FFMPEG rotates images - ffmpeg

Question

I am trying to mass-resize images using FFMPEG, and I successfully did it using bash, but I noticed that some of the portrait images got rotated to landscape. Here is the original image, but as you see below, it gets rotated.
As you see above, the image is rotated. At first, I thought this was due to the -vf scale flag that I was using to resize the images, but I tried the following command and it still rotated the image.
ffmpeg -i input.jpg output.jpg
This doesn't happen with every image, and even not all the portrait images. Also, some images rotate clockwise, while some rotate counter-clockwise. And this isn't a random occurrence, all the images that originally rotated still rotate no matter how many times I run the command.
Console Output
ffmpeg version N-79942-gdc34fa6-tessus Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
built with Apple LLVM version 6.0 (clang-600.0.57) (based on LLVM 3.5svn)
configuration: --cc=/usr/bin/clang --prefix=/opt/ffmpeg --as=yasm --extra-version=tessus --enable-avisynth --enable-fontconfig --enable-gpl --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopus --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-version3 --disable-ffplay --disable-indev=qtkit --disable-indev=x11grab_xcb
libavutil 55. 23.100 / 55. 23.100
libavcodec 57. 38.100 / 57. 38.100
libavformat 57. 35.100 / 57. 35.100
libavdevice 57. 0.101 / 57. 0.101
libavfilter 6. 44.100 / 6. 44.100
libswscale 4. 1.100 / 4. 1.100
libswresample 2. 0.101 / 2. 0.101
libpostproc 54. 0.100 / 54. 0.100
Input #0, image2, from '/Users/jaketr00/Desktop/IMG_1902.JPG':
Duration: 00:00:00.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1025494 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj422p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 5184x3456, 25 tbr, 25 tbn
[image2 # 0x7ff751803e00] Using AVStream.codec to pass codec parameters to muxers is deprecated, use AVStream.codecpar instead.
Output #0, image2, to '/Users/jaketr00/Desktop/IMG_19022.JPG':
Metadata:
encoder : Lavf57.35.100
Stream #0:0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj422p(pc), 5184x3456, q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbn
Metadata:
encoder : Lavc57.38.100 mjpeg
Side data:
cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/200000 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mjpeg (native) -> mjpeg (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame= 1 fps=0.0 q=8.2 size=N/A time=00:00:00.04 bitrate=N/A speed=0.0753x frame= 1 fps=0.0 q=8.2 Lsize=N/A time=00:00:00.04 bitrate=N/A speed=0.0752x
video:554kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: unknown
Is there any way to stop this from happening?

