Cell phone picture puzzle.........

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SargeW

SargeW

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I am having a problem with my cell phone camera.  The problem is not the picture quality.  The pics are fabulous. The phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, and the software just updated to 5.0.1, but this same problem existed with the previous software version as well. 

The problem is that I can take pics with the camera, look at them on the phone and they display fine.  I load them onto my PC laptop and they display fine.  I try to upload them to the forum, and they upload up side down.  I can't figure it out.  This is the only phone that has ever had the problem.  I think I have tried to load pics that I have shot and have flipped them upside down before up loading them first. As I recall that it worked, but what a huge PITA. 

Has anyone figured out a fix for this issue?  Is it me, the forum software, or the phone software?  On a recent post I uploaded several pics my wife took with her camera, and they all loaded fine.  The two I took with my cell camera loaded up side down.  Any help guys?
 
The problem is how the forum handles photos.. I have software that will rotate the Photo on a pixel by pixel basis.. most photo handling software mearly changes something called XIF (Extended Information) to tell your viewer "Rotate 180 degrees" but the forum strips that info off the photo.

Thumbs Plus is the software I use.. Cerious software.. Took me several tries to get it to work though.
 
I use Irfanview.  It will typically open the image oriented correctly for viewing and all you have to do is save it in that state.  The app is free and does sooo much more, like resizing, renaming in batches.
 
This has been a known problem with iPhone cameras for a long time, but this is the first I've heard about an Android camera.  You might research the Apple problem and see if there are any remedies that might apply, but I don't have one for you, other than the post-processing already suggested.  Try turning the phone upside down when you take pictures :)
 
As mentioned, the phone stores Exif data with the photo to note the proper orientation, but the that info can be lost when the photo is stored elsewhere, or it may be ignored by the display software. I used to have that problem with Facebook uploads from my Galaxy S3, but Samsung added Exif support and Facebook improved their software to handle the Exif info and now they always come out right.

Irfanview and many other photo editors will rotate images for you (not just write new Exif info).
 
This is interesting.  I have an Android Galaxy S4 and just upgraded to the new version, also called "lolipop" as well.  Prior, all my photos were right side up when I uploaded the camera photos to my computer.  Now they are upside down.  I use Windows Media Center (which I detest) and all I did was rotate them manually, but I don't want to have to do that all the time.  I'm wondering if "Picasa" photo software would still have that "upside down" problem?

Marsha~

 
Thanks for the info guys.  The interesting part is that my old Motorola phone worked just fine.  I took hundreds of photos with that phone and posted up to the forum without a hitch. Now with the Note 4, all the photos are upside down. And I am even using the same laptop and storing the photos in the same file. 

So if I understand correctly, I will have to physically store an upside down photo on my laptop in order for it to display correctly on the forum?
 
Since a single image from the Note 4 exceed's the forum's 250 KB attachment limit, I assume you have already resized before attaching to a forum post? If so what did you use to resize. Perhaps that is causing it.

You can't really take an "upside down" photo with the Note 4. It uses the accelerometer and gyroscope to ascertain the orientation of the photo, no matter which way you hold the camera phone.



Michael
 
There are lots of complaints on Android support forums about cameras taking photos "upside down". The most noise is coming from folks taking photos in landscape and especially left-handers. Their "fix" for landscape mode is to ensure that the on-screen shutter button should be on the right when taking photos in landscape mode; This ensures that the photo is taken "right side up".

A few tests I ran this morning confirm this on my Samsung S-3 phone. Taking photos in portrait, it seems 'natural" to hold the phone the "right way up", and those photos display in the correct orientation.

I'm not sure what, if anything, changed on the S-4 or Note 4 that would make this worse or different.

I asked Marty to send me a couple of photos this morning (one full size and one reduced). EXIF data was retained in the re-size, and the data shows the photo was taken "upside down". Maybe Marty can let us know if the photos he was trying to attach were taken in landscape or portrait.

I confirmed EXIF data is retained for attachments, but the orientation info is not parsed by the forum software, so it displays "upside down" photos upside down  :(
 
[quote author=Tinmania]You can't really take an "upside down" photo with the Note 4. It uses the accelerometer and gyroscope to ascertain the orientation of the photo, no matter which way you hold the camera phone.[/quote]

Interesting thought  ???
 
