- Fix wrongly rotated photos with Photos app
- Why your digital photo looks sideways
- Fix a side photo
Fix wrongly rotated photos with Photos app
Most modern cameras are equipped with a rotation sensor that writes an EXIF orientation tag to the file to tell the software how to rotate the photo for display. Problems with this tag or with your viewing environment can cause your photos to appear sideways.
Why your digital photo looks sideways
Several situations cause your computer to display a photo in the wrong direction, including:
- Your program or operating system cannot read the EXIF tag† Some programs, especially older freeware applications, do not include EXIF tag reading technology, so they display the captured image and not as intended.
- The photo was not saved with an EXIF tag† Older or less advanced cameras may not include the EXIF tag, may not record it correctly, or may be configured not to include it at all. Without the tag, the image will appear as captured and not as intended.
- Windows Explorer ignores EXIF tag† To reduce processing speed, Windows Explorer does not automatically scan the EXIF tag when generating thumbnails for display in Folder View.
Fix a side photo
In the absence of a well-formed EXIF tag, it is best to manually reorient the image.
In the Photos app – the default photo viewer for Windows 10 – all you need to do is open a photo and click its icon play on the top menu bar. Each click on the icon rotates the image 90 degrees clockwise. After reorienting the image, save it by right-clicking on it and Save as.
Saving the image manually will not “fix” the EXIF tag. Instead, he changes the photo.