How to Extract GPS Coordinates from Images with Python’s exifread

Python’s exifread library can retrieve almost all EXIF metadata from an image, including GPS information. Install it with pip install exifread and then read the image as binary data.

The process reads the file, parses tags, extracts latitude, longitude, altitude, and the capture timestamp, and prints them in a readable format. If the image has been compressed, the binary EXIF data may be lost.

Example code:

import exifread
import re

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

# Containers for GPS data and capture time
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'] = f"{int(match_result[0])} {int(match_result[1])} {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'] = f"{int(match_result[0])} {int(match_result[1])} {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)

The script prints the latitude and longitude, which can be copied into any map service to locate the photo’s shooting spot.

Running the code on a sample camel photo taken in Sanya successfully outputs the GPS coordinates, confirming the image’s location.

Further extensions include using Baidu’s API to convert coordinates to a readable address, or simply viewing the details in the image’s file properties. To protect privacy, you can delete EXIF metadata via the image’s properties dialog.