Taking cellphone photos for correct orientation for the forum

[Donna D.]

Robert (rbryan) wrote an excellent tutorial on taking photos with a phone that was posted on FiberglassRV and having them in the correct orientation for the forums there are here.

I scooped it! I hope this helps.

When you take a photo with a phone you can choose to take the picture vertically (portrait mode) or horizontally (landscape mode). Photos taken with a phone contain metadata which tells the phone how to orient the photos when viewing them. If you upload an iPhone photo to a bulletin board or forum, that metadata is lost. So, the site displays the photo in it's "native" orientation, which means the photo won't be oriented correctly unless you took it in native orientation. The native orientation for iPhone photos by the way is in landscape mode with the shutter button to the right. If you get in the habit of always taking photos with your iPhone in landscape mode with the button to the right, it won't matter if the metadata is stripped from the photo when uploading it - it will display correctly.

For incorrectly oriented photos, if you upload them to a computer, turn them 90 degrees, save them, and then upload them to the forum, they will show correctly. This can be tricky only because once edited, depending on the OS or the photo viewing application, they can show sideways on the computer, but right side up on the forum. Again though, the easiest way to prevent the need to edit the photo orientation is to take them with the phone held horizontally, and with the shutter button to the right.

[Doug & Betty]

Thank you Donna!

[Eggscape]

Thanks for fixing my bike photos...I must have taken them with my iPad not landscape so they fit better. Of course that was last year and they show up correct in my iPad photo pile. They even showed up correctly in the post preview that I did...I think.
Good to know info.

[Slickheadhunter]

Thanks Donna!

[Stkshftr]

I'd like to add a note to Donna's thread; I like to look at the photos that others have taken of their rigs and camp sites where they've staid. When uploaded to this site, the file (photo) titles are quite often the only means of associating images with time/location/sequence/etc., provided that the person uploading the photos has changed the file title from that assigned by the camera/phone by default. It may take a moment or two longer before posting to do this, but it adds greatly to the viewer's understanding of place and intended conveyance.

Just a thought, thanks.

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by Stkshftr

I'd like to add a note to Donna's thread; I like to look at the photos that others have taken of their rigs and camp sites where they've staid. When uploaded to this site, the file (photo) titles are quite often the only means of associating images with time/location/sequence/etc., provided that the person uploading the photos has changed the file title from that assigned by the camera/phone by default. It may take a moment or two longer before posting to do this, but it adds greatly to the viewer's understanding of place and intended conveyance.

Just a thought, thanks.

Always a good idea to rename the photos to give them a better description than the numerical numbers generated by the phone.

I'd like to also add, it's not always practical to take photos in landscape mode because you may need to capture a vertical field of view. In such a case just remember that you'll have to edit and rotate the photos before uploading them to the forum, or they'll be sideways.

[Vermilye]

Originally Posted by rbryan4

Always a good idea to rename the photos to give them a better description than the numerical numbers generated by the phone.

I'd like to also add, it's not always practical to take photos in landscape mode because you may need to capture a vertical field of view. In such a case just remember that you'll have to edit and rotate the photos before uploading them to the forum, or they'll be sideways.

The problem with renaming posted photos is when you keep a database (such as Lightroom) of your photos and someone asks for a higher resolution version. Without the original name, it can be difficult to find the original.