How do I get Lightroom to physically rotate vertical photos on import

[steverhodes]

I am on Windows 7. I frequently like to flip through my photos using Windows Viewer and sometimes other programs on my PC. I only shot jpgs.

While my verticals are shown as verticals when using Lightroom, Windows Viewer (and some other programs) show them as horizontal. I have found some programs I can load to rotate and save verticals as verticals, including programs that produce loseless jpgs, but I want to have Lightroom do this for me on import.

Is this possible? And, if so, how, do I do it?

 

[clee01l]

Welcome to the forum. As you have probably already gathered, LR is a non destructive editor. That means that it does not alter the image data in the image block on the original image file. Whether an image was taken in portrait or landscape orientation is determined by the camera and set in the image header block with one EXIF field. This happens in the camera IF you have the option set in your camera menus. LR honors the initial setting of this field. It does not rotate the pixel order of the image data in the image block on the original image file, but instead reorders those pixels before LR shows them on the screen. Other programs need to honor the portrait or landscape orientation flag as read from the image file EXIF header. If they do not, then all images will be displayed landscape (long edge horizontal) by Windows Viewer or any other programs that ignore that flag.

If you want an image to be rotated in a program that does not honor the portrait or landscape orientation flag, you can rotate it in LR and export that as a new derived image file.

Also note, if you hold the camera facing down or up or nearly so, the camera can get confused because neither the long edge or the short edge is "up". While LR always honors the portrait or landscape orientation flag, it is only correct IF the camera got it right.

 

[steverhodes]

If you want an image to be rotated in a program that does not honor the portrait or landscape orientation flag, you can rotate it in LR and export that as a new derived image

I justed finished a big trip. I have over 4,000 photos with probably 2,000 vertical pictures. I know all of these will display properly in Lightroom. If I export them, will LR rotate the verticals so programs like Windows Viewer will display them as verticals since LE will have rotated them or would I have to manually select and then rotate 2,000 items?

Or is there a way using the metadata to select all verticals with one command and then I could rotate them? Thanks!

 

[clee01l]

LR will create and export a new file That new file will include an orientation tag. It will probably write the pixels out in portrait order. The orientation will be correct based upon the tag setting in the new file header. Your Windows Viewer has to be sophisticated enough to inspect and honor the orientation tag in the header. The problem is not something that can be solved in LR, The issue is how the Windows Viewer treats the image data it reads. I think by now Microsoft has corrected this issue with current releases of the Windows Picture viewer. If it has not, then it is time you found an new image viewer. There are lots of Image viewers for Windows. Microsoft even has two or three that ship with the OS or Office. Web browsers are also a choice for a local image file viewer. Just open the local JPEG file in IE, Firefox, Chrome or Safari.

 

[steverhodes]

LR lets you organize the selection of pictures in many ways based on the metadata.


Is there a way using the metadata to select all verticals with one command?


If there is, I could rotate them all easily

 

[clee01l]

LR lets you organize the selection of pictures in many ways based on the metadata.


Is there a way using the metadata to select all verticals with one command?


If there is, I could rotate them all easily

On the Filterbar there is a filter option called "Metadata" Use it and change one of the column headings to "Aspect Ratio"
This will give you groups of "Portrait", "Landscape", "Square" and possibly "Unknown"