Problem with iPhoto and EXIF rotation
December 14, 2010 4:03 PM Subscribe
iCant be alone with this auto-rotation EXIF issue in iPhoto but how do iFix it?
I have a Canon DSLR and an iPhone both of which I regularly use to take pictures for a web site.
In the past 4 months or so something has changed, and it's not my workflow.
My workflow is, and has always been, take picture on device, import into iPhoto, edit, export from iPhoto as JPEG, post to web. But lately images are showing up sideways and sometimes upside down on the web but look perfectly fine in my software (iPhoto, finder, Picasa, etc).
Research is showing me this is a problem that has something to do with an EXIF tag not being interpreted correctly somewhere... and when I open the pictures in GIMP it tells me "The EXIF tag says the image is rotated 90 degrees, what do you want to do" with options "keep the rotation" or "show in original format". If I choose "keep the rotation" it shows in the correct orientation, and then if I save it in GIMP as a JPG it displays correctly everywhere...but this is a painful time-absorbing solution to do.
Given that iPhoto is in use by millions of people, and I'm pretty sure those people post photos online, there must be a fix somewhere, but my Google-fu is weak on this one.
(And for the record, I used iPhoto 09 forever, I did upgrade to iPhoto 10 in the summer, which MAY coincide with this issue. I just ordered iPhoto 11 and I'm HOPING it fixes this but I'd like to know).
I have a Canon DSLR and an iPhone both of which I regularly use to take pictures for a web site.
In the past 4 months or so something has changed, and it's not my workflow.
My workflow is, and has always been, take picture on device, import into iPhoto, edit, export from iPhoto as JPEG, post to web. But lately images are showing up sideways and sometimes upside down on the web but look perfectly fine in my software (iPhoto, finder, Picasa, etc).
Research is showing me this is a problem that has something to do with an EXIF tag not being interpreted correctly somewhere... and when I open the pictures in GIMP it tells me "The EXIF tag says the image is rotated 90 degrees, what do you want to do" with options "keep the rotation" or "show in original format". If I choose "keep the rotation" it shows in the correct orientation, and then if I save it in GIMP as a JPG it displays correctly everywhere...but this is a painful time-absorbing solution to do.
Given that iPhoto is in use by millions of people, and I'm pretty sure those people post photos online, there must be a fix somewhere, but my Google-fu is weak on this one.
(And for the record, I used iPhoto 09 forever, I did upgrade to iPhoto 10 in the summer, which MAY coincide with this issue. I just ordered iPhoto 11 and I'm HOPING it fixes this but I'd like to know).
If you're using the GIMP, I'll assume you're at least vaguely comfortable with the command line... Given that, you could use exiftool (available in MacPorts) to batch strip either the entire EXIF block, or just the rotation info from your images before uploading them. (Yeah, it's an extra step over your your existing workflow, but unlike the GIMP workaround it can be done in bulk to an entire folder full of images.)
Also, I don't use iPhoto, but is there an option to strip metadata on save? I thought that kind of option was getting more common thanks to privacy concerns (GPS, etc), and would help in your case too. Unless you want to keep the GPS and other data, I guess.
posted by russm at 9:04 PM on December 26, 2010
Also, I don't use iPhoto, but is there an option to strip metadata on save? I thought that kind of option was getting more common thanks to privacy concerns (GPS, etc), and would help in your case too. Unless you want to keep the GPS and other data, I guess.
posted by russm at 9:04 PM on December 26, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by nzero at 9:47 AM on December 15, 2010