Soft rotation of Nikon D100 nef

[Whatlarks]

I am just in the process of evaluating Photo Mechanic as a replacement for Nikon View. I have one problem with image rotation of my D100 raw photos. If I rotate them in PM then they do not appear rotated in Capture NX. However, if I try the same on a raw file from my son's Nikon D80 then it does show as rotated in NX.

I should also add that rotating the photo in NX shows as rotated in PM and with the little rotate symbol showing.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Ian

[Kirk Baker]

Ian,

I am just in the process of evaluating Photo Mechanic as a replacement for Nikon View. I have one problem with image rotation of my D100 raw photos. If I rotate them in PM then they do not appear rotated in Capture NX. However, if I try the same on a raw file from my son's Nikon D80 then it does show as rotated in NX.

I should also add that rotating the photo in NX shows as rotated in PM and with the little rotate symbol showing.

The D100 does not have a built-in rotation sensor.  In addition it does not write out a blank Exif orientation tag, so when you soft-rotate the D100 images in Photo Mechanic, it is unable to update the non-existent tag.  So instead Photo Mechanic updates its own settings to indicate to itself that you have changed the rotation.  Other apps are not aware of our settings.

One solution (if the photos in question are JPEGs) is to use the "Apply rotation to JPEGs" tool on the Tools menu which will perform a "loss-less" hard rotation of the JPEG data.  Then the images will appear in your chosen orientation in all applications.

HTH,

-Kirk

[Whatlarks]

Thanks for the detailed reply Kirk.

What is interesting is that Capture NX must setup the missing rotation tag, even for a D100 raw file, because once the raw file is rotated with NX then it will see any further rotations made by PM ... which makes sense given your detailed description.

I can always rotate the images in NX first so not too much of a problem.

Thanks for your help,
Ian

[Kirk Baker]

Ian,

Thanks for the detailed reply Kirk.

What is interesting is that Capture NX must setup the missing rotation tag, even for a D100 raw file, because once the raw file is rotated with NX then it will see any further rotations made by PM ... which makes sense given your detailed description.

I can always rotate the images in NX first so not too much of a problem.

It sounds like you're talking about NEF files.  Capture NX routinely rewrites NEF files, updating the embedded JPEG preview in the process.  Since PM uses the embedded JPEG preview for rendering, it shows up as rotated once updated by Capture NX.

-Kirk

[Whatlarks]

Kirk,

Sorry about any misunderstanding. When I used the term raw I was referring to the type of file, not the fact that is was fresh out of the camera.

Just to clarify what actually happens. If I take a .nef file and rotate it in the browse window of Capture NX then that photograph shows as rotated in PM with the soft rotate icon . It also shows as rotated in Nikon View. However, It does not show as rotated in Windows Explorer!! So I am concluding that NX, in this instance, is not rotating the internal preview jpeg in the nef file but is setting up the soft rotation tag that is missing from the original D100 file. Furthermore, Nikon View understands this soft rotate flag as set by NX because it also displays the preview jpeg correctly rotated. Also it must be a common tag in a standard position or otherwise Nikon View would not understand it in a D100 nef file. Since my copy of Nikon View does know about D80s, I guess this must be a common tag used by the D70s onwards.

So my point is ... should PM not also set this tag to do a soft rotate?

Just to complete my observations, the situation starts to get slightly confused if the nef file is edited in NX and saved because then the preview jpeg is hard rotated and the soft rotate tag is reset. Windows Explorer also now shows the preview jpeg rotated and PM no longer shows the soft rotation icon. However, PM can still soft rotate the nef file, so that ability is not lost.

Thanks for your help,
Ian

[Kirk Baker]

Sorry about any misunderstanding. When I used the term raw I was referring to the type of file, not the fact that is was fresh out of the camera.

Just to clarify what actually happens. If I take a .nef file and rotate it in the browse window of Capture NX then that photograph shows as rotated in PM with the soft rotate icon . It also shows as rotated in Nikon View. However, It does not show as rotated in Windows Explorer!! So I am concluding that NX, in this instance, is not rotating the internal preview jpeg in the nef file but is setting up the soft rotation tag that is missing from the original D100 file. Furthermore, Nikon View understands this soft rotate flag as set by NX because it also displays the preview jpeg correctly rotated. Also it must be a common tag in a standard position or otherwise Nikon View would not understand it in a D100 nef file. Since my copy of Nikon View does know about D80s, I guess this must be a common tag used by the D70s onwards.

So my point is ... should PM not also set this tag to do a soft rotate?

Just to complete my observations, the situation starts to get slightly confused if the nef file is edited in NX and saved because then the preview jpeg is hard rotated and the soft rotate tag is reset. Windows Explorer also now shows the preview jpeg rotated and PM no longer shows the soft rotation icon. However, PM can still soft rotate the nef file, so that ability is not lost.

I'd guess that when Nikon's software updates the file, it inserts the Exif orientation tag and sets the orientation.  PM does not add new Exif tags.  It only updates them.

-Kirk