OT Upside Down Photos Explained

Caryc

Well-known Member
I have a good digital camera so the photos I post here on the forum are all taken with that. But I do have an apple 5S smart phone.

We've all seen upside down pictures posted here on the forum so I decided I would try to find out why they are upside down. Here is what I found.

I tried taking pictures and emailing them to myself to get them on my desktop computer. I found that how you hold the camera makes a difference. Of course, it's best to take photos in landscape mode so they look normal. But it still matters how you hold your phone.

With my phone in the vertical position, if I turn it to the right ninety degrees to the horizontal mode and take the picture then send it to my computer, the picture is upside down.

Starting from the vertical position again and turning the phone ninety degrees to the left and taking the picture, I found that the pictures displayed normally when sent to my computer.

You guys that have trouble with upside down pictures might try this yourself. Don't know why it works, but it does.
 
Thank you!! I recently went from android based to i-phone and did not know it made a difference. My kids and grands probably know that perfectly well and would never think to tell me.
 
Cary, I have found that when rotated left that I am less likely to obscure the lens with my hand/fingers, too. Now I have 2 good reasons! :)
 
(quoted from post at 12:27:48 06/21/17) Thank you!! I recently went from android based to i-phone and did not know it made a difference. My kids and grands probably know that perfectly well and would never think to tell me.

The funny part is no matter if you take the picture with the lens in the upper left or the lower right corner, the camera still displays the picture correctly.

But if the camera sends the picture out like in an email, the picture will display upside down if you took it with the lens in the lower right corner.

I guess that's why so many people can't figure why their emailed pictures are displaying upside down ; because the phone itself displays their picture correctly no matter how they oriented their camera.
 
(quoted from post at 12:47:22 06/21/17)
Another reason I don't want a "smart" phone!

Because you have to use your brains "reasoning" powers to use it?

It didn't take much reasoning to figure it out. It was the same as taking a picture with my digital camera held upside down. It's actually very logical.
 

I also researched this. My (and all) iphones will usually post upside down. This because they have no 'bottom'. If you edit the pic and rotate it only slightly, then save it, it will post upright. It also helps to take a screen shot and post that, as some boards require a jpg file. Screenshots are jpg's.
 
(quoted from post at 18:28:00 06/21/17)
It also helps to take a screen shot and post that, as some boards require a jpg file. Screenshots are jpg's.

this board does not require jpg files, it supports a variety of formats with the tags. i can't speak for other boards.

jpg is simply one image format, and a screenshot is a generic term for a snapshot of what was on your screen at a particular moment. screenshots can be many different types of files, depending on the exact software/process used to create them.
 

oh, sorry. after further review, i guess u were specifically referring to iFoons.
 
(quoted from post at 15:26:27 06/21/17)
(quoted from post at 12:47:22 06/21/17)
Another reason I don't want a "smart" phone!

Because you have to use your brains "reasoning" powers to use it?

It didn't take much reasoning to figure it out. It was the same as taking a picture with my digital camera held upside down. It's actually very logical.
No becaUSE i Have cameras that do not require holding it in "special way" And I never hold my camera upside down.
 
(quoted from post at 15:56:41 06/21/17)
(quoted from post at 15:26:27 06/21/17)
(quoted from post at 12:47:22 06/21/17)
Another reason I don't want a "smart" phone!

Because you have to use your brains "reasoning" powers to use it?

It didn't take much reasoning to figure it out. It was the same as taking a picture with my digital camera held upside down. It's actually very logical.
No becaUSE i Have cameras that do not require holding it in "special way" And I never hold my camera upside down.

So, it's a special way to know which way the camera is right side up? Yeah, I guess the next time I use the camera on my phone, I'll have to figure it out all over again. I hope my brain can survive all that. It's pretty complicated.
 
(quoted from post at 17:05:13 06/21/17)
(quoted from post at 15:56:41 06/21/17)
(quoted from post at 15:26:27 06/21/17)
(quoted from post at 12:47:22 06/21/17)
Another reason I don't want a "smart" phone!

Because you have to use your brains "reasoning" powers to use it?

It didn't take much reasoning to figure it out. It was the same as taking a picture with my digital camera held upside down. It's actually very logical.
No becaUSE i Have cameras that do not require holding it in "special way" And I never hold my camera upside down.

So, it's a special way to know which way the camera is right side up? Yeah, I guess the next time I use the camera on my phone, I'll have to figure it out all over again. I hope my brain can survive all that. It's pretty complicated.

