iOS4 landscape photos sideways in e-mail

I have been having a similar issue: Photos taken in the "tall" portrait orientation are appearing on their side [like a landscape] when emailed. The video will only appear in the correct orientation [upon emailing] - if you shoot with the button on the left and the camera is on the right in landscape mode [this is the forward facing camera]. Video shot in portrait comes in on it's side as well.

Sounds like a embedded data orientation issue?

I have had the same issue. Photos taken with the iPhone vertically get rotated 90 degrees in the e-mail (although when my wife replied to the message it appeared correctly on my iPhone). A photo taken with the camera lens to the left embeds correctly in the e-mail and a photo taken with the camera lens to the right embeds the photo upside down.

Is there any way to send photos as attachments rather than embedded into the e-mail?

JoeLeo wrote:
<...>
I'm seeing this problem with friends on Facebook who post their photos automatically from Posterous.

I believe the iPhone always stores an image as if it were taken horizontal with the home button to the right. It then adjusts the EXIF data to include rotations, CCW or CW, to present the image in the proper orientation. If the program that displays the image doesn't honor all of the EXIF data then the image will not be correct unless it was taken in horizontal mode with the home button to the right. The 'amount' of incorrect rotation depends upon the viewing program.

For example, if I take a picture with my iPhone 4 in the horizontal manner with the home button to the left it displays upside down in Thunderbird and correctly in Apple Mail and in Mail on the iPhone 4 and iPad. If I take a picture in horizontal mode with the home button to the right then it displays correctly in all four programs.

Virtually all Apple applications and all Adobe applications honor the EXIF data so the image is shown correctly. Thunderbird does not and several other email clients do not.

It was this way with my 3GS under 3.1.3 and I find it is the same way on my iPhone 4.

Interesting that Mail (v 3.6) on my iMac doesn't honor the EXIF data. Photo sent from my iPhone is upside down.

It's correct that this just started with iOS4. Before, my pictures also appeared in the body of the sent and received email. Now, it's an attachment, and it's sideways. I have taken pictures in both landscape and upright, same outcome

This is a problem I hope someone comes up with an answer for.

JoeLeo wrote:

crh24 wrote:

JoeLeo wrote:
<...>
I'm seeing this problem with friends on Facebook who post their photos automatically from Posterous.

It was this way with my 3GS under 3.1.3 and I find it is the same way on my iPhone 4.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2477227&stqc=true

I don't think that's the case. Some has definitely changed with the way the iPhone handles photos in iOS 4. Prior to iOS 4, photos were orientated according to the how the camera was held. To me, this seems to make the most sense since the photos would appear correct when displayed by software without needing to dig into the EXIF data.

I guess what you described is what the changed was with iOS 4.

crh24, what happens if you take a photo in portrait mode, with iOS4, and then e-mail it to yourself and look at the photo in Main on the desk top? (It will probably appear sideways).
I just took a photo in landscape, with the button to the left and e-mailed it to myself. It's upside down in Mail (Mac OS X 10.5.8).

I wonder why they made this change?

The only time I checked it prior to iOS4 was with iOS 3.1.3. I sent a friend a bunch of photos taken on my 3GS iPhone at a professional baseball game with various orientations. The only ones that displayed correctly on his PC were those taken horizontally with the home button to the right.

I then used EXIFTool to examine the EXIF data in all of the photos. I also examined my 'sent' folder and found that Thunderbird oriented them exactly the same way as my friends PC, i.e. the EXIF data was not utilized correctly. That lead me to the conclusion I stated above as every one of the photos contained the information necessary to orient the photo properly. All Apple apps I tried and all Adobe apps I tried (I have Lightroom and Design Premium CS5) read the EXIF data and oriented the images properly.

I then sent them to an account I could read in Apple mail and each and every one of them were displayed correctly. Preview also displayed them correctly. iPhoto displayed them correctly.

