How to rotate a .CR3 image in DPP or elsewhere

[ThomasFiducia]

Hi, how do I rotate a .cr3 image?

Either using DPP or any other method would be ok.

I can rotate the thumbnail in DPP, by right-clicking on the thumbnail and clicking rotate, but it doesn't change the image orientation in windows file explorer even after saving (I exit out of DPP and it asks if I want to save the changes and I click yes). I know it that hasn't changed the image orientation because in windows file explorer you can add an 'orientation' tab that displays it. See the image below. I want too get them all back to normal rotation.

If I rotate a specific image in DPP and click save, it only lets me save as a jpeg or tiff but I want to keep it as a .cr3. This seems like it should be an easy thing to do, am I missing something? Please help! We have three EOS 90Ds in our lab and need to be able to sort out the image rotation.

Tom

[johnrmoyer]

I cannot see any reason to rotate a CR3 image since it is raw. But then I do not use Windows.

[ThomasFiducia]

Hi John thanks for the reply. Clicking 'Adjust' --> 'Rotate left/right' just rotates the thumbnail in DPP. The orientation of the saved .cr3 file is not changed. Tom

[wq9nsc]

.CR3 (and other RAW files) are a data file not meant to be directly manipulated and saved, orientation is via a tag in the file meta data. 

You may be able to find an editor to let you change the "orientation flag" but the intent behind these Canon RAW files is the file remains intact and any manipulations you wish to perform on it are saved in an associated group of instructions that will be applied to the file for any subsequent work.  But the RAW file itself is intended to remain as it was when it was originally created at the time of capture and isn't meant to be directly edited by a program which is why DPP and other programs don't make changes to the base file.

Rodger

[ThomasFiducia]

Ok that makes sense. I took the photos remotely using 'Digicam' software. So that must be what is introducing the random rotation. I just want to get them back to the original orientation. I posted on the Digicam forum but I'm not optimistic I'll get an answer on there. Thanks

[johnrmoyer · Accepted solution]

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@ThomasFiducia wrote:

Ok that makes sense. I took the photos remotely using 'Digicam' software. So that must be what is introducing the random rotation. I just want to get them back to the original orientation. I posted on the Digicam forum but I'm not optimistic I'll get an answer on there. Thanks

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I am just guessing and have not tried this, but I seem to remember noticing it when mounting the camera on a light box.

I expect that Digicam has nothing to do with it.

If the camera were for example attached to a light box and pointed straight down, then a vibration might result in a fraction of a degree change in either roll angle or pitch angle with a result of crossing a threshold and changing the default display orientation.

In the case of a light box, tilting the light box slightly might give a consistent result.

[ThomasFiducia]

That's it! It is in a box pointing straight down. Although it is securely fastened I must have been changing the orientation very slightly when I was switching the on/off button. I have tilted the box slightly backwards and the images are always in landscape now.

For future reference I wonder if there is a way to disable this auto-orientation feature. 

[p4pictures]

When a camera looking straight down the orientation sensor is not consistent as you have found. 

The simplest fix is to turn off the auto rotation in the camera's auto rotate menu item. You will find this on the SET UP1 menu. If you set this to OFF then the images will all have the same rotation setting; horizontal. 

[johnrmoyer]

I did some experimenting.

exiftool -orientation="Rotate 90 CW"  IMG_1882.CR3

will change the orientation from horizontal to vertical in both DPP and rawtherapee as it is first opened. This might allow you to modify your files so they will be viewed as you expect in some software. Changing 90 to 270 rotates it in the opposite direction.

https://exiftool.org/ 

[ThomasFiducia]

Thanks this could work for rotating the images I already have. Tom