Answer 1

i ran into the same problem and realised that the image's orientation tag was not preserved when using ffmpeg.
original image
$ exiftool -Orientation input.jpg
Orientation : Rotate 90 CW
full output:
$ identify -verbose input.jpg
Image: input.jpg
Format: JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format)
Mime type: image/jpeg
Class: DirectClass
Geometry: 4160x3120+0+0
Resolution: 72x72
Print size: 57.7778x43.3333
Units: PixelsPerInch
Colorspace: sRGB
Type: TrueColor
Base type: Undefined
Endianess: Undefined
Depth: 8-bit
Channel depth:
Red: 8-bit
Green: 8-bit
Blue: 8-bit
Channel statistics:
Pixels: 12979200
Red:
min: 0 (0)
max: 255 (1)
mean: 108.185 (0.424255)
standard deviation: 61.0896 (0.239567)
kurtosis: -0.901126
skewness: -0.248333
entropy: 0.945001
Green:
min: 0 (0)
max: 255 (1)
mean: 105.661 (0.414356)
standard deviation: 60.1866 (0.236026)
kurtosis: -0.9917
skewness: -0.0344804
entropy: 0.963995
Blue:
min: 0 (0)
max: 255 (1)
mean: 93.8873 (0.368186)
standard deviation: 63.4227 (0.248716)
kurtosis: -1.00629
skewness: 0.325207
entropy: 0.958324
Image statistics:
Overall:
min: 0 (0)
max: 255 (1)
mean: 102.578 (0.402265)
standard deviation: 61.5663 (0.241436)
kurtosis: -1.03922
skewness: 0.0137682
entropy: 0.955774
Rendering intent: Perceptual
Gamma: 0.454545
Chromaticity:
red primary: (0.64,0.33)
green primary: (0.3,0.6)
blue primary: (0.15,0.06)
white point: (0.3127,0.329)
Matte color: grey74
Background color: white
Border color: srgb(223,223,223)
Transparent color: none
Interlace: None
Intensity: Undefined
Compose: Over
Page geometry: 4160x3120+0+0
Dispose: Undefined
Iterations: 0
Compression: JPEG
Quality: 98
Orientation: RightTop
Properties:
date:create: 2019-05-01T16:09:43+00:00
date:modify: 2019-05-01T16:09:43+00:00
exif:ApertureValue: 200/100
exif:BrightnessValue: 0/100
exif:ColorSpace: 1
exif:ComponentsConfiguration: 1, 2, 3, 0
exif:DateTime: 2019:05:01 10:15:04
exif:DateTimeDigitized: 2019:05:01 10:15:04
exif:DateTimeOriginal: 2019:05:01 10:15:04
exif:ExifOffset: 285
exif:ExifVersion: 48, 50, 50, 48
exif:ExposureBiasValue: 0/6
exif:ExposureMode: 0
exif:ExposureProgram: 0
exif:ExposureTime: 9994945/1000000000
exif:Flash: 0
exif:FlashPixVersion: 48, 49, 48, 48
exif:FNumber: 200/100
exif:FocalLength: 3580/1000
exif:FocalLengthIn35mmFilm: 0
exif:GPSInfo: 831
exif:ImageLength: 3120
exif:ImageWidth: 4160
exif:InteroperabilityOffset: 801
exif:Make: HMD Global
exif:MakerNote: 255, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 131, 37, 0, 0, 208, 7, 33, 28, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 203, 2, 104, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0
exif:MeteringMode: 0
exif:Model: Nokia 8
exif:Orientation: 6
exif:PhotographicSensitivity: 100
exif:PixelXDimension: 4160
exif:PixelYDimension: 3120
exif:ResolutionUnit: 2
exif:SceneCaptureType: 0
exif:SceneType: 0
exif:SensingMethod: 0
exif:ShutterSpeedValue: 6644/1000
exif:Software: TA-1004_00WW-user 9 PPR1.180610.011 00WW_5_14A release-keys
exif:SubSecTime: 733
exif:SubSecTimeDigitized: 733
exif:SubSecTimeOriginal: 733
exif:thumbnail:Compression: 6
exif:thumbnail:InteroperabilityIndex: R98
