DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

This new image mapping website could be an invaluable tool for location and landscape photographers

Jan 11, 2017 by John Aldred 15 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Panoramio was an invaluable location scouting tool for me. I could zoom into an area I wanted to scout, and all these little blips would appear on the map. Each showing me the location from a different view. If I happened to notice a particular cluster in a given area, I could zoom in tighter, and quickly see a bunch of different angles. Quickly determine if it was a tourist spot, or somewhere a little more out of the way.

Now that it’s been merged into Google Maps, that functionality no longer really exists. Sure, it has a strip of images along the bottom of the map and mousing over them shows you where they were shot, but it doesn’t really tell the whole story any more. Photographer Mike Wong must’ve felt this too. He is the creator of a new photo mapping website which shows where all of the images on 500px were created around the globe. At least, the ones with GPS information.

As it’s based off Google maps, you can also see a satellite view as well as the typical outline. This can make it much easier to find certain locations and see the hotspots. And while it offers the the sort of functionality I’ve missed since Panoramio was killed off, it does offer it in a slightly different way.

Instead of thumbnails spread across the map, it uses a sort of “heatmap” to show concentration of images. It ranges from yellow, for few photos, through orange, to red, for lots of photos. Personally, I think this makes it much easier to find things. With Panoramio, the thumbnails just kind of squished on top of each other when you zoomed out. You couldn’t tell if that little icon was 5 images or 500.

The map is currently limited to only using images uploaded to 500px, but something immediately struck me. That is the number of geotagged images in the UK & Europe vs the rest of the world. Across the USA, for example, there’s very little outside of California and New York. And there’s virtually none in Canada, where 500px is based.

Another neat feature of this site is that it allows you to see when photographs were shot. Very handy if you’re trying to find how places look at a certain time of year. For somebody who shoots on location, especially in rural locations that grow up and die off each year, that information can be vital.

Clicking on one of the thumbnails across the bottom brings up that images page on 500px. All of the thumbnails are shown in accordance with 500px’s API, too, so there’s no copyright issues.

The only problem I have with this website at the moment, is that there’s no way to categorise a search. Or even a search at all, really. You can’t even type in a location, you just have to drag and zoom around the map until you find what you’re looking for.

While many locations naturally extend themselves well to landscapes, I see a lot of portraits and obscure images popping up. A lot of this will, of course, depend on how well images are tagged. But, it would be a very neat feature to see in the future. Mike does say he’s working on it, though. Tying into other image hosting sites that offer a public API, like Flickr, would also be amazing. The more images, the better, right?

You can check out the website here, and test it out for yourself.

Did you use Panoramio for location scouting from home? Have you found something else to replace it? Or could this be your new go-to tool for checking out locations before you visit? What features would you like to see Mike add? Let us know in the comments.

[via Reddit]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

8 location scouting tips from a pro location manager How to use displacement mapping for texture wrapping and fake tatoos This short film combines projection mapping and robots with live action, and it’s just magical China’s largest stock photo website under fire for trying to sell the world’s first black hole image

Filed Under: news Tagged With: Geotagging, GPS, Mapping, Panoramio

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« This DIY overhead camera rig folds into the wall for easy setup in small spaces
KitSplit acquires CameraLends to become the world’s largest camera rental marketplace »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts

  • First look at Godox new LiteFlow reflector system
  • Photo Scout app is your landscape photography assistant in your pocket
  • Photographers, stop wasting time on these 11 things
  • Mirrorless cameras shot 58% of this year’s Astro Photographer of the Year shortlist images
  • The Shure SM7dB eliminates quiet microphone signals with a built-in preamp

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy