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I’ve recently considered investing in some Geotagging equipment. But, besides the cost factor, I’m still not overly convinced about the general benefits for my photography of such capabilities. But first things first…

What is Geotagging?

Geotagging is simply the process of including geographical information to the photographs, such as latitude and longitude coordinates, which is then kept as part of the EXIF information on the files.

How does Geotagging work?

Unfortunately, camera manufacturers are not keeping up with technology on this field. Either because including a GPS device would make the camera more expensive thus putting off some costumers or simply because geotagging is still not a mainstream requirement, the fact is that cameras with in-built GPS receivers are more the exception than the rule, although some high-end cameras are already equipped.

If you are fortunate enough to have opted for such a camera (probably you did it because of the other camera features and not because of the GPS) you don’t have to battle with yourself as I’m doing to figure if it’s really worth the investment. Just use it, you have nothing to loose.

If, on the other hand, your camera is devoid of a GPS receiver, there are several off-camera choices available and all of them are based on a very simple principle: time synchronization.

Basically, all you have to do is synchronize the clock on your camera with the clock on your GPS receiver (a one time process). Now, every time you turn on the receiver, it will record your position at defined intervals (15 seconds, 1 minute, etc.) and store this information on a flash memory card. When you are back at your computer to download your photos from the camera, just plug the receiver and the software compares the exact time at which a photo was taken with the closest time a geographical information was recorded and add the coordinates to the metadata of the photo file. Very simple.

What are the benefits of Geotagging?

From a “photography as art” point-of-view, the benefits of Geotagging are virtually non-existent. It will not improve your photos per se.

Geotagging is more an organizational tool than anything else. It will allow you to see on a map the exact location where a photo was taken. It will also allow you (and others if you share your photos online) to search for photos taken on or nearby a specific location. Although on a short time scale it will probably be very “boring” to see your photos just concentrated on a very small portion of the map, if you tend to photowalk a lot and do some traveling, the range will broaden and it will become much more interesting to have a large scale view of where all your photos were shot. Back to photowalking, it can be fun to be able to track your route on a specific date and it will probably improve the plan for future photowalking tours. Besides the software that comes with whatever receiver you acquire, there is a multitude of software available that allows for interaction with either Yahoo! Maps or Google Maps and Google Earth.

If you are into photography sharing networks, since August 2006 Flickr also supports geotags and, together with Yahoo! Maps, can display the locations of your photos. Same goes for other networks like Zooomr.

As an added benefit, yesterday (Nov 28), Google launched a new layer to the Google Maps - the Google Terrain - which gives a more 3D view of the existent maps and can, together with your geotags, provide a more spacial arrangement to what your surroundings were when a photo was taken.

Limitations of Geotagging

Although I’ve almost managed to convince myself to go for a GPS receiver, there are still some limitations to the technology that I’d like to see addressed.

First, any external GPS receiver is an extra thing that you have to carry around. Ok, it’s not big, it’s not heavy. But it’s an extra thing. With an already cluttered camera bag, any extras will need to be evaluated to see how worth it they are.

It’s not cheap. Ok, it’s also not expensive. For something like $100 to $150 you can get a receiver specially designed for photography geotagging. Nonetheless, for that amount, you can always get an extra battery or an extra memory card or start thinking about your next lens. When the budget is tight, even the smallest amount of money available to invest in photography needs to be well thought.

Battery limitations. A normal AA battery on such a device will give you something between 10 to 20 hours of continuous use. Although this is more than enough for a normal photowalking tour, if you go on vacations on a place where normal batteries might not be readily available, it is another something to have to think about.

Precision. Although most GPS receivers are very precise, they are not perfect. There will be always a percentage of your tags that will be “off the mark”. For the more common (and cheap) GPS receivers specially designed for photography, there are some complains about how precise the device is.

Photographer or Object. This is a big one if you are a perfectionist. The receiver is with you, so the tag will be your location and not the object of your photo’s location. Can’t do much about it except manually editing the tags. I don’t see myself having a problem with this one, but for some applications it can arise as an extra complication.

Bearing. Another of those things that you can’t do anything about, but would be nice to see implemented, specially if you are much into landscape photography. With such high-tech features such as image stabilization that works by countering the movement of the camera and adjusting the sensor, it would be nice and not hard at all if metadata would also include a bearing and tilt angle. Together with focal length (which is already recorded) and coordinates, it would be possible, on a map application, to “see” exactly the photographed area. Too geeky?

Overall

Overall I think that Geotagging has a true potential to improve the photographer’s experience. It has some limitations, but every technology has them. Nonetheless, at this moment, I still am not completely convinced that a GPS receiver simply for the ability to add coordinates to the metadata is the best choice for my money.

Can you help me on this one? Do you think it is worth it? Do you have experience with automatic geotagging? Share your thoughts with us… any help is appreciated.

How to change one mind at a time, solve one problem and still have fun doing it.

So this is it. October 15th, 2007. The Blog Action Day is here.

Just in the improbable case you haven’t heard about it before, the Blog Action Day initiative was (is) organized by three heavy-weight bloggers and aims to get every possible blogger writing about one single issue. The 2007 edition focus on Environment.

