Working with GPS information in your images

  • Article

If your photograph contains GPS information, or has been "geotagged," Microsoft Expression Media includes a Microsoft Virtual Earth feature that enables you to plot the location of your photographs on a world map. If your photograph has not been geotagged, you can add GPS information to it in Expression Media using any of three different methods:

  • By dragging the image from the catalog, directly to a specific location on the Virtual Earth map.

  • By entering GPS coordinates in the Latitude and Longitude keyword fields in the Info panel.

  • By entering or pasting the URL from your shared Microsoft Live Search Maps search result into the Latitude or Longitude keyword field in the Info panel. For example, if you type your vacation address into the Live Search box and instruct Live Search to find that location, you can then copy and paste the URL representing that location into the Latitude and Longitude keyword fields in the Info panel.

You can geotag multiple images at the same time, assigning them the same GPS coordinates. After you geotag your image, Expression Media positions a pushpin icon at the Virtual Earth location that corresponds to the latitude and longitude coordinates of the GPS information. In the Info panel, Expression Media displays the GPS information in the "Degrees Minutes Seconds" format (for example, "W 122° 25' 53.91") in the Annotations category. You can also export these coordinates with the image if you choose the Sync Annotations feature. For more information on exporting annotations, see Modifying digital camera metadata.

You can also modify the existing latitude and longitude coordinates of the image, either in the Info panel or directly in the Virtual Earth map interface.

Geotagged image selected in the Thumbnail view

GPS information in the Info panel

Location on Virtual Earth map
Dd185508.884d419e-be89-4a92-882f-b24fc20900f9(en-us,Expression.10).png Dd185508.f93bc212-dfee-4999-9751-b86d26cfc824(en-us,Expression.10).png Dd185508.b75c214b-2af0-4621-816a-afe821d7ccca(en-us,Expression.10).png

Note

If you work with multiple monitors, you can move the Virtual Earth window to another monitor and still continue to select other images in a view, and continue to view their locations on the Virtual Earth map.

To locate your image on the Virtual Earth map if your image is geotagged

  1. Make sure that your catalog displays the image that you want to locate.

  2. On the Window menu, click Virtual Earth.

  3. In your catalog view, click the image with GPS information embedded. A pushpin appears on the map at the location corresponding to the GPS information in your image. If you want the map to automatically move to the geographic location when you select an image, click the Auto Move box to select it.

To geotag your image by dragging it to the Virtual Earth map

  1. In your catalog, select the images that you want to geotag.

  2. On the Window menu, click Virtual Earth.

  3. Position the map to display the location of your image. For example, if you took your photo at a particular lake, position the map to show that lake. Position the map by doing one of the following:

    • Click Road to view the map as a road map. Click Aerial to see a territorial view of the map. Click Hybrid to combine the Road and Aerial views. Click Bird’s to see a territorial view that is zoomed in and angled.

    • Drag inside the Pan in any direction icon Dd185508.6d91c608-69d2-443d-a956-eec35a0e7bd2(en-us,Expression.10).png.

    • Drag the map.

    • Click the Zoom inDd185508.8d720ff9-0094-46e8-93e7-2876e9dcf66a(en-us,Expression.10).png or Zoom outDd185508.6c77544b-a1ca-453d-addd-9a8f082643f5(en-us,Expression.10).png icons.

    • Click the Interactive Search box to select it and, in the search box that appears, enter a landmark in the What box and a location in the Where box, and then click Find.

  4. After you display your desired location in the Virtual Earth window, drag your image from the catalog to that location. A pushpin appears at the location of your photograph and, in the Info panel, the GPS coordinates corresponding to that location appear as terms in the Latitude and Longitude keyword fields.

  5. If you want to refine or relocate the pushpin representing the image location, drag the pushpin to another location.

  6. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to plot other images.

To geotag your image by entering coordinates

  1. Click the Info button.

  2. In your catalog, select the image that you want to geotag.

  3. In the Info panel, locate the Latitude and Longitude keyword fields. You may have to expand the Annotation category to see the fields.

  4. Enter the appropriate coordinates for your image in the Latitude and Longitude keyword fields. You can enter the coordinates in any one of three formats: Degrees Minutes Seconds (for example, "W 122° 25' 53.91"), Decimal Degrees (for example, "122.4316"), or Degrees + Decimal minutes (for example, "122° 25.8985'). Regardless of the format that you enter, Expression Media then converts it into the Degrees Minutes Seconds format.

To geotag your image by pasting Microsoft Live Search Maps URLs

  1. In your browser, navigate to the Microsoft Live Search Maps site at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=122891. Enter a location in the Search box and conduct the search. For more details about conducting searches, see Live Search Maps Help.

  2. Once the map is displaying the found location, click Share, located on the right, just above the map.

  3. In the Share dialog box, make sure that the URL in the Share the current map box is highlighted, and then click Copy to Clipboard. If you get a message indicating that you need to confirm access to the clipboard, click Allow access. Close the dialog box.

  4. In your Expression Media catalog, select the image that you want to geotag.

    • In the Info panel, locate the Latitude and Longitude keyword fields. You may have to expand the Annotation category to see the fields.

  5. Paste the URL that you copied from the Share dialog box into either the Latitude or Longitude keyword fields and press Enter. Expression Media then converts the URL into the Degrees Minutes Seconds format.

To delete GPS information from an image

  1. Click the Info button.

  2. In your catalog, select the image or images containing the geotag that you want to remove.

  3. In the Info panel, locate the Latitude and Longitude keyword fields. You may have to expand the Annotation category to see the fields.

  4. Click the latitude or longitude coordinate to select it and press Delete. The geotag will not be removed until you delete both values.