iPad pictures

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Eric Williams
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iPad pictures

Post by Eric Williams »

Hi all, due to the age of my old XP computer I find it quicker and easier to use my iPad to up load succullent pics to forum pages. As you have noticed it is not only me who has trouble with pics.arriving out of correct orientation. Does It only happen on this forum, is it an iPad problem, or the photographers fault. I wonder if it can be cured ? Cheers
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habanerocat
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Re: iPad pictures

Post by habanerocat »

image1.jpg
It's got something to do with the way ipads and the like save the orientation tag on the photo.
Lots of discussion on here about it before.

One solution is to open the photo with a separate program and reset the EXIF Orientation Tag. I use irfanview which is free and easy to use, but there are other programs out there.
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Re: iPad pictures

Post by JaneO »

Eric,
Turn your IPad 100 per cent upside down so still landscape and take pictures. Works for me.
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iann
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Re: iPad pictures

Post by iann »

Apple always stores images in landscape mode, regardless if how they're taken. It then stores EXIF orientation data so it knows which way they should be displayed. This behaviour is not very common and most other cameras store images in the orientation they are taken in, so it will display the right way up pretty much anywhere. Even Apple images will display correctly in many places, including the main web browsers, so long as the EXIF data is still available.

When an image is uploaded to this forum, a thumbnail is generated that will be displayed inline in the message. The image is converted to a smaller size and the EXIF orientation data is thrown away. Usually that doesn't matter, but for an Apple image there is now no way for anyone to know that it should be rotated to be displayed. Clicking on the image in this forum used to display the full-size image, which still has the EXIF orientation, and usually it will look correct. This appears to have changed recently, and now clicking the image displays some sort of interactive viewer which is still in the wrong orientation (I suspect this viewer does quite a lot, but I couldn't get it to do anything).

One fix would be for the forum software not to throw away the EXIF orientation data ;) Another would be to get yourself a real phone :eek: Lastly, you could find an app that will physically rotate images so the EXIF data is no longer needed for it to display properly. Standard Apple tools won't do this, they just tweak the EXIF data when you ask for an image to be rotated. Perhaps people can recommended their preferred apps. Irfanview is obviously good, but there may be some simpler Apple-specific thing that would be easier for just this job.
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Re: iPad pictures

Post by rodsmith »

iann wrote: Thu Aug 09, 2018 9:31 pm...One fix would be for the forum software not to throw away the EXIF orientation data ;) Another would be to get yourself a real phone :eek: Lastly, you could find an app that will physically rotate images so the EXIF data is no longer needed for it to display properly. Standard Apple tools won't do this, they just tweak the EXIF data when you ask for an image to be rotated. Perhaps people can recommended their preferred apps. Irfanview is obviously good, but there may be some simpler Apple-specific thing that would be easier for just this job.
Or use a "proper" camera :wink:
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Jim_Mercer
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Re: iPad pictures

Post by Jim_Mercer »

iann wrote: Thu Aug 09, 2018 9:31 pm Apple always stores images in landscape mode, regardless if how they're taken. It then stores EXIF orientation data so it knows which way they should be displayed. This behaviour is not very common and most other cameras store images in the orientation they are taken in, so it will display the right way up pretty much anywhere.
I think most cameras store the pixel information in the same way - it is a feature of the jpg format. Previous "tests" have shown that the route from camera to forum can change the orientation regardless of the exif data. Only way found to always work is to use photo editing software that does change the order of the pixel data when you rotate the image so that you can save a jpg in the correct orientation with nothing in exif.
Last edited by Jim_Mercer on Fri Aug 10, 2018 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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iann
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Re: iPad pictures

Post by iann »

I have read that cameras always store images with the "top" being at the "top" of the camera, hence always portrait, then set the orientation tag appropriately. This is what Apple devices do. However, my experience has been that cameras store the image "as-taken" with an orientation tag of 1. It isn't a feature of the jpg format. Jpegs are usually stored inside an EXIF container, but that doesn't mean they have to be oriented in any particular way. Possibly expensive cameras operate like Apple devices, or perhaps newer (or older?) cameras than mine, or perhaps cameras outputting in raw format? Might be interesting for people to post their experiences.

Still, there is nothing to stop the forum software from respecting the orientation tag, either carrying it forward into its thumbnails or rotating the thumbnail as described in the orientation tag. It currently does neither, almost guaranteed to mess up with many images. Browser support is generally good, but there are some issues. For example, there is a CSS property that says whether to display an image using the EXIF orientation, or not! I'm not sure about mobile devices.

Personally, I post images online after cropping, occasionally adjusting, and rotating physically to the correct orientation. Hard for anything to display it wrongly after that.
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Jim_Mercer
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Re: iPad pictures

Post by Jim_Mercer »

iann wrote: Fri Aug 10, 2018 12:02 pm I have read that cameras always store images with the "top" being at the "top" of the camera, hence always portrait, then set the orientation tag appropriately.
That would make it landscape!

From my reading of the jpeg standard pixel order in the file is always top down, left to right plus an orientation flag with one of eight values (four angles and mirror). The problem does seem worse with aplle devices so perhaps their interpretation of the exif or jiff standards could be causinf problems but I did find that one of my images had the changed orientation when downloaded from device (not apple) to pc and uploaded from pc with no editing taking place compared with direct uplaod from device so finger of suspicion also points to the forum software.
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Re: iPad pictures

Post by Eric Williams »

Thanks for all the replies folks, some tech stuff way over my head too. Can we say using iPads and phones and uploading direct to forum plus the software used by this forum could be the cause of orientation problems. I wonder if pics were up loaded say to a gardening forum would we run into similar problems ? Cheers
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Re: iPad pictures

Post by Jim_Mercer »

Eric Williams wrote: Sat Aug 11, 2018 11:08 am I wonder if pics were up loaded say to a gardening forum would we run into similar problems ? Cheers
Google finds lots of people having this problem so it definitely is not just this forum and it also is not just Apple products
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