Will a photo lab print portrait JPEGs correctly if the camera doesn't use EXIF orientation?

Asked 1/3/2011

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My old Nikon stored EXIF orientation data so portrait photos displayed correctly on my computer without changing the file. My newer Olympus doesn't seem to do that, so I rotate portrait JPEGs manually on the computer.

If I send files to a photo lab for printing, should I upload the original files or the manually rotated ones? Will the lab automatically detect that a portrait image should be printed as 3:4 instead of 4:3, or do labs rely on EXIF orientation metadata?

orientation printing exif jpeg photo-labs

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

15y ago

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The machines auto crop the photos to the correct aspect ratio for the print (which annoys me when they don't offer the ratio the pictures were taken in!) so I assume they detect the orientation by looking for the longest side.

I can't say this with 100% certainty, but I think if this weren't the case I think there would be masses of complaints from people who had had their portrait photos cropped to landscape resulting in lots of headless photos!

edit: I have actually printed both portrait and landscape shots in the UK without any problems.

Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1375

15y ago

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

In most cases, a lab should print portrait and landscape images correctly even without EXIF orientation data.

Printing is different from on-screen viewing: the print itself can simply be held or turned the right way, and labs generally determine orientation from the image dimensions/aspect ratio rather than relying on the EXIF orientation tag. If they didn’t, portrait photos would often be cropped incorrectly, which would cause obvious problems.

So either the original file or a properly losslessly rotated file should usually be fine. If your Olympus files are stored as portrait-shaped pixel dimensions, the lab will normally handle them correctly. If your files are still landscape-shaped and only depend on metadata for display rotation, then rotating them before upload is the safer choice—especially if you already use lossless rotation.

Also note that labs often auto-crop to fit the selected print size, so check the crop preview if the service offers one.

Will a photo lab print portrait JPEGs correctly if the camera doesn't use EXIF orientation?

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