PhysicsForums is rotating my photographs sideways

[sevensages]

I would like to create a thread to ask a question about plumbing. I have used my cell phone to take photographs of a book about plumbing, and I would like to post these photographs on my thread about plumbing. But when I was in the process of creating a thread, and I posted the photographs on the thread, the photographs showed up on the thread rotated sideways, even though the photographs are straight up and down both on my cell phone and in my gallery on my laptop. How do I get PhysicsForums to stop rotating the photographs that I post here?

Here are the photographs that I would like to post:

 

[DaveC426913]

In have never had that happen, and I post a lot of pics.

[ UPDATE ] I downloaded your pics. I am unable to rotate them in a pic viewer, in fact I am unable to even open them in Photoshop.

This is not a PF bug; this is a sevensages bug.

.

 

[berkeman]

Did you take the photos using portrait or landscape orientation of your phone?

 

[sevensages]

Did you take the photos using portrait or landscape orientation of your phone?

I don't know. I didn't adjust the orientation. I just used whatever is the default orientation.

 

[berkeman]

I don't know. I didn't adjust the orientation. I just used whatever is the default orientation.

I mean, when you took the pictures with your phone, did you hold your phone upright (portrait) or sideways (landscape).

 

[DaveC426913]

Here. Fixed.

 

[sevensages]

I mean, when you took the pictures with your phone, did you hold your phone upright (portrait) or sideways (landscape).

I think I held my phone upright when I took the photographs with my cell phone.

 

[berkeman]

Testing...

Portrait phone orientation:

Landscape phone orientation:

 

[berkeman]

Hmm, that test was no help. But I sent them from my Android phone to my Windows laptop in order to post them. Are you posting straight from your phone to PF?

 

[sevensages]

Hmm, that test was no help. But I sent them from my Android phone to my Windows laptop in order to post them. Are you posting straight from your phone to PF?

No. I first take the photographs with my cell phone. Then I transfer the photographs from my cell phone to my laptop, and then I save the photographs in my gallery on my laptop. Then when i create my threads, I click add files at Physicsforums and upload the images from my laptop to this message board.

 

[sevensages]

Here. Fixed.

View attachment 352085
View attachment 352087

Thank you. I saved both of those photographs. That might help me post the photographs upright, but I would still like to know what the heck is happening that rotated these pictures in the first place so that I don't have this problem again.

 

[sevensages]

Here. Fixed.

View attachment 352085
View attachment 352087

I tried to post those pictures on my new thread, but I get an error message saying "The uploaded file was not an image as expected".

 

[DaveC426913]

I tried to post those pictures on my new thread, but I get an error message saying "The uploaded file was not an image as expected".

Yes. My experiments suggest the same thing. There's something to do with the file type metadata that your phone is assigning that is messing them up.

A first attempt might be to try editing the pics yourself:

1. rotate them in your phone using the edit feature, then
2. crop them slightly*, then
3. save the result.

This may fix the problem, though i make no guarantees.

* rotating a pic doesn't really make a new pic; it just sets a flag in the metadata of the pic. Cropping it on the other hand, will force it to save as a new pic, which might save it properly.

 

[sevensages]

Yes. My experiments suggest the same thing. There's something to do with the file type that your phone is assigning that is messing them up.

A first attempt might be to try editing the pics yourself:

1. rotate them in your phone using the edit feature, then
2. crop them slightly*, then
3. save the result.

This may fix the problem, though i make no guarantees.

* rotating a pic doesn't really make a new pic; it just sets a flag in the metadata of the pic. Cropping iton the other hand, will forec it to save as a new pic, which might save it properly.

The photographs are all facing the correct direction on my cell phone. And the photographs all face the correct direction on the gallery in my laptop. It is when I upload the photographs to PF that the photographs get rotated. So I don't see the point in rotating the photograph ON MY CELL PHONE.

 

[DaveC426913]

I don't see the point in rotating the photograph ON MY CELL PHONE.

Because it's not working.

Clearly there is something wrong with your phone's idea of what a .jpg is. Your phone and your gallery are apparently more forgiving than PF and my personal laptop - both of which know something is wrong.

OK, so skip the rotate step. But crop it a little, forcing it to resave as a new pic.

 

[DaveC426913]

Thank you. I saved both of those photographs. That might help me post the photographs upright, but I would still like to know what the heck is happening that rotated these pictures in the first place so that I don't have this problem again.

The fact that I cannot download your files and manipulate them myself means that your phone is definitely saving them wrong. The problem is in the files themselves.

You haven't said what type of phone it is, but your next step will be to approach a help forum dedicated to that brand and ask if anyone has encountered such a problem.

 

[berkeman]

I first take the photographs with my cell phone.

Android or iPhone?

 

[sevensages]

Yes. My experiments suggest the same thing. There's something to do with the file type metadata that your phone is assigning that is messing them up.

