How to find the location where a picture was taken

22 CommentsInvestigation Tips 'n Tricks, Motor Vehicles, ,

Most of the time, there isn’t much information available within the picture itself.  However, certain smartphones (iphone) and high-end cameras have GPS built in, and geo-tag pictures. Advanced cameras also store metadata such as the model name, exposure settings, etc.  Even without the location information, the EXIF info stored on the image is still useful in the evidence gathering process.

1. Go to the content containing the picture, in this case it’s a Craigslist posting

2. Right click on the image and select Copy Link Location

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Pages: 1 2 3

22 Comments

  1. Carmen

    The information is very useful but I can’t seem to find the GPS info…Can you please help me?
    Thank you

    • harmariadmin

      Carmen, not every picture will have the GPS information in it. Only certain smartphones and cameras have the capability, and on some of those models the geo-coding of the pictures can be turned off.

    • harmariadmin

      If you can right click on it, and the gps data is there then it should work

  4. SDGIS

    Is there a way to batch run this on many images in a folder to determine the time and location the images were taken? An output CSV file with filename, time, latitude and longitude would be awesome.

    • harmariadmin

      That’s the instruction for Firefox. For Internet Explorer, it’s Copy Shortcut. For Chrome, it’s Copy Image URL

  6. Tom

    I have uploaded plenty of images taken with my ipod touch to imgur and then checked to see if I could get a location from them, and I haven’t been able to get a location from any of them. Even though I have had location services on, so I should be able to see see the location of these pictures taken however I am not. I have also put in links to over 15 craiglists pictures and not once seen the location in the viewer is the viewer no longer working? Out of all these pictures I should get atleast one location especially the ones taken with my iTouch where I know I had location services on.

    • harmariadmin

      Craigslist and Imgur are probably stripping all the EXIF information prior to storing the data in their databases. It depends entirely on each site’s policies. I suggest using PhotoBucket which does preserve the EXIF information in the original pic.

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  8. Ney

    what does Primary Platform Apple Computer Inc. mean??
    does it mean that the person who uploaded it used an apple computer??

    • harmariadmin

      No, because Facebook strips out EXIF data before it gets published.

  11. James Royce

    You can also use the Photo Investigator iPhone/iPad app to see the photo location

  12. John

    Kinda useless when just about every picture out there strips the EXIF data from the picture.

    • harmariadmin

      For the websites that strip out EXIF data, they do make it available through their API. Many apps take advantage of that. For example Twitter geotags can be accessed through Metaki

      Some websites still contain the original EXIF, like Dropbox, Picasa (non-members).

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