HAve fun!!!!
 
Other smart phones post them upside down or sideways too.
All will display correctly on those devices even after posted.
They also tend to display correctly on an Apple computer.
I haven't actually checked them on my Linux machines. Hmm..

Anyway, editing the photo on the phone, in almost anyway will
make it post correctly for all machines. Most of my pictures are
iPhone photos. I always edit them to reduce the size before uploading.
That makes them post correctly for all devices as far as I know.

I have noticed that if I edit them on a PC, some have to be
rotated and others do not, depending on how I hold my phone.
But if I edit them on the phone, I haven't had to rotate them.
All I've had to do was edit them and reduce size.
Fits right in with what you found.
 
(quoted from post at 12:54:00 06/21/17) I have a good digital camera so the photos I post here on the forum are all taken with that. But I do have an apple 5S smart phone.

We've all seen upside down pictures posted here on the forum so I decided I would try to find out why they are upside down. Here is what I found.

I tried taking pictures and emailing them to myself to get them on my desktop computer. I found that how you hold the camera makes a difference. Of course, it's best to take photos in landscape mode so they look normal. But it still matters how you hold your phone.

With my phone in the vertical position, if I turn it to the right ninety degrees to the horizontal mode and take the picture then send it to my computer, the picture is upside down.

Starting from the vertical position again and turning the phone ninety degrees to the left and taking the picture, I found that the pictures displayed normally when sent to my computer.

You guys that have trouble with upside down pictures might try this yourself. Don't know why it works, but it does.

How it works is pretty simple. It's all about the phone. The device has an assumed definition for what is top based on the position of the shutter button (or the volume button on some devices) and that definition varies from device to device. The phone orientation gets saved in the image metadata. If, based on that definition, you have your phone "upside down" when taking the image the image is tagged "incorrectly" from the human viewpoint. Here is an example of how a TIFF image is tagged. JPEG has a similar mechanism. This is the kind of stuff that keeps real programmers employed ;-)

TOH

[b:4a6933ac67][u:4a6933ac67]TIFF Tag Orientation[/u:4a6933ac67][/b:4a6933ac67]

IFD Image
Code 274 (hex 0x0112)
Name Orientation
LibTiff name TIFFTAG_ORIENTATION
Type SHORT
Count 1
Default 1
Description

The orientation of the image with respect to the rows and columns.

The specification defines these values:

1 = The 0th row represents the visual top of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual left-hand side.
2 = The 0th row represents the visual top of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual right-hand side.
3 = The 0th row represents the visual bottom of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual right-hand side.
4 = The 0th row represents the visual bottom of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual left-hand side.
5 = The 0th row represents the visual left-hand side of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual top.
6 = The 0th row represents the visual right-hand side of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual top.
7 = The 0th row represents the visual right-hand side of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual bottom.
8 = The 0th row represents the visual left-hand side of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual bottom.
 
(quoted from post at 14:17:47 06/22/17)
(quoted from post at 12:54:00 06/21/17) I have a good digital camera so the photos I post here on the forum are all taken with that. But I do have an apple 5S smart phone.

We've all seen upside down pictures posted here on the forum so I decided I would try to find out why they are upside down. Here is what I found.

I tried taking pictures and emailing them to myself to get them on my desktop computer. I found that how you hold the camera makes a difference. Of course, it's best to take photos in landscape mode so they look normal. But it still matters how you hold your phone.

With my phone in the vertical position, if I turn it to the right ninety degrees to the horizontal mode and take the picture then send it to my computer, the picture is upside down.

Starting from the vertical position again and turning the phone ninety degrees to the left and taking the picture, I found that the pictures displayed normally when sent to my computer.

You guys that have trouble with upside down pictures might try this yourself. Don't know why it works, but it does.

How it works is pretty simple. It's all about the phone. The device has an assumed definition for what is top based on the position of the shutter button (or the volume button on some devices) and that definition varies from device to device. The phone orientation gets saved in the image metadata. If, based on that definition, you have your phone "upside down" when taking the image the image is tagged "incorrectly" from the human viewpoint. Here is an example of how a TIFF image is tagged. JPEG has a similar mechanism. This is the kind of stuff that keeps real programmers employed ;-)

TOH

[b:51951438b2][u:51951438b2]TIFF Tag Orientation[/u:51951438b2][/b:51951438b2]

IFD Image
Code 274 (hex 0x0112)
Name Orientation
LibTiff name TIFFTAG_ORIENTATION
Type SHORT
Count 1
Default 1
Description

The orientation of the image with respect to the rows and columns.

