All imagery in the modern digital world captures some form of image metadata. Typically, this is basic information such as the location where the image was taken as well as the device or camera it was taken with. For drones, the image metadata that is captured is more robust, as the information it contains is necessary for processing products in photogrammetry software. This metadata is read and used by ArcGIS Drone2Map for the geolocation of images and to perform an adjustment so that imagery products can be derived.
In ArcGIS Drone2Map, the metadata fields needed to process a project are split between image and camera metadata values.
Necessary image fields are Image Name, Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude.
Necessary camera fields are Focal Length, Pixel Size on Sensor, Columns, and Rows.
Having erroneous or incorrect values in these metadata fields can result in processing failures or cause problems with output products. Previously, when these issues occurred, it was difficult to know where the cause was, and you had to open the images in a third-party metadata viewer to investigate further. However, that functionality is now included in ArcGIS Drone2Map with the image metadata viewer.
Note:
The image metadata viewer currently does not display every metadata field attached to the image. Certain fields are excluded, as they tend to be irrelevant to processing the imagery. If you find a field important to your workflow that is not included and you believe it should be, send an email to drone2map@esri.com with the information.
View metadata
All images that are supported in ArcGIS Drone2Map can be read by the image metadata viewer. Depending on the type of imagery (RGB, thermal, or multispectral) different fields may appear.
To access the viewer after a project is created, complete the following steps:
- Click the Flight Data tab.
- In the Manage group, click the Image Metadata button.
The Image Metadata viewer opens and displays a list of all the project images, with the first image selected automatically.
- Click the image rows in the image table to select the images.
The image preview and metadata viewer update with the selected image information.
Search metadata
You can search for specific metadata fields in the image metadata viewer.
To search an image's metadata fields, complete the following steps:
- Click an image row in the metadata viewer table to select the image.
- Click in the Search box in the metadata viewer.
- Provide a search key term—for example, GPS, Focal, or Altitude.
Fields that contain the search key term are highlighted in the image metadata viewer.