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Geolocation is a key aspect of image analysis to pinpoint the exact location of an event. This article offers a step-by-step explanation of the methods that allow you to find the location where a photo was taken in a retail park. Discover effective strategies for working with OSINT and improve your geolocation skills.
Some images are easier to geolocate for one of the following reasons:
Image context or additional data such as GPS coordinates or location information that is available online.
Using reverse image search tools, such as Google Lens or Yandex, which can automatically identify location-specific details.
The image contains verifiable elements such as road signs, company logos, or famous landmarks.
If none of these options are suitable, geolocation becomes more complex and requires a careful approach.
The photo was posted at 15:28 UTC on January 15, 2023, and while it says the image was taken “just now,” a lot of important data is missing. There are no GPS coordinates, a reverse image search yielded no results, and the geographic information is insufficient to quickly locate the location. Finding the exact location requires a more structured approach that involves answering four important questions.
What do we know?
What does this mean?
So what do you need to know?
How to find out about it?
Conor’s Twitter profile says he’s in London, although it says Ireland. However, this data does not provide enough information to determine the location of the photo. In such cases, when at first glance there are no obvious traces, it is important not to give up. There are other techniques that can help extract additional data from an image, as there is often more than meets the eye.
Armed with 20 different data points, we have many new avenues to explore until we find the location, and if we still can’t find it, at least we know we’ve tried everything. We already have a couple of starting points, so let’s find our 20 data points by examining the photo as closely as possible:
Image taken at 15:28 UTC on January 15, 2023.
Conor (photographer) has London in his Twitter location bio.
It was daytime when the picture was taken.
A black car in the foreground with right-hand drive.
Conor in the parking lot.
The buildings resemble a retail park.
Store #1 has a red ad.
Store #1 sells furniture, bed linen, appliances and audio equipment.
The name of store #2 is not visible, but it has red, orange, green and blue lettering.
Store #3 is hard to see, but we can see the yellow ad.
Shop #4 is called “Maxi” and has a red and white sign.
Some Christmas decorations are still visible.
Shop #5 has a red and white sign.
Commercial buildings consist of long rectangular blocks (metal or concrete?)
The roof isn’t flat, it’s a two-tiered structure (this might help when it comes to aerial photography later…)
The roof is supported by external racks.
Shadows from the supporting pillars are cast on the facade of the building. This will help you orient yourself.
Clear weather with little cloudiness. No sign of rain.
In the far left corner of the image is a blue advertisement/sign with white text.
Some of these details are more important than others, but we won’t necessarily know which until the end. Some details, such as store names, are more likely to determine the location than other details, but small details will help when fine-tuning and checking at the end.
The next stage of the analysis consists in evaluating the available data. Although the information may seem incomplete, there are already enough facts to move forward. Now it’s important to understand how this data helps us achieve our goal. This allows us to build a clearer picture and continue the investigation.
A right-hand drive car means it’s a left-hand drive country. Given that at 15:28 UTC 15 Jan 2023 it was daylight at this location, that means the UK or Ireland is the correct location (the time and daylight means it can’t be Australia, etc.). Conor’s bio says London, but that doesn’t mean he was photographed there.
The correct location would be a retail park with a car park in front of it. There will be a store whose name ends with u, x or y. If the language is English, y is more likely to be at the end of the name than u or x. The store sells furniture, bed linen, and electrical and audio equipment.
There is a second store that is perhaps easier to identify. It is called “Maxi” – something and has a red and white signboard style.
The shop windows are oriented approximately to the west. Conor looks east. We can tell this because the shadows indicate that the late afternoon sun is rising from behind Conor’s shoulder, so the sunset is behind him. This also means that the long row of shops will be oriented roughly along a north-south line.
Once we have a rough location, we can check all the other details (roof style, poles, signage, etc.).
To determine the correct location, you need to find a retail park in the UK or Ireland with a Maxi-? next to a west-facing furniture or electrical store. If there are several such places, additional details such as pillars, roof structure or building materials can be used to eliminate the options that do not fit.
To find the right location, you need to focus on choosing the optimal search strategy. You can search for stores that sell furniture or electronics that end in “y,” or explore stores under the “Maxi” brand. It is best to start with the “Maxi” store, as its name is clearer. This will find all eligible retail outlets in the UK and Ireland and then exclude those that do not meet the planning or orientation requirements.
Let’s start by looking for shops called ‘Maxi’ in the UK. A wildcard google search for the store name will help (since we don’t yet know if Maxi is the full or partial name of the store).
There are a few unhelpful results, but the first result that mentions a Maxi retailer is the one for the Maxi Zoo chain of pet stores.The website says Maxi Zoo has 29 stores in Ireland. A google image search for Maxi Zoo stores leads to this Shutterstock collection of Maxi Zoo storefronts. Comparing the image with the photo, it seems that we are on the right track.
This looks like a good potential option. Research shows that the Maxi Zoo store has outlets in Ireland but not in the UK. This is important information as you can now focus on finding the right location in Ireland rather than the UK.
Based on what has already been found, the focus is on identifying which of the 29 Maxi Zoo stores in Ireland Conor was near at the time of the shooting. To do this, you can check each store by comparing it with the elements from the original image. If the absence of such elements is found, the place can be excluded from the search. Google Maps makes this process much easier by highlighting stores as the map moves, helping you quickly identify possible options.
Clicking on the map links allows you to view images of each store, making the checkout process easier. Thus, each of the 29 stores can be quickly turned on or off, which helps to save time. Although the number of stores seems large, this method only takes a few minutes.
In this case, it is immediately apparent that the Maxi Zoo store in Blanchardstown does not correspond to the original image due to the inconsistency of the window architecture. After several failed attempts, the Maxi Zoo in Waterford is starting to look like a more promising option.
Note that the store sign hangs vertically down like in the original photo. The adjacent store (store #3) has a yellow sign, and at first glance the architecture matches. This may not be correct, but it certainly cannot be ruled out. You have to take a closer look.
The best way to do this is with Google Street View. There is no direct coverage of the car park itself, but the road coverage from the outside is good enough to make an assessment:
This is exactly the point where careful attention to detail at the beginning starts to pay off. If the selected location is correct, all previously defined elements should match the image. Let’s check them out:
Harvey Norman: Marks, logo and font match the original image. This corresponds to the bedding, appliances and audio equipment store (store #1).
Nearby is a store with colorful advertising in the same location as Conor’s photo. This store listed as #2 is Home Focus At Hickeys.
Comparing this location to Conor’s original image confirms the presence of key details.
3. Next door to Home Focus, we see that the store with the yellow sign is Halfords (store #3).
4. The gabled roof between Harvey Norman and Home Focus is in the same location as in the original image. The metal block panels and exterior roof support architecture also match.
5. The only information we provide at the beginning is that the image was taken at 15:28 UTC on January 15, 2023. The shadows in the source image suggest that the building should be oriented roughly north-south, with Conor looking east. The orientation looks good:
To make sure this is correct, we can use Suncalc to see if the shadows in that location match what is shown in Conor’s photo.Suncalc says the shadows should be oriented like this:
So, a structured approach to analysis really helped geolocate this image successfully, even with limited initial information. This once again confirms that there is often more useful detail in images than meets the eye. Every piece of information, even the smallest, can bring us closer to the result and help us find exactly the place we are looking for.
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