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Be aware of an iMovieHD/iPhoto image rotation glitch Apps
I couldn't get iMovie HD to insert an iPhoto picture correctly. I had imported some digital camera pictures into iPhoto, and then rotated some of the images. Some others I rotated and also did a little bit of modification (i.e. change color, crop, etc). After doing this work, I switched to iMovieHD to import my images.

To my surprise, iMovieHD did not see my 'simply rotated' images with the proper orientation. Images that I also 'touched up,' however, showed with the correct orientation. I guess this has to do with the stored state of the picture -- duplicating the old one, instead of merely doing a rotation. At any rate, I was able to reproduce this several times. I've reported the bug to Apple, but for now, be aware of this limitation if you're using the iPhoto/iMovieHD integration.

[robg adds: I was also able to verify this behavior. As a workaround, just make sure you do some minor modification to the rotated images before trying to use them in iMovieHD--crop a small bit off, enhance one pixel, etc. Once you've made any change at all, the rotation will be correctly shown in iMovieHD.]
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Be aware of an iMovieHD/iPhoto image rotation glitch | 7 comments | Create New Account
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Be aware of an iMovieHD/iPhoto image rotation glitch
Authored by: Anonymous on Oct 26, '05 07:55:24AM

There is a logic behind this behaviour. When you only rotate a picture using iphoto, the program adds this info to the EXIF comments instead of altering and resaving the file, as this would result in jpeg degradation. When other EXIF capable program opens the file (as preview.app) it interprets the info and rotates the picture acordingly.

Obviously iMovie HD does not interpret EXIF comments.

The solution provided of lightly altering the picture forces iPhoto to resave the picture, which it does including the rotation of the picture as it has to alter the image anyway. Note that this will degrade the quality of the picture although if only done once or twice it will be hardly noticeable.

A similar behaviour is encountered when rotating a jpeg with preview and then trying to open it with safari. Some would argue this is a bug as in some circumstances it doesn't behave as expected. I would rather say that it is a lack of features in some applications (which in itself is not a bug) although for the sake of integration apple should have included it in all their products. If such features are esential to the normal functioning of these apps or not is a discussion that IMHO is beyond this post.

I haven't tested if this behaviour applies only to .jpeg images or if it also is reproduced on lossles formats like .tiff.



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Be aware of an iMovieHD/iPhoto image rotation glitch
Authored by: gleavell on Nov 27, '05 06:55:47PM

This makes sense, but it's not happening that way for me. I'm using iPhoto 5.0.4 (398) in Tiger, and selecting "Rotate" really changes the image file and leaves the EXIF orientation field alone.

On the other hand, if I rotate an image with Preview 3.0.3 (398), the image remains untouched and the orientation field is changed.

What I find really interesting is iPhoto's handling of images during import. If the image's orientation field indicates that the image has been rotated, iPhoto will silently perform a real rotation on the image and reset the orientation field. And, as it does when you perform any modication to an original image, it even stores a copy of the pre-iphoto-rotated image in the "Originals" subdirectory underneath the hood of the iPhoto Library directory structure. In fact, "revert to original" is avalable so that you can bring the image back to it's original state. If you *do* revert to original, iPhoto then honors the original EXIF orientation flag and continues to display the "rotated" image. At least that's how it's working for me today.

Does anyone know if iPhoto's rotation is lossless?

With regard to what other OS X utilities honor the orientation field, I've noticed this so far:

*Does* honor EXIF orientation field:
- Preview
- Finder column view preview

Does *not* honor EXIF orientation field:
- Safari 2.0.2 (416.12) (Neither does Firefox 1.5RC3)
- iPhoto File / Add to Library browse window preview
- Desktop background

Glenn



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Be aware of an iMovieHD/iPhoto image rotation glitch
Authored by: rhowell on Oct 26, '05 08:32:33AM

Reading the response above this, I now realize this is a bug with applications that do not recognize the rotate tag within a JPEG file. Nonetheless, some time ago I filed a bug with Apple, number 4236820, marked duplicate:

29-Aug-2005 06:33 PM rhowell:
If I open a JPEG image in Preview.app Version 3.0.1 (389) (say one that is copied to my Desktop from my digital camera), rotate it clockwise or counter-clockwise using Preview's rotate tools, save it, and close Preview, then the following occurs:

Opening the new JPEG picture in Preview shows that it is properly rotated.

Opening the new JPEG picture in any other OS X application (Safari, Mail, Quicktime, etc.) shows the picture with its original orientation, NOT rotated.

This bug does not occur with the PNG format. I have not tested other formats.



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Be aware of an iMovieHD/iPhoto image rotation glitch
Authored by: Anonymous on Oct 26, '05 12:37:21PM

PNG files do not lose quality on recursive savings so there is no point on adding an EXIF tag instead of re-saving the file. JPEG files do degrade so EXIF tags are needed to allow rotation without loosing quality. As I said, if a program does not recognize EXIF tags it is not a bug, it is a lack of a feature. It doesn't seem logical for Safari (for example) to recognize EXIF tags since they are not used on web design (to my knowledge) although you may argue that for the sake of integration EXIF tags should be supported.



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Be aware of an iMovieHD/iPhoto image rotation glitch
Authored by: starwxrwx on Oct 26, '05 06:45:52PM

I encountered this when trying to rotate a JPG in Preview, then set it as my desktop wallpaper.

I understand that a JPG save will be lossy, but if I want to rotate my picture so that I can use it in other programs rotated, I would first think to use Preview's rotate. When it doesn't seem to work or "stick" in other programs, I get annoyed!



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Be aware of an iMovieHD/iPhoto image rotation glitch
Authored by: jacobolus on Nov 07, '05 12:36:13AM

The best solution is to use an app that does lossless jpeg rotations. GraphicConverter is an excellent choice. It will rotate the pictures losslessly without resorting to the EXIF tag.



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Be aware of an iMovieHD/iPhoto image rotation glitch
Authored by: johnga1t on Nov 12, '05 08:44:16AM
here's jhead, a great command line app that does exactly what's desired (lossless rotation by amount specified in orientation tag, then zeros out orientation tag in exif header). source and binaries available. usage:

jhead -autorot *.jpg

**requires jpegtran (referenced in this hint). enjoy.

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