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why are my pictures changed from portrait to landscape?

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  • Last reply by Zenos

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Numerous times I attempt to insert a picture into an email and it is changed from portrait to landscape. How do I stop that from happening or how can I rotate the picture 90 deg. once it is included in the email. Never had this happen with other email clients.

Numerous times I attempt to insert a picture into an email and it is changed from portrait to landscape. How do I stop that from happening or how can I rotate the picture 90 deg. once it is included in the email. Never had this happen with other email clients.

Chosen solution

A digital photograph contains hidden information ("EXIF") about the camera settings including, if it is available, the orientation. Note that many older cameras, unlike smartphones, don't have an accelerometer and so have no sense of up and down or direction. So if I take a picture in portrait orientation with my bridge camera, there is absolutely no data about orientation, and so no automatic correction could be applied. When I use my computer, tablet or TV to view pictures taken in portrait mode on this camera, I have to rotate these pictures manually. The easy way to do this is to run a batch process in Irfanview.

Some programs honour the EXIF information about orientation and automatically rotate the image when displaying it. Some don't. If that data is absent, it can't be used anyway. Note that Toad-Hall reports seeing this in other contexts.

Here is some EXIF data from a phototaken with a smartphone:

Filename - IMG_20150901_181714031_HDR.jpg Make - Motorola Model - XT1021 XResolution - 72 YResolution - 72 ResolutionUnit - Inch DateTime - 2015:09:01 18:17:16 YCbCrPositioning - Centered ExifOffset - 176 ExposureTime - 1/900.9 seconds FNumber - 2.40 ExposureProgram - Manual control ISOSpeedRatings - 125 ExifVersion - 0220 DateTimeOriginal - 2015:09:01 18:17:16 DateTimeDigitized - 2002:12:08 12:00:00 ComponentsConfiguration - YCbCr ShutterSpeedValue - 1/891 seconds ApertureValue - F 2.40 BrightnessValue - -1 ExposureBiasValue - 0 MaxApertureValue - F 2.40 MeteringMode - Average Flash - No flash function FocalLength - 3.50 mm FlashPixVersion - 0100 ColorSpace - sRGB ExifImageWidth - 2592 ExifImageHeight - 1456 InteroperabilityOffset - 1942 SceneType - Other CustomRendered - Custom process ExposureMode - Auto bracket White Balance - Auto DigitalZoomRatio - 1.00 x Contrast - Normal Saturation - Low Sharpness - Soft

GPS information: - GPSVersionID - 2.2.0.0 GPSLatitudeRef - N GPSLatitude - 51 6 6.3528 (51.101765) GPSLongitudeRef - E GPSLongitude - 0 59 23.8735 (0.989965) GPSAltitudeRef - Sea level GPSAltitude - 103.00 m GPSTimeStamp - 17 17 14 GPSDateStamp - 2015:09:01

Maker Note (Vendor): -

Thumbnail: - ImageWidth - 512 ImageLength - 288 Compression - 6 (JPG) XResolution - 72 YResolution - 72 ResolutionUnit - Inch JpegIFOffset - 2340 JpegIFByteCount - 20308 In this example these two items:

ExifImageWidth - 2592
ExifImageHeight - 1456

tell the displaying program which way up it should be.

You are being tricked by smart helpful software. It sees that the picture needs to be rotated and so does this for you when displaying it (but not when storing it into an email message.) So when it arrives at the recipient, if their email program also doesn't use EXIF data, they will see the portrait picture lying down on its side, in the presumed orientation. The only guaranteed safeguard against this happening is for you to manually rotate it so it is stored in the appropriate orientation. It's about taking control and not just trusting software to make good decisions on your behalf.

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All Replies (7)

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I've had emails before with images that appear as you describe. In all instances those images were created on an apple phone. Even when saved in eg: My documents, they appear the wrong way - sideways. I use Windows Vista and I endup having to open them using something like 'Windows Live Photo Gallery' and rotating them and saving the file.

Maybe this is what is happening to you.

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I want to send the photos in the correct format so they may be viewed by all recipients in the correct size and format. Not all email contacts have the ability to use different programs to view .jpg images. What you see is what they get. Never had this problem with any other email program.

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I think the comment about apple phones is important.

I would rotate them myself before inserting into the email message. Irfanview would be my choice on Windows.

