Here’s the problem:

I have photos with embedded HDR data (similar to Google’s Ultra HDR), that do not have GPS location tagged on them, so I need to add those locations manually.

The problem is, no matter which software I use, once GPS is added, it breaks the HDR.

Editing in Google Photos will apparently preserve the HDR data, but that requires that photos are sent to their servers as a “back up”, which I’m not willing to do.

Are there any FOSS software, preferably on Linux or self-hosted, that can geotag without messing up these files?

I’m not looking for sidecar GPS data, it needs to be contained within the image (JPG).

UPDATE: An interesting observation… if I edit the location on a photo from a Pixel 9a, the HDR info remains untouched and continues to work. However, if I edit the location on my OnePlus 13 or my older action camera, HDR stops working. So, the way that vendors implement HDR could be causing this issue. I’ll continue to test!

  • schnurrito
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    5 days ago

    Do you only want to geotag, without editing the files any further? If yes, you can do this on the command line with exiftool or exiv2.

    If you are also going to edit your photos, then AFAICT darktable preserves all EXIF data, though I am not familiar specifically with the HDR data you refer to. It allows geotagging by dragging on a map.