Photo2Shape goes Processing

19.03.2026 10:50 ·  GIS  ·  qgis, plugins, photo2shape, processing

Photo2Shape was the next plugin I decided to update to support QGIS Qt6 builds.

As with the Statist plugin, I did not stop after fixing compatibility issues. I had been thinking about porting some of my plugins to Processing for years, and Photo2Shape was one of them. Although I am very comfortable with Processing and have developed many Processing providers, I always postponed the migration because the plugins were working fine, and there was always something more urgent. Then the war started, and my focus shifted completely. So Qt6 migration was the perfect opportunity to catch up and cross another item off my long TODO list.

This is how the new version of Photo2Shape was born. It is now a Processing algorithm provider with three algorithms for importing geotagged images, each powered by a different backend: GDAL, exif-py, and QGIS (exiv2). The backends vary in their support for different image formats and handling of missing EXIF GPS tags. The plugin’s main functionality remains unchanged. It still:

• creates a point layer from geotagged images
• adds maptips with image previews
• applies a custom style to the output layer
• assigns editor widgets to provide a nice UX when using the feature form

In addition to the point vector layer, it is now possible to generate an optional geometryless table containing information about any images that could not be processed, including the specific reason for the error.

Check the plugin documentation for more details and installation instructions.