This feature would enable a āWhereā root tag. For assets that are tagged with a latitude and longitude, PhotoStructure would do a reverse lookup for the point of interest nearest to the location, and tag the asset with that place: like, Where/North America/United States/California/San Francisco/Golden Gate.
PhotoStructure needs a database to do these lookups, but rather than having an external API, each region database will be downloaded once when needed, to maintain privacy and minimize outbound RPC calls.
Related features that Iād like include viewing assets on a map, showing a map in the asset info view, and interpolating GPS locations of non-gps-tagged assets using external GPS tracks.
I like the sound of this feature, but as a lower priority than those that Iāve already voted on - so Iām not voting for this one but am letting you know Iād like it sometime down the road.
The ability to browse based on location is a game changer for me. Often I want to find photos or videos from a trip or an event, or all photos at a friendās vacation home, and that does not correspond to folders or cameras or date ranges.
One side note: the reverse POI lookup is super slick, but I suspect that even a proof of concept view that leverages location data would provide significant value. For example, Iād love to be able to click on a map and just see all photos within X miles of that point. I struggle with POI granularity in iCloud today - āSardiniaā yields nothing but āItalyā does. Clicking on a map and providing a radius is deterministic and probably why i like it
I think it would be great already if we can have a āwhereā tag in Photostructure. Iād say thatās a basic feature, as 90% of my photos contain GPS coordinates and I often look at them in a map in other software like Mac Photos.
I came to suggest that this feature would pair nicely with exiftoolās āgeotagā command, which assigns location information based on a separately-recorded gps track. But then I noticed that was mentioned as part of the original post: interpolating GPS locations using external GPS tracks!
I started trying to keep my camera paired with my phone via bluetooth to record location information as I take photos, but it doesnāt work very reliably. Thatās when I learned this can be done with a GPS track and exiftool.
The way I would personally love to see this work in photostructure is for me to be able to add the .gpx file to the same folder where the related photos reside, and have photostructure automatically tag the locations for any matching photos in that folder on import. Perhaps there could be a way to apply the same location information to other assets as well, but it isnāt necessarily the case that two photos taken near the same time were necessarily taken at the same location (different family members, etc.).
Another more complicated feature you could add would be to extrapolate a gps track based on the photos that do have location information (exiftoolās āinverse geotaggingā) and then give users the ability to apply that location information to other photos taken around the same time that donāt have that information. In practice, this might allow me to take location information embedded in smartphone photos and extrapolate how to add location information to photos taken on my camera.
Obviously, all these features to edit location information are only useful if there is a way to view that information in photostructure, so this is all lower priority than a āWhereā tag and/or a map view. Just some ideas for the future!
Not quiteāideally, Iād also feed any GPX/KML gps tracks from the local directory into exiftool, as well, and then let it do itās interpolation magicks.
There was related discussion in Discord that reminded me that not just city/country is useful, but also point of interest e.g. āGrandma Janeās Houseā.
@mrmās example in the first post ends tag with Golden Gate, indicating he also cares about point of interest.
Automatically tagging these points of interest would be awesome, but first most basic step is clearly displaying that information when present and clearly showing how to manually add it when not present.
