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Intermediate1 h

Geolocating a photo

A photo posted without a caption must be geolocated and dated. Use every visual clue, the way Bellingcat investigators or GeoGuessr players do.

Briefing

A newsroom sends you a viral photo said to show “a protest in Brussels this weekend”. Before publishing, they want to know where and when it was really taken. The EXIF metadata was stripped by the social network. You work from a colleague’s detailed description of the image and from further research.

Fictional scenario and data, built on real techniques. .example domains and documentation IP ranges.

Objectives

  • Check for metadata
  • Infer the country from clues
  • Narrow down to a city, then a street
  • Estimate the time of day
  • Conclude with a confidence level

Tools used in real investigations

ExifToolGoogle Lens / Yandex ImagesGoogle Street ViewMapillaryOpenStreetMap / Overpass TurboSunCalc
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