Extracting GPS Information from Images Using Python exifread

This article introduces the exifread Python library for extracting EXIF metadata, especially GPS information, from image files. After installing the library with pip install exifread , the script opens an image in binary mode, processes the file, and iterates over the tags to locate latitude, longitude, altitude, and capture time.

The extracted latitude and longitude are converted from rational numbers to decimal format, handling potential parsing errors with fallback values. The script then prints the coordinates and the capture time, allowing users to copy the coordinates into a map service for location lookup.

Images compressed or stripped of metadata will not yield GPS data, and the article notes that the same information can be viewed via the image's property details in the operating system. It also suggests using external APIs (e.g., Baidu) to reverse‑geocode the coordinates into a human‑readable address.

Example code:

import exifread
import re

# Open image as binary
f = open("luotuo.JPG", "rb")
tags = exifread.process_file(f)

GPS = {}
Data = ""

for tag, value in tags.items():
    # Latitude
    if re.match('GPS GPSLatitude', tag):
        try:
            match_result = re.match('\[(\w*), (\w*), (\w.*)/(\w.*)\]', str(value)).groups()
            GPS['纬度'] = str(int(match_result[0])) + " " + str(int(match_result[1])) + " " + str(int(match_result[2]) / int(match_result[3]))
        except:
            GPS['纬度'] = str(value)
    # Longitude
    elif re.match('GPS GPSLongitude', tag):
        try:
            match_result = re.match('\[(\w*), (\w*), (\w.*)/(\w.*)\]', str(value)).groups()
            GPS['经度'] = str(int(match_result[0])) + " " + str(int(match_result[1])) + " " + str(int(match_result[2]) / int(match_result[3]))
        except:
            GPS['经度'] = str(value)
    # Altitude
    elif re.match('GPS GPSAltitude', tag):
        GPS['高度'] = str(value)
    # Capture time
    elif re.match('Image DateTime', tag):
        Data = str(value)

print("纬 经 度：" + GPS['纬度'] + "," + GPS['经度'])
print("拍摄时间：" + Data)

After running the script, the latitude and longitude are displayed, as shown in the accompanying screenshots. The article concludes with suggestions for further exploration, such as using Baidu's API for reverse geocoding and removing metadata for privacy.