they don't know, showing the files as unlabeled instead.

IMatch gives you pins, dots, flags to organize files.
You can also create a category for each property you want to record, and just assign the files to these categories as needed.
Color-code the category to see category assignments directly in the File Window, via the category color bar.
If even this is not enough, consider using Attributes

[busbahnhof]

I understand that there is a category "No GPS data". But it is a difference between "initially no GPS data available" and "activly saying there is no GPS data available until the end of the world". My goal was to sort out those second ones because I don't want to say over and over again "there will be no GPS data available for this picture no matter what".

On the other side, it is easy to search for new pictures which have no GPS data yet and I will search for them with the help of maps.

And I have not found a possibility to add more than one label to a picture. Maybe I am blind :-)

[Mario]

But it is a difference between "initially no GPS data available" and "activly saying there is no GPS data available until the end of the world".

Ah. I did not understand this.

And I have not found a possibility to add more than one label to a picture.

The XMP standard only allows for one label.

[busbahnhof]

I thought about using 0°0'0"N 0°0'0"E coordinates for those files where I won't find any GPS coordinates. This could work until I am on the Atlantic Ocean south of Ghana and taking pictures. Or are there more elegant ways to add the information "no GPS data available ever" for a specific file?

[Mario]

I thought about using 0°0'0"N 0°0'0"E coordinates

Adding invalid data is not a good idea.

XMP has many free text fields you can use to record such information.
The Instructions tag, for example. Pick one. Then go to the No GPS category, select all files, add your text into the chosen tag.

I would setup a metadata template which fills the Instructions with "No GPS Data" or whatever.
Then use this template instead of manually adding the text.
This is faster and avoids consistency problems.

You could also use a variable to check for GPS coordinates and fill the tag only when there are no coordinates.
This way you can even make IMatch run the template during ingest. And you can run it without danger anytime.

[busbahnhof]

This sounds like a good idea. I will test it. Many thanks!

Nevertheless, I would be interested if there are other people having the same "problem".

[sinus]

This sounds like a good idea. I will test it. Many thanks!

Nevertheless, I would be interested if there are other people having the same "problem".

Hmm, I have also to check this again.
I created a metadata-template with something like you.
For images, what I do not know now the gps-data, but I want give it later, I setted in this template all relavatn gps - date from a point on earth, where I have never been for sure and that far away, that I quickly spot them.

[ubacher]

The way I see it is that you try find all images which should have GPS data but where you have not yet
assigned any. But this seems to me a temporary problem. Once you have assigned GPS data to all files
where possible then all images without GPS data are of "unknown location"

You are trying to mark the files of unknown location one way or another in order to easily find the files
where you still have to add the location.

[busbahnhof]

That is correct, ubacher. And this is true unless you don't add new pictures to your database. And because I will continue adding new pictures to the database, I want to have those pictures marked who I already have gone through and decided "they don't have GPS coordinates". When looking for pictures without GPS coordinates, I don't want to see the old files again. Only the new ones. That's why.

[Mario]

I would do that with some sort of "Reviewed, no GPS ever" category.
Flexible, filterable, can show colors in File Windows to indicate that the file has been reviewed by you.
Or, as said above, if deemed important enough to be stored in metadata, I'd use the instructions tag.

[busbahnhof]

Great hint with the category. I am not using IMatch that often, otherwise I would have known it :-) Now it looks good for me! Many thanks.