I just did 2 test uploads (on the staff practice board) of photos.  One set of portrait and landscape from my Moto X running Android 4.4.4 KitKat and another set from my Galaxy Tab S 10.5 running Android 5.0.2 Lollipop.  Both sets display right side up on the forum.  It seems the problem is not with Android as it is with the specific make and model version of the camera software put on by the manufacturer.
 
Might be Ned. OTOH I can take all the photos I want with my Galaxy S-3 and they'll post the right side up. But that's because I'm holding the camera the right way to achieve that orientation. It's only an issue if I hold the camera the wrong way up to take a photo that it doesn't display correctly.
 
I don't have an android to experiment with, but is it possible there is a camera orientation setting buried somewhere in the bowels of the setup?
 
Molaker said:
I don't have an android to experiment with, but is it possible there is a camera orientation setting buried somewhere in the bowels of the setup?
Click to expand...
Not with the stock Samsung camera app. It simply goes by how you hold the camera. I can take one pic, rotate my Note 4 180 degrees and take another--of the same scene--and when I look in the photo gallery they are both right side up.



Michael
 
I'm a "leftie" ... and usually end up with the photos I take with my iPhone 5S appearing "upside down" after importing them from my phone to my computer.  I typically just use the Windows Explorer to move picture files from my phone to my computer - usually copying all the pictures on my phone over to a new directory on my PC (these days it's mostly camping pics ... which I organize in folders that are named using a date and a location).  Once the pictures have been copied into the directory - I open the folder (which is set to display large icons) ... then select ALL the upside down pictures (using the Shift + Arrow keys).  Once ALL the pictures are highlighted - I hit a right click and select one of the "rotate" options that appear on the menu.  Doing so flips ALL the pictures. 

Granted it would be nice if they imported right side up ... but, in the big scheme of things, flipping them all as a group using this process isn't much of an inconvenience.
 
Hi guys, I am still trying to wrap my mind around this issue.  I usually take pics in landscape mode (the phone turned sideways).  The shutter button is on the left (I think).  Do I understand correctly to say that if I turn the shutter button to the right side in the landscape mode that the pics will now appear right side up? 

The curious part is that all of the pics appear right side up when I load them on to my PC.  It's when I upload to the forum that the images flip. 
 
I usually take pics in landscape mode (the phone turned sideways).  The shutter button is on the left (I think).
Click to expand...

That's the mode that actually takes/stores the picture upside down and will result in the pic displaying upside down when uploaded to the forum.

Do I understand correctly to say that if I turn the shutter button to the right side in the landscape mode that the pics will now appear right side up? 
Click to expand...

Yes.

... all of the pics appear right side up when I load them on to my PC.  It's when I upload to the forum that the images flip.
Click to expand...

No mystery; Image viewing software on your PC looks at the "Orientation" info in the pic's EXIF data, and changes the displayed orientation accordingly, so it appears the right side up. Our forum software (and many others) does not use that data.
 
Wow, thanks Tom!  That was the simple solution I was hoping for.  Now comes the more difficult task of changing the hard wire in my brain to remember to flip the phone around to take the pic!
 
SargeW said:
Wow, thanks Tom!  That was the simple solution I was hoping for.  Now comes the more difficult task of changing the hard wire in my brain to remember to flip the phone around to take the pic!
Click to expand...
Stand on your head when photographing and the left-handed hard wiring can stay as is. ;D
 
Tom said:
No mystery; Image viewing software on your PC looks at the "Orientation" info in the pic's EXIF data, and changes the displayed orientation accordingly, so it appears the right side up. Our forum software (and many others) does not use that data.
Click to expand...
While we on EXIF it is important to realize that when using a smartphone the precise GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken is often stored in the EXIF data. In some cases you may have gotten a message asking if you want that feature turned on--and it can be a very handy feature to have.

But it also means if you edit your photos with software that preserves the EXIF data, any time you upload that photo you are uploading the exact location of where that photo was taken. Might not be what you intended. Attached is the setting to turn that feature on or off on a Note 4.




Mike
 

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