Places
Lumiverb knows where a photo or video was taken from the GPS in the file, from a location a person set, or from a guess made from clips taken around the same time. With the Place names plug-in on, it also names the nearest town and the landmark it was at.
Where a location comes from#
A clip has at most one location shown, chosen in this order:
| Kind | Where it comes from | What the viewer shows |
|---|---|---|
| Set by a person | An editor or admin chose it | The point, then "Set by" and who; the file's own GPS, if any, on a line of its own ("From the file") |
| From the file | The GPS the camera or phone wrote | The point |
| A guess | Worked out from other clips (see Location guesses) | The point and a Guess label |
A location from the file is read when the file is scanned. A position of exactly 0, 0 counts as no location: some devices write it when they have no fix.
Seeing a clip's location#
Open a clip and look at Location under Details. The coordinates are a link that opens the spot in Google Maps in a new tab. For a guess, click Guess to see how sure it is and why, for example "About 2 km · From iPhone 15 Pro photos 14:02–14:40".
Lumiverb has no map view of its own.
Photos nearby and Has location#
- Photos nearby, under a clip's location in the viewer, shows every clip within 1 km of it. A "Within 1km" chip appears beside the search box; in Filters, Radius widens or narrows it (0.5, 1, 5, 10 or 50 km).
- Filters › Has location shows only clips with a location from the file or a person.
- Filters › Includes guesses counts guesses too, for both. It appears once there are guesses.
Setting a location by hand#
Editors and admins can set the location of any clips:
- Select the clips: tick the box in a thumbnail's corner (see Selecting several clips).
- Click Set location… in the bar at the bottom.
- Choose how:
- Place: type two or more letters of a town or landmark and pick it from the list. This needs a plug-in that finds places, such as Place names (see below); without one, the dialog says so.
- Coordinates: type latitude and longitude, such as
48.85837, 2.29448. - Same place as: with several clips selected, pick the one whose location the others take.
- Click Set location.
If some of the clips already have a location, from the file or a person, Lumiverb asks first: click Replace (it says how many) to go ahead, or Back. A file's own GPS stays visible under the new location.
Lumiverb never changes a location a person set, and where guesses are on, it helps place the clips taken around it. To undo it, click Clear beside "Set by" in the viewer: the clip goes back to its file's location, or a guess.
Location guesses#
Many cameras have no GPS, but a phone in the same pocket does. With Infer location on, Lumiverb places a clip that has no location from the clips in the same library that have one and were taken shortly before or after it, on any device. It corrects for a camera clock that's off (still on home time, say) by matching photos the camera and the phone took of the same scene. With a located clip on each side it places the clip between them, otherwise where the nearest one was, and says how sure it is: "About 100 m", or "About 20 km" when the nearest is hours away.
A guess never replaces a location from the file or one a person set, and it shows as a guess. When the clips it came from change or go, Lumiverb checks it again.
Infer location is each library's, and off unless turned on: tick it when adding the library, or later under Location guesses on the library's settings page (Manage libraries, then the library's Settings). Only the library's admin can change it. Turning it off removes that library's guesses after asking (Remove guesses or Keep it on); locations people set stay.
How far before or after a clip Lumiverb looks is the account's Inference window: 360 minutes unless an admin changes it in the Location guesses row of Settings › Processing.
Place names and landmarks#
Place names (GeoNames) is a plug-in that comes with Lumiverb, off unless an admin turns it on in Settings › Plug-ins. Turning it on shows GeoNames' license (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0) to accept with OK. The server then downloads GeoNames' lists once, about 600 MB, and builds its own list of the world's towns of 1,000 people or more and its landmarks; Settings › Plug-ins shows how far along it is. Nothing about your photos is sent to GeoNames.
Once it's ready:
- Each clip with a location, a guess included, gets a Place names (GeoNames) section in the viewer: At, the landmark it was at, and Near, the nearest town (or "Not near a town").
- Search finds clips by those names:
"Magic Kingdom", say. - Set location… finds places by name.
How far away a town can be and still count is Nearest town within, 25 km unless an admin changes it in Settings › Plug-ins. See Plug-ins for the rest.
Who sees locations#
Everyone signed in sees the locations of the clips they can see. Public pages never show a location of any kind, and their visitors can't filter by one.