With over 15 thousand blogs reaching over 12 million readers it’s expected to make an impact or, at the very least, make blogger’s voices heard in unison around the web on this so important issue. Hey, even this year’s Nobel Prize for Peace awarded environmental efforts.

This is a little idea on how photographers can contribute. There are no world changing ideas here, but every little contribution helps.

From a photographer’s point of view, writing about the environment is not an easy task (at least for me, in a way that is directed for photographers and photography enthusiasts). Of course that the easiest way would be to share beautiful photos of landscapes and how they can be a rarity in the years to come if no commitments are made to change the way people think towards the environment. It’s one way I think… but not mine.

If we were not on the digital age, I could also talk about how to properly dispose of your lab chemicals and ways to reduce their use. But we are on a digital age, and these principles don’t much apply anymore.

I’m going to start thinking smaller here.

How to change one mind at a time, solve one problem and still have fun doing it

As years go by, new cameras are introduced on the market at an amazing pace, ever with higher specifications and better features. With this, and depending on the photographer’s budget, it’s normal that people tend to upgrade more frequently and, even for amateur photographers, the “life expectancy” of a camera is drastically reduced.

This poses a problem…

What to do with your old cameras? And if you decide it’s time to switch brands, what to do with all the old lenses?

• Try to trade it in when you buy the new one (only viable if your “old” one is still quite new);
• Sell it on ebay (many are doing this, and unless your camera is still barely touched or, on the other hand, an old rarity, you’ll end up loosing a lot of money, selling it by a small fraction of the price you paid for it);
• Let it die undignified on some cupboard shelf or storage room (your camera deserves better);

Since cameras on the normal waste are a big NO NO (remember that you have both metal and glass components inside, not to mention the battery, and of course all the accessories that come with it) you can always send if for recycling but again, your camera wouldn’t do that to you, no matter how bad a photographer you are, and you might even (depending on your country) end up paying for it to be properly disposed of.

So, what’s the alternative?

Make someone happy and help change a little mind.

Look around you, on your neighborhood or group of friends, and I bet you’ll find some kid who, for one reason or other, can’t afford to buy a camera but is interested in photography. Someone who has shown an interest on your work and really listens when you talk about photography.

Give the camera to that little someone. Share your passion for photography with him, teach all you know, take him with you on your photowalking hunts. Then, show him those photos of beautiful landscapes and mention that they can become a rarity if nothing is done to protect the environment, and most probably you’ll have helped change a mind. Believe me, that little someone will listen…

In conclusion, you got rid of one problem (what to do with your old cameras and how to put them to good use), you have made someone happy (take a photo of the person holding their first camera on their hands and share it around, it’s probably going to come out a beautiful one) and you have found someone to join you on your photo hunts and you’ll have more fun on them. It’s just a tiny little thing in the big wide world concerning the environment, but it’s a start…

Final note

I hope that this little idea is welcomed by you. I know some will find the thought of just giving outrageous but in reality it isn’t. And speaking of giving, as suggested by the Blog Action Day organization, all the revenue generated by this blog during this day will be forwarded to one Environment Organization. So, do your thing… It’s free to you, all it costs is a click…

Sometimes, after taking a shot, particularly if there are strong light sources, you may notice some weird light spots on your photo. Most certainly, they were caused by lens flare.

But what is lens flare anyway?

To understand lens flare you need to know how light works in photography. Basically, everything reflects light. You see an object as it is because it absorbs some light wavelengths and reflects others. Similarly to the human eye, a camera records the light reflected from objects and that reaches the sensor.

In a perfect situation only your photography subject should reflect light directly into the front element of your lens. But this never happens and everything that surrounds your camera is reflecting some light and some of it will indirectly enter your lens.

Lens flare is thus caused by indirect reflected light entering your lens and being scattered around your lens elements (bouncing inside your lens) until it reaches the sensor, as shown in the schematics bellow.

On normal conditions, the direct light is stronger than the indirect one and lens flare will be minimal and hardly noticeable. Problems arise when the indirect light comes from a strong source (like the sun). If it’s strong enough you’ll see those flare artifacts. Even when flare is not strong enough to produce artifacts, light can be broadly distributed all over the photo, reducing contrast and turning the photo pale. On a more extreme situation, lens flare can create all sorts of weird aberrations and destroy the photo completely.

The bigger the lens, the bigger the flare

Although lens manufacturers use special coatings on the lenses (particular on the front element) to reduce light reflection and scattering while allowing light refraction, it’s impossible to eliminate it completely (light has to go through anyway).

The more glass elements your lens contains, the more pronounced lens flare will be as more surfaces are available to scatter light around. Therefore, lenses with a wide range of focal lengths are particularly affected as more elements are needed. 

Intended flare

Of course that, when used correctly, this property can be applied for the photographer’s advantage. Lens flare can give a special kind of drama to the photos and in fact there are many filters out there (physical as well as software) that intend to mimic lens flare to introduce flare effects on the photos.

Reducing lens flare

The best way to reduce lens flare is by minimizing the amount of indirect light entering your lens. This is usually accomplished by shading the front element on all it’s sides with the use of a lens hood (those bulky nasty things have a use after all). Lens hoods, their design and how they work are also complex matters and will have a post of their own in the next days. Meanwhile, keep this in mind: Whenever possible, use the hood.