exif:thumbnail:InteroperabilityVersion: 48, 49, 48, 48
exif:thumbnail:JPEGInterchangeFormat: 943
exif:thumbnail:JPEGInterchangeFormatLength: 6845
exif:thumbnail:Orientation: 6
exif:thumbnail:ResolutionUnit: 2
exif:thumbnail:XResolution: 72/1
exif:thumbnail:YResolution: 72/1
exif:WhiteBalance: 0
exif:XResolution: 72/1
exif:YCbCrPositioning: 1
exif:YResolution: 72/1
jpeg:colorspace: 2
jpeg:sampling-factor: 2x2,1x1,1x1
signature: d450d8dbb135c549364b3663c8195164a73698999b8104e75c8b74564835986f
Profiles:
Profile-exif: 7794 bytes
Artifacts:
verbose: true
Tainted: False
Filesize: 6.05972MiB
Number pixels: 12979200
Pixels per second: 82.8219MP
User time: 0.150u
Elapsed time: 0:01.156
Version: ImageMagick 7.0.8-42 Q16 x86_64 2019-04-24 https://imagemagick.org
modified image
$ exiftool -Orientation output.jpg
full output:
$ identify -verbose output.jpg
Image: output.jpg
Format: JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group JFIF format)
Mime type: image/jpeg
Class: DirectClass
Geometry: 1800x1350+0+0
Units: Undefined
Colorspace: sRGB
Type: TrueColor
Base type: Undefined
Endianess: Undefined
Depth: 8-bit
Channel depth:
Red: 8-bit
Green: 8-bit
Blue: 8-bit
Channel statistics:
Pixels: 2430000
Red:
min: 0 (0)
max: 255 (1)
mean: 108.075 (0.423823)
standard deviation: 60.7286 (0.238152)
kurtosis: -0.889179
skewness: -0.260768
entropy: 0.940096
Green:
min: 0 (0)
max: 255 (1)
mean: 105.629 (0.414232)
standard deviation: 59.6505 (0.233924)
kurtosis: -0.993155
skewness: -0.0409431
entropy: 0.957277
Blue:
min: 0 (0)
max: 255 (1)
mean: 93.7942 (0.367821)
standard deviation: 63.0086 (0.247093)
kurtosis: -1.00904
skewness: 0.322794
entropy: 0.957105
Image statistics:
Overall:
min: 0 (0)
max: 255 (1)
mean: 102.499 (0.401958)
standard deviation: 61.1293 (0.239723)
kurtosis: -1.03828
skewness: 0.00662106
entropy: 0.951493
Rendering intent: Perceptual
Gamma: 0.454545
Chromaticity:
red primary: (0.64,0.33)
green primary: (0.3,0.6)
blue primary: (0.15,0.06)
white point: (0.3127,0.329)
Matte color: grey74
Background color: white
Border color: srgb(223,223,223)
Transparent color: none
Interlace: None
Intensity: Undefined
Compose: Over
Page geometry: 1800x1350+0+0
Dispose: Undefined
Iterations: 0
Compression: JPEG
Quality: 72
Orientation: Undefined
Properties:
comment: Lavc58.35.100
date:create: 2019-05-01T16:09:44+00:00
date:modify: 2019-05-01T16:09:44+00:00
jpeg:colorspace: 2
jpeg:sampling-factor: 2x2,1x1,1x1
signature: 76f0debf16f9a958b603a08a706b825e4700093b28b57470a34361b396da612d
Artifacts:
verbose: true
Tainted: False
Filesize: 105397B
Number pixels: 2430000
Pixels per second: 117.945MP
User time: 0.020u
Elapsed time: 0:01.020
Version: ImageMagick 7.0.8-42 Q16 x86_64 2019-04-24 https://imagemagick.org
solution
to fix this i did included some code in my bash script to read the orientation from the original file ($file). then i update the orientation for the output file ($outfile).
# read orientation from original image
orientation=$(exiftool -Orientation -n -S $file | grep -Eo '[0-9]{1,4}')
# scale image
ffmpeg -i $file -vf "scale='min($ffmpeg_maxwidth,iw)':-1" $outfile
# set orientation value for the new image
exiftool -n -Orientation=$orientation $outfile

