Auto-rotation of images in Windows 7

[Katia Grondin]

i'm a photographer, so sometimes i'll upload batches of hundreds and hundreds of photos, and when viewing them in Windows Photo Viewer, i have to go through each and every single one of them and rotate them individually, which is extremely time-consuming. and i like to get them all rotated first before i go through and start weeding out the bad ones. that way i can focus on one thing at a time. but it would be nice to be able to view all the thumbnails in Windows Photo Viewer and ctrl+click the ones that need to be rotated, and then right click (like you would to get to Light Image Resizer) and have them batch-rotate. does that make sense?

i have done a test and when I upload new photos it is not just the thumbnail that is facing the wrong way, but also the photo when i double-click to enlarge.

[Fabrice]

before I could give the best accurate reply, I need to know what kind of digital camera you are using, and if the picture you have not rotated correctly in the windows explorer with thumbnails are not correctly oriented when you load them with a photo editor ?

[Katia Grondin]

I'm using a Nikon D90 as well as a Sony Cybershot DSC-W220.

The photos when drag-and-dropped to open in Adobe Photoshop CS4 DO actually open in the correct orientation, but they do not open in the correct orientation as Thumbnails in Windows Photo Viewer, nor when I actually enlarge them in Windows Photo Viewer.

There is a setting on my Nikon called Image Rotation, and i have it set to ON. Adobe Photoshop seems to recognize this, but not Windows 7.

[Fabrice]

If you want to have the image ( data part and meta ) correctly oriented as the real life orientation, you can use this setting

He

LIR auto-rotate Capture.jpg (19.91 KiB) Viewed 29062 times

Select a profile with original Resolution,
go to misc tab
and click on the option :
Adjust Resolution for portrait

I suggest to create copies first, in case the problem is not about the image but the rotation of the cache thumbs of windows

also it will resize and recompress the data part, so you could lose some quality if you don't set the proper target format option

[Fabrice]

are you using JPEG or Raw ( .NEF )
it's a known issue with windows thumbs
if you want to workaround this , I suggest the excellent wic codec pack from :

http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/

it will make the thumbs created correctly , with the right orientation and support any kind of format ( photoshop psd wic )

[Katia Grondin]

I got the Fast Picture Viewer Codec Pack 3.0 and IT WORKS IT WORKS IT WORKS!!!!

Now when I upload photos, they are just automatically facing the proper way, no need for manual rotation

ALSO my .NEF's have thumbnails now!! I can actually see what each and every NEF is directly from windows explorer!

Thank You! Absolutely worth the $15 the codec pack costs

[Fabrice]

Hi Katia,

I was sure it was what you were looking for, and actually it is really something Windows should handle a "normal" way.
I m happy if you are happy

[Fabrice]

just for your information, Microsoft released also a wic codec pack, but it doesn't rotate the picture ( jpeg ) and doesn't support all the format.
Also there is no option to used embed jpeg of the raw files ( see screenshot ), so the Fastpictureviewer codec pack is better ( but not free )
you can download both on this page :

wic codec

without Wic Codec 2011-07-30 17h54_13.jpg (18.13 KiB) Viewed 28426 times

FastPictureViewer Codec 2011-07-30 13h55_23.jpg (20.78 KiB) Viewed 28454 times

I attached 2 screenshots to show the difference in the explorer and show the FastPictureviewer decode all the files ( lightroom dng , canon cr2, nikon .nef )
and also fix the rotation of jpeg

[Jack_Black]

There are some automated tools out their that will do batch processing for you.

http://www.photoupright.com/ $11
http://www.betterjpeg.com/purchase.htm $30
https://sites.fastspring.com/trakax/instant/trakaxpcpro - video and picture editor $40

Jack B.

[ravel]

are you using JPEG or Raw ( .NEF )
it's a known issue with windows thumbs
if you want to workaround this , I suggest the excellent wic codec pack from :

http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/

it will make the thumbs created correctly , with the right orientation and support any kind of format ( photoshop psd wic )

Hi,

I have fastpicviewer codec, and I am NOT able to rotate or group rotate RAW files, can you please detail HOW to do this?


Tim

[Phil]

The codec won't allow to rotate raw images, it should make them appear with the correct orientation though.