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The pictures are in the correct format on my computer. The problem ONLY arises when I use Thunderbird mail. When you click insert in Thunderbird pictures of a certain size get switched from portrait to landscape. The problem is 100% with Thunderbird. I have Windows live mail on a computer and Outlook Express on a XP computer and those programs work fine. The problem only occurs when using Thunderbird.

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Thunderbird is an email client not a graphics viewer. It does not look at or act on the EXIF data embedded into a photograph. Other clients may. Some may not. The only way to be sure that an image displays "the right way up" is for you to rotate it before embedding it into an email message. Irfanview has the capability of re-saving pictures so that their native orientation matches the orientation stored in the EXIF data, reflecting the orientation of the camera at the time the picture was taken.

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I'm not sure how I can make it any simpler. THE PHOTOS ARE IN THE CORRECT ORIENTATION. THEY ARE SAVED IN MY PHOTO FILE AS PORTRAIT .JPG'S. When I attempt to insert them into an email they magically get changed to landscape. Never happened using Outlook Express or Live Mail. If no solution is found I will just switch to Live Mail.

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Chosen Solution

A digital photograph contains hidden information ("EXIF") about the camera settings including, if it is available, the orientation. Note that many older cameras, unlike smartphones, don't have an accelerometer and so have no sense of up and down or direction. So if I take a picture in portrait orientation with my bridge camera, there is absolutely no data about orientation, and so no automatic correction could be applied. When I use my computer, tablet or TV to view pictures taken in portrait mode on this camera, I have to rotate these pictures manually. The easy way to do this is to run a batch process in Irfanview.

Some programs honour the EXIF information about orientation and automatically rotate the image when displaying it. Some don't. If that data is absent, it can't be used anyway. Note that Toad-Hall reports seeing this in other contexts.

Here is some EXIF data from a phototaken with a smartphone:

Filename - IMG_20150901_181714031_HDR.jpg Make - Motorola Model - XT1021 XResolution - 72 YResolution - 72 ResolutionUnit - Inch DateTime - 2015:09:01 18:17:16 YCbCrPositioning - Centered ExifOffset - 176 ExposureTime - 1/900.9 seconds FNumber - 2.40 ExposureProgram - Manual control ISOSpeedRatings - 125 ExifVersion - 0220 DateTimeOriginal - 2015:09:01 18:17:16 DateTimeDigitized - 2002:12:08 12:00:00 ComponentsConfiguration - YCbCr ShutterSpeedValue - 1/891 seconds ApertureValue - F 2.40 BrightnessValue - -1 ExposureBiasValue - 0 MaxApertureValue - F 2.40 MeteringMode - Average Flash - No flash function FocalLength - 3.50 mm FlashPixVersion - 0100 ColorSpace - sRGB ExifImageWidth - 2592 ExifImageHeight - 1456 InteroperabilityOffset - 1942 SceneType - Other CustomRendered - Custom process ExposureMode - Auto bracket White Balance - Auto DigitalZoomRatio - 1.00 x Contrast - Normal Saturation - Low Sharpness - Soft

GPS information: - GPSVersionID - 2.2.0.0 GPSLatitudeRef - N GPSLatitude - 51 6 6.3528 (51.101765) GPSLongitudeRef - E GPSLongitude - 0 59 23.8735 (0.989965) GPSAltitudeRef - Sea level GPSAltitude - 103.00 m GPSTimeStamp - 17 17 14 GPSDateStamp - 2015:09:01

Maker Note (Vendor): -

Thumbnail: - ImageWidth - 512 ImageLength - 288 Compression - 6 (JPG) XResolution - 72 YResolution - 72 ResolutionUnit - Inch JpegIFOffset - 2340 JpegIFByteCount - 20308 In this example these two items:

ExifImageWidth - 2592
ExifImageHeight - 1456

tell the displaying program which way up it should be.

You are being tricked by smart helpful software. It sees that the picture needs to be rotated and so does this for you when displaying it (but not when storing it into an email message.) So when it arrives at the recipient, if their email program also doesn't use EXIF data, they will see the portrait picture lying down on its side, in the presumed orientation. The only guaranteed safeguard against this happening is for you to manually rotate it so it is stored in the appropriate orientation. It's about taking control and not just trusting software to make good decisions on your behalf.