Answer 2

What's probably the case here is that your files are all stored in landscape format, but some of them have EXIF tags indicating that they should be displayed rotated. (Many cameras will automatically generate these tags for pictures you take based on the orientation of the camera.) ffmpeg does not recognize these tags, so the images are read exactly as they're stored in the file.
ffmpeg is primarily a video conversion tool, not an image conversion tool, so I don't think it has any way to read EXIF tags. However, the convert tool (part of ImageMagick) does; you can use the -auto-orient flag to activate this feature.

Answer 3

#Jaketr00, I know this might be too late for you finding this answer, but I hope it may help others with the same problem.
All you need to do to avoid this problem is using "transpose" feature.
Lets say you want to draw a Red horizontal line in the middle of your portrait image. the following command will do the job without unwanted rotating. The output will have the same scales as your input file.
ffmpeg -i test.jpg -filter_complex "[0]transpose=1[tr]; color=red:s=300x500,geq=lum='p(X,Y)':a='if(eq(250,Y),255,0)'[c]; [tr][c]overlay=0:0:shortest=1" test_out.jpg`
The same works for any other filter as well. you just need to adapt this command with your filter of choice.

Answer 4

Try to add the options -noautorotate to your ffmpeg commandline.
Besides, use exiftool to backup the exif information, after apply the scale by ffmpeg, resotre the backup exif information.
for f in *.jpg
do
# save exif information
ffmpeg -noautorotate -i input.jpg -vf "scale=w:h" output.jpg
# retore exif information
done

Answer 5

You will have to run for all existing images on your system directory. Because there is no option available with ffmpeg to remove the need of exiftool for keeping orientation.
I didn't want to install and include ImageMagick just for this particular issue. As I was already using ffmpeg for video conversion.
Adding -noautorotate has no effect in the ffmpeg command. So here is a bit more detailed version of #alijandro answer, with nodejs script I've got to preserve meta-data for orientation using example code from here. Also this works great with your sample image.
const ffmpeg = require("ffmpeg");
const exiftool = require("node-exiftool");
const exiftoolBin = require("dist-exiftool");
const sizeOf = require("image-size");
const ep = new exiftool.ExiftoolProcess(exiftoolBin);
let metaData = {};
ep.open()
.then(() => ep.readMetadata('input-img.jpeg', ["-File:all"]))
.then((data) => {
console.log("meta read");
metaData = data;
}, console.error)
.then((data) => {
const d = sizeOf('input-img.jpeg');
const sizeFactor = d.height > d.width ? `-1:${maxH}` : `${maxW}:-1`;
exec(
`ffmpeg -noautorotate -i input-img.jpeg -vf scale="${sizeFactor}" -y output-img.jpeg`,
(err) => {
// handle error
console.log("resized");
ep.open()
.then((data) => {
console.log("meta write");
ep.writeMetadata('output-img.jpeg', metaData.data[0], ["overwrite_original"]);
}, console.error)
.then(() => ep.close())
.catch(console.error);
}
);
}, console.error)
.then(() => ep.close())
.catch(console.error);

Answer 6

I had a similar problem when tried to make thumbnails from photos and got wrong orientation
So i found that ffmpeg transpose works perfectly for me
But i have no idea how it is optimal from point of performance
What i did:
std::string transpose = buildTransposeCommand(exif);
sprintf((char *) commandBuf,
"%s -i \"%s\" -vf \"scale=320:-1:sws_flags=sinc, %s\" \"%s\" -y\n",
FFMPEG_PATH,
in_path_.c_str(),
transpose.c_str(),
out_path_.c_str()
);
std::string Thumbnail::buildTransposeCommand(int & exif) {
std::string transpose;
if (exif == 6) transpose = "transpose=clock";
else if (exif == 8) transpose = "transpose=cclock";
else if (exif == 3) transpose = "transpose=clock,transpose=clock";
else if (exif == 2) transpose = "transpose=clock_flip,transpose=cclock";
else if (exif == 5) transpose = "transpose=cclock_flip";
else if (exif == 7) transpose = "transpose=cclock_flip,transpose=clock,transpose=clock";
else if (exif == 4) transpose = "transpose=clock_flip,transpose=clock";
return transpose;
}
I highly recommend uses that https://github.com/ianare/exif-samples samples for testing it helped me a lot
Take a look at the orientation folder

Answer 7

ffmpeg doesn't seem to be the right tool for the job. Except maybe at the end, if you want to assemble the .jpg images into a video.
If you do use ffmpeg to make a video with your images, you don't need to first resize them. ffmpeg can scale them to the video size you want.
To rotate the images according to their Exif Orientation tag, and do it losslessly, you can for example use exiftran:
exiftran -a -i -b *.jpg
The meaning of the flags used:
-a Automatic (using exif orientation tag).
-i Enable in-place editing of the images.
-b Create a backup file when doing in-place editing
After that, you can use ffmpeg to assemble them into a video. For example:
ffmpeg -framerate 1/3 -pattern_type glob -i '*.jpg' \
-vf "scale=1280:720:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=1280:720:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2,setsar=1" \
-c:v libx264 -crf 20 -r 25 -pix_fmt yuv420p \
OUTPUT.MP4
If you do need resized jpegs with the correct orientation, you could use ImageMagick's mogrify. For example :
mogrify -path /path/to/new_images \
-auto-orient -resize "1920x1080>" \
-background black -gravity center -extent 1920x1080 *.jpg
The > at the end of the resize dimensions means to only resize larger images, not smaller ones.