so you have a photo but you have no idea where it was taken is there any way to find out exactly where a picture was photographed well there's no 100 guarantee you'll ever figure it out there are a few things you can try to suss out the origins of your mystery snap exif data is always the first stop exif data is a form of metadata that can be found in some jpeg and tiff images if the camera which took the picture has a gps unit then it will tag the image with the gps coordinates of where the image was taken as part of that exif data onto these coordinates all you have to do is put them into google maps which will of course tell you where the photographer was standing when the photo was taken if that sounds too easy that's because it is you'll often find that a given image has no exif data at all despite the fact that smartphones are the most common source of photos and they all have gps sensors in them popular services such as facebook and twitter strip exif data from images specifically to prevent privacy violations so if your image is sourced from those places this is going to be a dead end incidentally check out our article on how to remove exif data yourself which also happens to show you how to view that data in the process it's linked in the description below alternatively you can google for an online extra viewer reverse image search can give you context there are various reverse image search services on the internet that use various fancy ways to find out where on the net the source image can be found that doesn't necessarily tell you directly where the photo was taken but if you're lucky it would lead you to additional information about the image for example you may find tags captions or contact information for those who run a site those data sources can then solve the mystery of where the photo was taken maybe if you're looking for good tools to find where a picture was taken like this we suggest either google reverse image search or 10i you can also try converting the image into search terms reverse image search doesn't always do a good job but that doesn't mean all hope is lost when trying to find the original source of an image look at your image and try to come up with search terms that describe it then put these terms into google and switch over to the image results section if you're lucky you'll get your original image in the results given that it's on the web in the first place of course if you don't strike gold right away get imaginative with your keywords and try different iterations sometimes the keywords that get you to the image you wanted may be a little left afield you should also check for landmarks and other clues if the above methods don't get you any closer to finding where a picture was taken it might be time to put your serious detective hat on look carefully at the image where things are tied to a specific time and place by looking at clothing objects fashion and other relevant details of the image look up these individual items on google to learn where they come from or any other information that could help pin a photo's origin you can also use this method to get additional keywords for the keyword method we just discussed at the very least this bit of basic sleuthing can narrow down the location to a specific country regional city brand names for example can be very specific to a time and place for more information on how to figure out where a picture was taken check out the article linked in the description below see you next time