Add photos and videos

Take photos and videos or pick them from your library, attach them to an asset or a vertex, and get photos stamped with the asset's surveyed position.

On this page

A photo of a monument, valve or trench is evidence only if you can tell where it was taken. OpenSurvey3D attaches every photo and video to a surveyed asset. Photos are also stamped with that asset's measured position, so they still say where they belong after they leave the app.

Before you start

  • Open a project that has at least one asset. Photos and videos always attach to an asset.
  • Allow camera access. Video also asks for the microphone, because "Video notes you record for an asset include sound."

From the Capture tab

  1. Go to Capture and tap New capture.
  2. Under 2D, tap one of:
    • Photo to open the camera and take one photo
    • Video to open the camera in video mode and record a video with sound
    • Library to pick one photo or video from the Photos app
  3. The Attach to asset list opens. Tap the asset.
  4. If it's a line or area, choose the vertex under Which vertex?.

The capture appears in the Captures grid, labelled with the asset's name.

From an asset's details

This is the quickest way to add several photos to one asset.

  1. Tap the asset on the map, or open it from the asset list.
  2. Scroll to Photos. The heading shows how many photos the asset has.
  3. Tap Camera to take a photo, or Library to pick up to 8 at once.

For a line or area, first tap Capturing vertex and choose the vertex the photos show. The Camera and Library buttons stay disabled until you do.

While collecting

The collect form has its own Photos section with Library and Camera. Photos you add there appear as thumbnails. Tap the × on a thumbnail to remove it before you save. They're attached when you tap Save.

Why photos attach to a vertex

A point has one position, so its photos inherit it. A line or area has many, so the app asks which vertex a photo documents. That vertex's position and accuracy become the photo's. The capture's details then show Vertex (for example 3 of 7) and the vertex's Position under Attached to.

Where a photo's position comes from

When a photo is saved, the app writes the asset's measured position into its EXIF GPS tags: latitude, longitude, height above sea level where known, and horizontal accuracy. It uses the vertex you chose, or the asset's first position.

This is the surveyed coordinate, not the phone's own GPS reading at the moment of the shutter. On an RTK job, the phone's reading could be off by metres.

  • The accuracy tag is left out for a hand-placed point, which has no measured accuracy.
  • The height is left out when it isn't known, rather than written as zero (which would read as sea level).
  • Only the metadata is rewritten. If stamping fails, you still get the photo, just without the tag.

Photos are stored as JPEG and resized so the longest side is at most 2,048 pixels.

View and delete

  • In an asset's Photos section, tap a thumbnail to open the viewer. Swipe between photos. The title shows 2 of 5 and so on.
  • To delete, tap the bin icon, then Delete photo. "The photo is removed from this asset and from the device."
  • On the Capture tab, tap a photo or video to see its details, share it, or delete it. Videos play from there. See The capture library.

In exports

Export bundle (ZIP) includes a photos folder with every photo, named after its asset. Because each photo carries its own EXIF position, it can be dropped into GIS or mapping software on its own.