Photos
Photos help make your route more interesting. Good photos can show people what to expect, and help tell your story.
You can upload .JPG, .BMP or .PNG files and we'll take care of the rest. This photo editor uses some clever technology to make uploading
photos much, much faster.
How it works
Selecting a photo
First select your photo using the 'Add Photo' button. The photo is then loaded. Information about the photo
(if present) is also loaded. You can rotate the photo, and add a title and description.
Geocoding
A photo may already contain a location, if the photo has been 'geotagged', either by the camera, or some other software you processed the photos with.
If the route was recorded with a GPS, and the photo contains EXIF data,
the editor can work out where the photo was taken. To do this we need to know the time the camera was set to, so we can match the photo against a
point recorded by the GPS.
You can do this by selecting the 'time zone' and DST ('daylight savings' or 'summer time') the camera was
set to. Usually this is your home time where you live, but you may have set the camera once, and forgotten to change it when the change over between
summer and winter time occured.
It's also common
that camera time may have 'drifted' a few minutes from the actual time. To allow for this, use the '+/- Mins' control to tweak the offset.
If the photo already contains location data (called 'geotagging'), you can choose to use the location from the geotagging instead of trying to work
out the location from the GPS track. To enable this select the 'Use EXIF?' checkbox. This is only possible if the photo has been already geotagged.
Uploading photos to a route that was not recorded with a GPS. If you created a route, rather than downloaded a track from a GPS, we can't geocode the photos,
unless the photos already contain location data (see 'geotagging' above). When you upload a photo when geocoding is not possible, you are asked
if you want to add a waypoint to the start of the route for the photo, you can then use the map editor to move the waypoint to the
location where you think the photo was taken. Otherwise the upload fails.
Geocoding example
In this example, I have photos for a route I recorded with a GPS in Venice. I pick a photo of a known location, in this case the Rialto Bridge in Venice.
I last set the time on my camera some time ago. Thus the camera is set to UK winter time, which is "GMT +00:00, GMT: Dublin, Lisbon, London" on the time zone drop down.
I uncheck the 'DST' checkbox, as the camera was not set to daylight savings time. Looking at the time on my camera
and comparing it to an accurate clock, I noticed my camera reads 10:03, when the actual time is 10:00.
Thus my camera is 3 minutes fast. I enter '3' into the '+/- Mins' control. I then hit 'Test Geocoding',
and click the latitude and longitude under the 'Test Geocode' button.
The mpa shows the photo is located correctly. If the photo is slightly
further along my route, I tweak the '+/- Mins' and click the 'Test Geocoding' button until the map shows the correct location.
Further photos will have the same offset, so I can upload my other photos with the same settings.
To test if you have got the right settings, adjust the time, and then click 'Test Geocoding'. You'll then see a message about what
geocoding was performed. We do some clever stuff including interpolating between points (which is useful if the photo was taken
during a gap in GPS coverage).
If geocoding was sucessfully, you'll see a description of what happened and a location written as a latitude and longitude below.
Clicking on the latitude and longitude
will open a map centred on the extimated location. Other photos taken with the same camera will have the same offset, so this is something
you only need to do once per route.
Uploading
Once you have set the camera offset and tested geocoding, you can upload the photo. When you do so, we attempt to
geocode the photo. If we can't geocode the photo, we ask you if you'd just like the place the waypoint containing the
photo at the start of the route. You can always move the actual location of the photo using the map editor,
if you know where the photo was taken. We actually send a highly compressed version of the photo to ShareMyRoutes, so the
upload process is very quick. As soon as you start the upload, you can see the progress of your upload in the lower
left corner of the page. You can select a new photo to upload whilst the previous photo is being uploaded.
Adjusting a photo
Once you have selected a photo, you may wish to make adjustments to the photo. To do this select the 'Adjust' tab. You can rotate the photo and change how the photo looks, and crop the photo.
Rotating the photo
Often, you may choose to rotate your camera when you take a photo to better capture the scene. When a photo is added it may be rotated to
show the photo in the correct orientation.
Adjusting a photo
Adjust contrast, brightness and saturation
- Contrast
- Difference between the lightest and darkest areas of the photo
- Brightness
- Overall lightness of the photo. Use this to adjust how much detail is visible in the
lightest or darkest part of the photo
- Saturation
- Strength of the colours. You can make the photo look like a black and white photo, or
enhance the colours in dull looking photos
Hint: You can adjust all of
these controls together to adjust the photo to your liking. Modern 'point and shoot'
cameras are good at getting the photo right at the time you take the photo, but small adjustments may help. Too big a change can
ruin a photo. Pressing 'Reset' will set the contrast, brightness and saturation to the orginal levels.
Rotating a photo
Cropping the photo
If your photo contains things you'd like to remove from the photo you want to upload, you can crop the photo. To do this select the 'crop' check box, and then left click on the image. Keep the left mouse button
held down and drag the mouse across the photo to select the area you want. You will see a border around the area you have selected.
To crop the photo to show only the area you have selected click 'Apply.
To remove the cropping border click 'Reset'. You can do this several times to get just the section you want. Hint: if you crop too closely
the resulting photo may lack detail, or look blurry. Try and keep the selected area to a rectangular box. If you crop your photo too far, you
can always reload the orginal photo by selecting 'Add Photo' again.
Cropping a photo
Manage your photos
If you select the 'All Photos' tab, you can see a list of photos which have been uploaded already. Hovering over the
photo will show you details about the photo. If you wish to delete a photo, simply click on the photo, and the
photo and the associated waypoint will be deleted. If you want to edit the title and description of the photo (or the location or icon),
use the map editor, which allows you to do this on a map.