Is the original orientation of the camera stored inside the meta data of a photo? I've got a FileMaker problem involving pictures being added to a field and it got me thinking.

I've got a D80 and a D7000. With both camera, no matter whether I take a photo in landscape mode, portrait mode by turning the camera to the left, or portrait mode by turning the camera to the right, apps like iPhoto and Aperture (and I'm guessing Lightroom) always display the photo in the correct orientation.

My guess is that there is some kind of information being added to the meta data that contains the orientation of the camera when the original photo was taken, and therefore gives the software the information it needs to orientate the photo correctly.

The problem that I have is with a customer who is adding photos to a FileMaker Go solution I created for them on their iPad. They are adding photos to a field in that database that were originally taken on an external camera and have been added to the iPad using the camera connection kit. The photos are appearing in FM Go upside down, but they claim that the photo is displayed correctly inside the Photo app on their iPad.

So is there meta data inside a photo for orientation?

Yes, EXIF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchangeable_image_file_format).

I found out in a subsequent email from the customer that the pictures that are causing problems were taken with an iPhone and emailed to the iPad.

The iPhone is the culprit. I believe that we've had threads on here describing it but here's what I was able to find out on my own.

I just ran a series of tests taking pictures with my iPhone and sending them to my iPad where I tried adding them to the container field.

For some reason, the orientation is not being recorded correctly. Two pictures that I took holding my camera in portrait mode are being flipped sideways by FM Go. A picture that I took with the volume/shutter button on the top got flipped upside down, inside FM Go. A picture that I took with the volume/shutter button on the bottom was shown correctly.

All of these pictures are displaying correctly in the photo viewer on both the iPhone and the iPad.