A Lightroom 3 import question

I've searched through the Lightroom threads and couldn't find an answer to a seemingly easy question. When I've been importing my images using a card reader and Lightroom 3 (as the importing program), the thumbnails and images are properly orientated (ie. the landscape images are wider than taller, and the portrait images are taller than longer).
The issue is when I view the images just using Windows Explorer. All the images both thumbnail and the image itself (in Windows Photo Gallery) are shown in landscape (the portrait images are sideways). It is as if the piece of data telling the computer that the image is supposed to be in portrait orientation doesn't get passed along to any other program other than Lightroom. Am I missing some setting or something here? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Your camera sets an EXIF Orientation flag in the image metadata to tell your software how the image should be oriented. From you description it seems as though Windows isn't reading the flag correctly.

When you import in Lightroom do you do so directly from the card reader, or do you copy your files to your hard drive then import them?

I found this on Microsoft's website: http://answers.microso​ft.com …ce-4347-a92e-724f9e535c15

I have Windows 7 but I only use the Photo Viewer which always shows the correct orientation; I've never installed Live Gallery, etc.

PixelMagic wrote in post #12853553
Your camera sets an EXIF Orientation flag in the image metadata to tell your software how the image should be oriented. From you description it seems as though Windows isn't reading the flag correctly.

When you import in Lightroom do you do so directly from the card reader, or do you copy your files to your hard drive then import them?

It is directly from the card reader.

Which version of Windows are you using (including bit-depth)?

I have the same problem if I copy files directly from the card reader to Windows Explorer. I'm using XP Home

Vista 64bit

jdpence wrote in post #12856737
I have the same problem if I copy files directly from the card reader to Windows Explorer. I'm using XP Home

dan.k78 wrote in post #12856755
Vista 64bit

OK, are you talking about viewing Raw files or jpeg files?

I'm asking because I don't have a clue -- everything seems to work fine on my systems (XP and Win7 64).

I think you have to change a setting in your camera to auto rotate the images...which will help you in the future. As for your current shots, there may be something in lr that will allow you to change the metadata...I'm not sure though

See the link I posted yesterday. It explains why Windows Photo Viewer shows the orientation correctly but when the images are imported into Windows Live Gallery, portrait orientation will not display correctly.

I can't view the RAW files in Explorer, only jpg. Anyway it doesn't bother me because I'm using LR now to view and edit but my wife hasn't come around to using it yet. She looks funny looking at the monitor sideways . The camera is set to auto rotate and it works in LR but not in Explorer. Just wanted to toss in my 2 cents because I've seen this issue firsthand

To see Raw files directly in Windows Explorer you need to install a Codec. Since you're using Windows XP there are several codecs available from Microsoft, Canon and other third-party vendors.

PixelMagic wrote in post #12857214
To see Raw files directly in Windows Explorer you need to install a Codec. Since you're using Windows XP there are several codecs available from Microsoft, Canon and other third-party vendors.

Cool, thanks for the tip.

I have the same problem in Windows viewer with JPEGS from my IXUS 100. Solution is always import into LR and view there It's better anyway

You know, I haven't shot jpegs in a long time. I seemed to remember that a lot of times you have to rotate to Portrait orientation to get things "right" in a generic viewer, whereas if you convert in a progam like Lightroom it "sets" things properly.

Well, I wasn't sure, so I grabbed a camera and set it to the Green Box mode and took a shot in each orientation, loaded the jpegs on my Win7 64 laptop, and right off the bat the orientation of the portrait/vertical one was wrong! This happened in Windows Explorer when I set the View to Large Icons, and then when I double-clicked the jpeg so that it opened in the Photo Viewer.

I guess I maybe just got into the habit of doing the rotation when I shot P&S cameras -- that with the fact that shooting a P&S camera rotated to Portrait tends to be non-intuative and not so common can kind of make such memories fade.

But I can imagine it depends on the camera. I suppose some set the "flag" properly, others maybe not.