Geotagging Workflow

[fike]

I have been trying to figure out how to close the loop on my geotagging.  I use Downloader Pro with Adobe Bridge and CS4 for most of my file management chores.  When I download my pics, Downloader Pro encodes the CR2 files with geotagging data by putting the Lat and Lon in the XMP metafile. I can access the geotagging through Bridge.

Here is where the problems comes in:

FIRST:  When I make a panoramic image with PTGui, the geotagged data is NOT encoded in the output file, though it is present in the temporary TIFF files that I use to create the pano.  How can I re-associate the geotagged data with the resulting pano?  I can't do it by time because the pano's creation date corresponds to when I stitched, not when I took the shots. I thought that I once read something about preserving geotagging in PTGui images, but I can't find any mention of it.

SECOND: When photoshop saves a jpg or saves to the web, it strips ALL metadata.  I want to leave the geotagging metadata in the jpg.  I don't know how to force it to keep that data.  Any ideas?

[RFPhotography]

Don't know about PTGui, don't use it.

WRT JPEGs, how are you saving your JPEGs?  Are you doing a Save As or Save for Web?  If the latter, then I'd suggest doing a Save As.  Save As doesn't strip the metadata.  Save for Web does, as the default, strip most of the metadata.  If you want to use Save for Web then when the SFW dialogue comes up, there's a dropdown menu on the right called Metadata.  Change that to All and your long/lat coords will be retained.

[JeffKohn]

FIRST:  When I make a panoramic image with PTGui, the geotagged data is NOT encoded in the output file, though it is present in the temporary TIFF files that I use to create the pano.  How can I re-associate the geotagged data with the resulting pano?  I can't do it by time because the pano's creation date corresponds to when I stitched, not when I took the shots. I thought that I once read something about preserving geotagging in PTGui images, but I can't find any mention of it.

Here's my low-tech solution. Once I have the finished pano, I'll open one of the original geotagged RAW's in Photoshop, re-size it to the dimensions of the final pano, and then drag the finished pano on top of the RAW and merge down (you can still preserve layers if your pano has them, but I don't preserver the "brackground" in the new file because it doens't contain anything useful). Then save as PSD or TIFF and you'll have all your original metadata. Granted it will be from a single exposure, but I don't have a problem with that (I'm not changing locations between shots in a stitched pano, after all).

SECOND: When photoshop saves a jpg or saves to the web, it strips ALL metadata.  I want to leave the geotagging metadata in the jpg.  I don't know how to force it to keep that data.  Any ideas?

The easy answer is don't use 'Save for the Web'. Last I checked, "Save for the Web" didn't even convert to sRGB for you, it's pretty much a worthless command.

Just convert to 8-bit sRGB and use "Save As" to save a JPEG. I have my own "save for web" action that does all the necessary work of taking a master file and creating a web-ready jpeg from it, saves me a lot of time.

[fike]

Here's my low-tech solution. Once I have the finished pano, I'll open one of the original geotagged RAW's in Photoshop, re-size it to the dimensions of the final pano, and then drag the finished pano on top of the RAW and merge down (you can still preserve layers if your pano has them, but I don't preserver the "brackground" in the new file because it doens't contain anything useful). Then save as PSD or TIFF and you'll have all your original metadata. Granted it will be from a single exposure, but I don't have a problem with that (I'm not changing locations between shots in a stitched pano, after all).

that seems like an elegant little workaround.

I'll need to look around the save for the web interface to find where the preserve metadata option is kept.  I thought that it DID convert to sRGB.  That was why I used it; to do a profile conversion and save as in one step.

[RFPhotography]

Screen cap attached.