A first attempt might be to try editing the pics yourself:

1. rotate them in your phone using the edit feature, then
2. crop them slightly*, then
3. save the result.

This may fix the problem, though i make no guarantees.

* rotating a pic doesn't really make a new pic; it just sets a flag in the metadata of the pic. Cropping it on the other hand, will force it to save as a new pic, which might save it properly.

Dave C's instructions on this post worked for me. I edited the photographs by adding a smiley face to each other them. I already posted the thread on the mechanical engineering subforum. Thank you, Dave C.

 

[berkeman]

But crop it a little, forcing it to resave as a new pic.

That's a great tip, Dave. I will use that for other situations where I have trouble saving a rotated image on my laptop. Thanks.

 

[sevensages]

Android or iPhone?

Android.

 

[DaveC426913]

Almost any edit (crop, brighten, colour cast, etc.) will force a new save. Rotate is one of the few that doesn't.

 

[sevensages]

Almost any other edit (brighten, colour cast, etc.) will force a new save. Rotate is one of the few that doesn't.

I added smiley faces to each picture LOL

 

[gmax137]

I noticed this same thing last nite. For the first time, a photo taken with my (android) phone would rotate when I added it to a PF post. I gave up last nite. I emailed the photo to myself (to get it on my desktop computer), then attached it to a post here, same thing, rotated. I then opened the photo in Paint, cropped it, and reduced the file size. Now it posts correctly. This is a new phenomenon for me.

 

[berkeman]

@Greg Bernhardt any thoughts?

 

[DaveC426913]

Testing (Android)...

What??

It rotated my pic upside down! I watched it land in the PF editor and then a moment later flipped it!

What??? This one rotated 90 degrees!

(B-25 Mitchell, if anyone's asking)

 

[berkeman]

It rotated my pic upside down!

Dagnabit Dave! What did you do?!!

 

[phinds]

Dagnabit Dave! What did you do?!!

Dave is standing on his head again. I've TOLD him not to do that.

 

[gmax137]

It's his phone
Lol

 

[Nugatory]

(B-25 Mitchell, if anyone's asking)

Ok, I’ll bite…. Many airworthy B-25 survivors, but which one was this and where did you see it?

 

[pinball1970]

Thank you. I saved both of those photographs. That might help me post the photographs upright, but I would still like to know what the heck is happening that rotated these pictures in the first place so that I don't have this problem again.

I always post into word first, then they appear on the forum as they do in word. I can also crop the image if needed and compress the file if too large.

 

[DaveC426913]

Ok, I’ll bite…. Many airworthy B-25 survivors, but which one was this and where did you see it?

I live in Hamilton ON a few miles from the warplane museum.
They have a PBY Catalina/Canso, a Mitchell, a Douglas C-47 and an Avro Lanc. All airworthy. They run flights every day and fly over my house daily. Never get anything done around here cuz I'l always lookin' up!

Some day soon I'm gonna book a flight.
https://www.warplane.com/aircraft/flights/buy.aspx

 

[jtbell]

[ UPDATE ] I downloaded your pics. I am unable to rotate them in a pic viewer, in fact I am unable to even open them in Photoshop.

I downloaded the first one to my iPad and opened it with no problems in Photoshop. It was in its rotated orientation.

In addition to the suggestion of cropping the image slightly (or not so slightly) to force saving a new version before posting, simply resizing (resampling) it might also do the trick. Make the new width maximum 800 pixels and the new height maximum 620 pixels. The forum software resizes larger images to those maxima anyway.

 

[jack action]

An image that is rotated is not always saved rotated. Sometimes a program only modifies the orientation EXIF tag.

I downloaded your image - which was sideways once downloaded - and opened it in Shotwell, allowing me to easily rotate it. Here is that newly saved image:

But the program only modifies the Orientation tag. If your web browser (or any other program) does not consider the Orientation tag, you would see it sideways; if it does, it is in the upright position. (With my browser - Firefox - it is in the upright position.) EDIT: Now that I posted the reply, the image has gone back to its original orientation, sideways! PF most likely did not consider the orientation tag when saving it.

The thumbnail of this same image - anyway on my browser - is still sideways. I inserted it at the end of this text for you (via PF, not another image uploaded). If you click on it, it should open in the correct upright position (as the one above, that is).

How do I know for sure? When I open the image I modified with Shotwell in GIMP, the program asks me this first:

This image contains Exif orientation metadata. Would you like to rotate the image?​

My guess is that either a program along the way (your camera taking the picture or your gallery on your laptop) includes a wrong Orientation tag, or another one ignores one already included.

 

[DaveC426913]

My guess is that either a program along the way (your camera taking the picture or your gallery on your laptop) includes a wrong Orientation tag, or another one ignores one already included.

Considering I am now having the same problem with pics from my own phone, I am beginning to suspect this is a bug introduced in a recent Android update.