@denboy I could fix it, but I really think it’s better this way.

@denboy it does it by default when you upload through the forum as far as I can tell

@woodhouse Nope nope nope not by default in all cases. I dump phone photos in iphoto (where they show right side up in iphoto) and then export them and then they upload right side up. If I upload them straight from my phone then they are not right side up.

@denboy @woodhouse - Were they sideways when you opened the box? Maybe @Dashcloud made them sideways intentionally.

@KDemo They show up properly on my phone. Maybe it’s an iPhone thing.

@woodhouse it has literally never done this to me.

@denboy a guac off

@CaptAmehrican Who you calling a guacoff?

@denboy @Thumperchick @woodhouse @Kidsandliz @KDemo @sammydog01 @CaptAmehrican

Photo Orientation 101 - Why do my photos show up sideways?

When a photo is taken with a digital camera it is saved 100% of the time in landscape orientation as demonstrated by @woodhouse’s photo. The reasons for this date back to the early days of digital photography when your average digital camera could barely take photos without tripping over itself never mind rotating the photo to match the camera’s orientation when the photo was taken. The reason it shows up correctly on your camera, phone, or other similar device is because digital camera manufacturers developed a bit of a cheat to deal with this limitation.

When you rotate and export a photo using, for example (and using @Kidsandliz’s example), iPhoto the software is ‘physically’ (if you’ll pardon the turn of phrase) moving each individual pixel that makes up the photo to a new location. This is a process that requires a fair amount of processing and, for that reason, digital cameras (and by extension phones with digital cameras built in) simply aren’t designed with the hardware for that kind of operation. (actually a modern smartphone (and maybe a high end camera) could probably do it but it’s almost certainly far faster not to so…)

To get around this limitation, something called EXIF (EXchangeable Image file Format) was developed to extend the capabilities of a select few file formats, the one you’re most likely to have encountered being JPEG. EXIF extends the capabilities of these file formats by adding additional data to the files containing things like the location the photo was taken, what kind of device was used, and most importantly for this discussion, rotation.

For those of you who are seeing @woodhouse’s photo in portrait orientation, congratulations! Your browser is looking for and interpreting the EXIF data on the image in order to render the image resulting in proper orientation. For everyone else, don’t worry, there’s really nothing wrong with your device, EXIF is a crutch, there’s a reason software like iPhoto, even though it knows well and good how to interpret EXIF data, exports files the ‘old fashioned’ way and that’s because it is universal, there is no room for misinterpretation.

So, the lesson here is that if you care about how your image is going to be seen, rotate it properly in appropriate editing software. If you don’t give a fuck, good for you, as you were! Now then, it’s time to stalk @woodhouse!

For those of you inclined to send people at Meh gifts, you might be interested to know that @woodhouse uses an iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 10.3.3. The photo was taken yesterday at 09:36:49 while standing 200.2 meters above sea level within 10 meters of 32 deg 58’ 51.49" N, 96 deg 50’ 40.71" W and facing toward a bearing of 97.89871087. At the time of image capture his device has been powered on for 1 day, 2 hours, and 33 seconds so he might be in need of a power bank. I hear the warehouse might have some of those, if you’re interested!

Consider this also to be a PSA on the dangers of posting photos online without due caution to consider what information you’re making available to your recipient(s).

@jbartus This is a glorious journey down Who Gives a Shit Road. I love it.

@marklog glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was kind of interesting back when I was learning about it and thought others might too.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@jbartus @pavlov has also pointed out the info in photos – so I am aware of the issue of info contained in the photo – but is there away around disclosing location?

@jbartus I posted a similar explanation/screed last time @woodhouse posted a photo, but yours has better info on the dangers of EXIF data.

@woodhouse Iphone users unite! No one else can see our photos properly.

@jbartus So how do you strip all that iD info from a photo? I don’t even know how to see that information.

@Kidsandliz That’s a big question with a lot of possible answers. You can tell your phone not to do it to begin with, or if you have existing photos you may have to strip the data yourself. This article covers a lot, but there may be newer developments since it’s a couple years old.

@djslack thank you!!!

@Kidsandliz @mikibell the easiest way I can think of would be to open a file in a photo editor, copy all of the pixel data (usually Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C does the trick), create a new file of the same resolution, and paste (Ctrl+V) the pixel data in. I’m reasonably certain that this would result in said data being left behind. There are also various EXIF editing softwares out there you could use to selectively alter that info but I have no first hand experience.

@jbartus The article @djslack referenced tells how to turn off the settings on phones, and how to clear them if the setting was on – windows seems to have thought of that already

@mikibell did you just assume people’s OS?

I was simply providing a one-size-fits-all† method for stripping as @Kidsandliz asked for. Personally I like my location data being saved in most cases so shutting it off isn’t really a solution for me.

† - All provided there isn’t some asinine photo editor out there that would retain the EXIF via a copy and paste of the pixel data.

@djslack @jbartus thank you

@mikibell @Kidsandliz pro-tip, upload photos to imgur.com . imgur automatically scrubs all information off photos after its uploaded.

speaking of which @woodhouse @shawn , you could alter the built in photo uploader to do the same exif scrubbing thing

@jbartus nope … didn’t assume, just noted that windows seems to have considered it… I know there are a lot of apple users out there… as well as linux/unix etc… just don’t care what those os(s) can do

@jbartus @mikibell @kidsandliz I am thrilled that this tangent came up in the thread!

@mikibell it was a joke poking a bit of fun at a certain type. The whole ‘did you just assume her gender’ thing and all that?

@jbartus

@dashcloud

@Thumperchick You got a giphy that was relevant to what you typed?
/giphy cheater

@Pantheist
/giphy relevant gif

@Pantheist what a sad gif.

@KDemo this gif is fascinating.

@RiotDemon - Agreed. I especially like the monopoly houses for little jalapeno bits.

@KDemo Where in Jesus’ name is the source for this??

@marklog

It was nominated for an Oscar. It is the shortest film ever to be nominated for an Oscar.

@Trillian - Oh gawd! It’s in my head!

@KDemo I almost forgot Matt’s follow-up song:

@Trillian - Ah, great call!
I believe this was a mediocre production and needs to be repeated every SuperBowl, at least.

Good times.