Image verification and geolocation playbook

Verified publisher

Check a photo's metadata, find earlier copies, and work out where and when it was taken

intermediateabout image, url5 toolslicence CC-BY-4.0
Contents 5/5
  1. 1 Image verification and geolocation playbook
  2. 2 Scope and legal
  3. 3 Read the metadata
  4. 4 Find earlier copies
  5. 5 Place and time
Tools (5)

Tools used in this guide

  • exif-meta Reads an online image or document's metadata with ExifTool: GPS, camera, authors, datesot install osintverse-community/exif-meta
  • reverse-image-links Builds reverse image search links for an image URL: Google Lens, Bing, Yandex, TinEye and moreot install osintverse-community/reverse-image-links
  • image-hash Computes perceptual hashes of an online image to match copies and near-duplicatesot install osintverse-community/image-hash
  • geo-links Turns coordinates into map, satellite, street-level and sun-position links for checking a placeot install osintverse-community/geo-links
  • gallery-dl Lists the images and metadata of posts and galleries on Reddit, Flickr, Imgur, Tumblr and 300+ sitesot install osintverse-community/gallery-dl

Install them all:

ot guide tools osintverse-community/image-geolocation

Place and time

When metadata and earlier copies don't give a location, the picture itself usually does.

Narrow down the area

List what you can read or recognise: languages and scripts on signs, road markings, the side of the road traffic drives on, plug sockets, licence plate formats, vegetation, architecture, shop chains. Each one cuts the possible area.

Check a candidate spot

Once you have coordinates (from GPS, a landmark, or a guess), get every view of the place:

ot run osintverse-community/geo-links --coordinates "48.8584,2.2945"

You get links to OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Earth and Street View, Bing aerial, Apple Maps, Mapillary street photos, the Copernicus satellite archive, Wikimapia, Overpass Turbo and SunCalc for that spot. Degrees, minutes and seconds work too: 48°51'30"N 2°17'40"E.

Match at least three independent features (a building outline, a road layout, a skyline) before you call a location confirmed.

Date it

  • Satellite history (Copernicus Browser) shows when buildings went up or came down, and seasons.
  • SunCalc draws the sun's direction for any date and time at the spot. Compare it with the shadows in the photo to estimate the time of day, or rule out a claimed time.
  • Street View history shows the place at several dates, with shops and signs that change.

Write it up

State the location and time with the evidence for each, how confident you are, and what you could not confirm.

Published 20 Oct 2026. Read it in a terminal: ot guide read osintverse-community/image-geolocation; offline: ot guide get osintverse-community/image-geolocation · Source · Markdown

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