Odd image rotation behaviour

[rolandgifford]

While searching I have seen comments about metadata inconsistencies but not any proposed solution which helps.

All thumbnails are displaying with correct orientation.

If I view a portrait orientation image using the internal viewer (double clicking the thumbnail) it briefly displays correctly then rotates to the right.
If I open the single image (JPG/ARW versioned pair) in the Light Table the ARW is displayed correctly and the JPG rotated.

I've tried using Convert metadata to xmp as I have seen in another thread and it didn't fix the problem.

[Hert]

You did all to make sure that your metadata is consistent at all levels. But still the JPG shows in a wrong rotation.

That leads to one conclusion: most likely the metadata for that JPG file has the *wrong* orientation tag.
There is one of the popular RAW converters that typically does that for exported JPGs (don't remember which one).

1. Select the JPG file
2. Open the Image Details
3. In the Technical section, change the orientation to match the JPG pixels
4. Press Ctrl+Alt+T (Cmd+Opt+T) to update the thumb and preview afterward

[rolandgifford]

JPG and ARW both have an orientation of counter clockwise 90 degrees in the Technical section

These JPGs are from the camera (where I store JPG + RAW) rather than a RAW converter

Ctrl+Alt+T on the JPG thumbnail flips it onto its side

[Hert]

Good to know that the camera's firmware writes the incorrect orientation to the JPG when in RAW+JPG mode

Correct the orientation tag for the JPG as outlined in the mentioned steps.

[rolandgifford]

Correct the orientation tag for the JPG as outlined in the mentioned steps.

JPG and ARW both have the same orientation in the Technical section but PS uses them differently.

What is the correct value for the JPG?

[Hert]

What is the correct value for the JPG?

That depends on how you held the camera while shooting the picture. There is no "correct fits all" value.

Typically it is the reversed of what you see. Do you see the image Clockwise, then set the metadata to Counter Clockwise.

[MarqsM]

rolandgifford, I had a lot of similar problems with some of the photos - mostly ones shot on mobile phones. The biggest issue I came across was to have a picture properly flipped horizontally: different software still showed those photos either correctly or incorrectly orientated. PSU also struggled in some situations, i.e. in other programmes the photos were correctly orientated but in PSU the picture would be upside down (it would blink briefly in a proper orientation and then be shown upside down; similar behaviour to your original post).

Trying to rotate images in different apps (I mean non-destructive rotation by setting EXIF flags) just made things worse.

What eventually helped me was to reset the EXIF flag directly in the DETAILS pane in PSU - as per below screenshot. And then set it as desired, if necessary.