The specification defines these values:

1 = The 0th row represents the visual top of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual left-hand side.
2 = The 0th row represents the visual top of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual right-hand side.
3 = The 0th row represents the visual bottom of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual right-hand side.
4 = The 0th row represents the visual bottom of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual left-hand side.
5 = The 0th row represents the visual left-hand side of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual top.
6 = The 0th row represents the visual right-hand side of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual top.
7 = The 0th row represents the visual right-hand side of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual bottom.
8 = The 0th row represents the visual left-hand side of the image, and the 0th column represents the visual bottom.

Exactly what I was getting at above. Or somethin' like that. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

But all kidding aside. You just have to know what is the top and what is the bottom of your phone. Once you know that, you will have no problems.

If you need to find out top from bottom. Take one picture one way, then flip the phone over and take another. Then email them to your computer and see how they display. This site also has a TEST forum where you can do stuff like that.
 

i have a love-hate relationship with the english language. i am always thankful i never had to learn it as a second language.

0th is a marvelous use of it :)
 
(quoted from post at 17:53:36 06/22/17)
i have a love-hate relationship with the english language. i am always thankful i never had to learn it as a second language.

0th is a marvelous use of it :)

My very first technical report (1973) became a battle of wills over the English language. I had used the word"initialize" to describe setting all data values to zero at program startup. My technical editor had no problem with that but the departmental technical editor insisted there was no such word. My document became a ping -pong ball back and forth as they kept blue-penciling each other's edits. Ultimately initialize was relegated to the bit-bucket (is that a real word :roll: )

TOH
 
(quoted from post at 17:39:18 06/22/17)

Exactly what I was getting at above. Or somethin' like that. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

But all kidding aside. You just have to know what is the top and what is the bottom of your phone. Once you know that, you will have no problems.

If you need to find out top from bottom. Take one picture one way, then flip the phone over and take another. Then email them to your computer and see how they display. This site also has a TEST forum where you can do stuff like that.

If only it were that easy. Click the link for more than you probably want to know...

[u:3eb30bd59d]EXIF_ORIENTATION Rant[/u:3eb30bd59d]

TOH
 
(quoted from post at 18:24:35 06/22/17)
(quoted from post at 17:39:18 06/22/17)

Exactly what I was getting at above. Or somethin' like that. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

But all kidding aside. You just have to know what is the top and what is the bottom of your phone. Once you know that, you will have no problems.

If you need to find out top from bottom. Take one picture one way, then flip the phone over and take another. Then email them to your computer and see how they display. This site also has a TEST forum where you can do stuff like that.

If only it were that easy. Click the link for more than you probably want to know...

[u:22a257c8f9]EXIF_ORIENTATION Rant[/u:22a257c8f9]

TOH
Or, just edit them and be done with it. ;)
PhotoScape is one free program for the PC that works well.
 
(quoted from post at 19:19:18 06/22/17) Ultimately initialize was relegated to the bit-bucket (is that a real word :roll: )
wow, wtf. how did u end up wording it?


Click the link for more than you probably want to know...
i love a good geekspeak rant. glad it didn't turn out to match its TLD, my german is [i:94ee0a1b55]very[/i:94ee0a1b55] rusty.
 
(quoted from post at 19:55:48 06/22/17)
(quoted from post at 19:19:18 06/22/17) Ultimately initialize was relegated to the bit-bucket (is that a real word :roll: )
wow, wtf. how did u end up wording it?


Click the link for more than you probably want to know...
i love a good geekspeak rant. glad it didn't turn out to match its TLD, my german is [i:4b17188868]very[/i:4b17188868] rusty.

The departmental editor won and all instances and forms of the non-word "initialize " were replaced with her desired phrasing. And yes - I am anull and keep a copy of everything I have ever done ;-)

TOH

img002_1.jpg
 

a bit verbose. strunk and white would frown on her revision, i'd like to think :)

u have a head start on me. i started learning coding in 1980 with a manual in one hand and a CRT hooked up thru a 300 baud coupler. the first time i saw initialize, it simply made perfect sense to me. i probably never considered its linguistic pedigree.
 

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