A photo taken in the portrait mode--with the home key down--is displayed by Thunderbird with the top to the left. This is exactly what I was talking about above, i.e. the photo is stored in landscape mode with the EXIF revealing the proper rotation to apply to get it into the proper orientation. The EXIF in this photo says to 'Rotate 90 CW' which effectively moves the 'top' from the left to the top. This photo again displays correctly in all Apple apps I tried and all Adobe apps I tried.

Think about it. Your statement proved what I said. If the iPhone stores photos as if they were taken in landscape with the home button to the right what would you expect to happen if it was taken with the home button to the left and displayed by this errant app? It would be upside down because the iPhone has been rotated 180 degrees.

JoeLeo wrote:
Here's a perfect example of this problem which didn't exist before iOS 4:
http://twitpic.com/1zwmeb

You could blame TwitPic for not looking at the EXIF data, but why not go for the simplest solution?

Because if you examine the EXIF data you will find that the directions for displaying the photo correctly are there.

I can guarantee you this 'problem' was there in iOS 3.1.3 for that is where I first discovered the 'anomaly'. I don't remember any emailed photos in versions previous to 3.1.3 being incorrect--or at least no one reported that fact to me--which leads me to the belief that if it changed it likely changed about the time 3.1.3 was released.

Try this experiment. Take a photo in landscape mode with the home key to the left. Connect your iPhone to ImageCapture and download the photo to your desktop. You will see that ImageCapture displays it correctly as does preview. Then email it to yourself using Mail.app version 4 or above. Check the 'sent' folder. You will see the photo displayed correctly. Read the email with Thunderbird. You will see that the photo is upside down.

All this is assuming your system has Mail version 4 or greater. I don't remember if that was the case in 10.5.4.

I'm seeing this too, but noticed something odd. when emailing photos to flickr, the photo appears the correct orientation except when viewing original. For example, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/eliotlovell/4733754513/sizes/l/in/photostream/ - then click on original size.

When emailing photos to facebook, portrait photos always appear landscape. However, when viewing the email in my mail prog, it appears the correct way round. bizzare.

I read through most of these messages, now I want to add what I have found. In ACDSee the pictures displays correctly, but in the corner of the thumb is a rotation notation that ACDSee is reading to display the picture correctly. This is also there on any pictures I took with my iPhone before updating to 4.0, I checked back to '08 and even sent them to my self with Outlook and they come sideways. This is note something new in iOS 4, but it seems to have just become apparent, did we all just not notice until now?

Seeing the same issue. The EXIF data is just wrong. When I open an image taken with iPhone 4G in Photoshop, the dimensions are backwards, but Photoshop displays it correctly, as does Preview, iPhoto, etc. If I save the image in Photoshop, it corrects the dimensions in the EXIF data, storing them correctly for portrait mode.

It is definitely something that has changed in the EXIF data and not something with the way the images are sent through email. I just opened an image with PSMobile on the iPhone, and saved it. Emailed the original and the saved version from PSMobile. The PSMobile image appeared correctly in the email, and in the web browser, but the original image was sideways.

Something has definitely changed, I used my iPhone 3G for lots of photo posting, to numerous sites and services, and this never happened before. I will have to upgrade my 3G to iOS4 and see if the same thing happens with it.

This weekend I uploaded a photo to facebook, and it also uploaded in landscape mode yet I had taken it in profile mode. Thought it was a glitch in the app, so took another profile picture and sent it to a friends gmail account. When he opened it up, it displayed in landscape mode. Had not happened since iOS4 upgrade.

Okay, did a little "experiment" -

Iphone camera in profile with camera icon at the bottom - photos sent come up landscape (top of landscape to left of the screen)

Iphone camera held in landscape mode with camera icon to left - photos sent come up upside down

Iphone camera in landscape mode with camera icon to the right - photos sent are viewed alright.

I guess for the time being I just use the camera in landscape mode with the icon on the right :o)

Sorry for the double post. Just waiting for an answer is all.