Add photo or add placemark and include photo?

Hello everybody..... first post and I need help 

I have recently taken some nice pics of my surrounding villages, and decided to upload them to google earth.
The objective being to offer other virtual visitors an opportunity to view images of a better quality than streetview.

However, after around 2 hours trying different techniques, I have a number of pics uploaded..... some of them actually appear as floating images..... others emblazen the title across the viewable terrain, others don't appear where I thought that I'd placed them.

I searched for answers on how best to upload photos, but was fairly shocked to find so little info uploaded on this issue.
With the official forum closed down, I was on the verge of giving up... but searched and found this community

I'm guessing that you chaps have long ago figured out the best way to upload photos, so I'm hoping to gain from your knowledge.

For myself, I'm interested in a visitor seeing a small photo icon at specific places on the map.
If they so wish, that they could click the icon, and see the photo, headed up with a title, a description, the photo, and a concluding statement (saing that it was me that took the pics).

I have achieved this.
The pictures look great.... the text is professional..... only that the location is seemingly hit and miss.

Maybe, what I see is not what any other visitor sees.... but I couldn't find any info.
Plus there is the confusion arising from the available 'initial photo link', and then the 'additional photo link that can be added into the description'.
Then there are all the other options of 'additional long and lat' (and other stuff) in a different tab..... my mind was boggling...... why two sets.... plus tilt etc. etc.

If you can get your head around all these options, the results must be amazing..... but I failed

I can see that the placemarker seems to offer the precision that is required (stick it where you want) but is this the way to do it, because the upload options are completely different?
I have 36 pics to upload for a single village, and so far I have 4 villages worth of data.

So which is the best way to get the pics positioned in the correct place (with a little icon).

After that, I'm game to learn about all the options available, if somebody knows of a good tutorial, or can spare the time to share their knowledge.

Greetings, macroearth! The very best - and now, only - way to get your photos on GE is via Panoramio, Google's photo-sharing site.  They do have certain criteria, but they're quite broad. Be sure to title and map your photos after uploading. You won't get shots of your family or a selfie in front of the Grand Canyon on Earth, but are highly likely to get the mods over there to accept what you've uploaded. You can upload anything you want and it will still be on your personal gallery, but shots of people will probably not be on Earth. Besides, anything uploaded here on the new GEC will not be added to the GE layer, as we're a private operation and not affiliated with GE or GMaps except as fans and users of them. Think of us as more of a co-operative blog.

Have fun and see you over at Panoramio - I'm a frequent user, myself.
Diane

Thanks for that interesting response I had not even considered the 'approval' aspect of the upload process

I found these help pages, which are very useful.
www.panoramio.com/help

  So.... if I understand correctly.... I first upload the photos to my panoramio account, and then try to locate them correctly.

I'll have a go

Okay...... job done!
It was, of course, a nightmare vis a vis the feeling of success against failure.

Anybody reading this...... the overriding rule must be:

EXIF data.
EXIF data.
EXIF data.

It trumps everything.

The actual system of 'naming', and 'adding descriptions' is very easy (in panoramio), once your photos have been uploaded.
However, after all the hundreds of thousands of working hours, spent on this system..... it sadly lacks a single, simple, program...... a button to click, that writes the title and description to the EXIF file, that is then embedded in the photo.

Given that we want our photos to remain 'understandable' for eternity.... the only way that this can be achieved is by embedding the data in the actual image.
Without this data, the image is meaningless, in a world where 'mobile' photos are snapped constantly (and geo logged within the image).

I am going to do more research on the appropriate exif fields, but ultimately, adding the data was killing my morale (the geo logging was particularly painfull).
... so I uploaded the pics, with 4 of them EXIFed..... causing the title and description to be auto displayed for those 4 photos.
Nice!

I'd already renamed the files to appropriate names... but, although the file name was shown in the title text box, it couldn't be copied (clicking in the box caused the data to disappear  )

From a historical perspective..... what we need is a prog that allows us to fill in certain basics (for any given group of photos) eg. Author, copyright, general location, date.
The title could then be added, PLUS an additional description.

Once placed on the map, the geo-data could be (should be) auto-written to the exif file, with an  option to fill the geo location (if not present) eg. for scanned photos, or non-gps enabled cameras (like mine).
How nice it will be, when we gain 'voice to text', to name the pic, and add a background description.

The basic programming has been done (in the community), but it's all over the shop..... we need a unified, simple solution to embedding additional picture data.
If exif embedding was provided, then, choosing the storage site would be a no brainer.

Anyway............ it's done.
36 photos uploaded, and mapped.

I wonder what will happen with competitive images
Certainly, one of my images should replace an image already uploaded (and in place, on google earth).

Other pics from the same guy, compliment my set.... but this one, in particular, is very ordinary.
I had the advantage of 'better light' (to be fair).

Other issues:
One (of my pics) was a magnificent shot of an old forge, full of tools and atmosphere..... but under a roof (though visible from the street).
I played by the rules and logged it as being 'indoors'.... a real shame, as I expect it to be excluded (but no gripe).

Anyway.... so far so good.
I've learned my lessons vis a vis the exif data.
I never again, want to do ALL THIS WORK and yet know that I have ultimately failed the community, by not embedding the data.

Hello, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Panoramio photos are no longer being added to Google Earth.  Nobody seems to know why, but there is a summary of the situation in this post on the Panoramio forum.

You can add photos to Google Maps (but not Google Earth) if they are attached to a place.  See Add, remove, or share photos in Google Maps.  This is not very useful if your photos are taken out in the countryside, so we hope the ability to add photos anywhere will be implemented.