Today’s Question: You talked about track logs [for tracking location alongside a camera without GPS capabilities]. Could you recommend a smartphone app that does this please?
Tim’s Quick Answer: For recording GPS track logs I recommend the app “GPS Tracks” (https://timgrey.me/gpstracks) for iPhone users and “A-GPS Tracker” (https://timgrey.me/gpstracker) for Android users.
More Detail: If your camera doesn’t have a built-in GPS receiver you can still add location information to the metadata for your photos relatively easily using the Map module in Lightroom Classic. One way to automate the process is to record a track log during the time you’re capturing photos for which you want to record location details.
I use the iPhone app “GPS Tracks” for recording track logs. You can find this app in the Apple App Store here: https://timgrey.me/gpstracks. For Android users I recommend the “A-GPS Tracker” app, which you can find here: https://timgrey.me/gpstracker.
When you’ll be capturing photos for which you want to record location information you start recording a track log on your smartphone. When you’re finished you stop recording the track log and then save the resulting GPX file in the same folder as the photos it is associated with.
In Lightroom Classic you can then synchronize the track log with the applicable photos. Select the photos, and then in the Map module click the track log (zig-zag icon) button on the toolbar below the map. Choose “Load Tracklog” from the popup, and select the GPX file. Then, with the track log loaded and the photos selected, click the track log popup again and choose “Auto-Tag Selected Photos”. This will synchronize the selected photos with the track log so that GPS coordinates are added to the metadata for the photos based on the capture time and your recorded position at that time.
