mysterious little squares

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bob_jenkins@burtleburtle.net - 31 May 2005 18:20 GMT

Most of my digital camera images come out fine, but a few seem to be
broken up into lots of little squares, or lots of vertical lines, or
horizontal lines. The little squares are JPEG doing an unreasonably
bad job. It happened for a wide range of resolutions, supposed
JPEG-qualities, and different cameras. I've run into other people who
have had the same problem with totally different setups.

Well, I finally figured out what was going on. The little-square
problem was plaguing ONLY THE PICTURES I'D ROTATED. The software I was
using claimed that rotation was a lossless operation, but it wasn't.
There wasn't anything wrong with any of the cameras after all. The
originals had been fine. But I'd corrupted them (alas, unrecoverably
now) by doing a rotate.

Humph. How come digital cameras don't contain a plumb-bob that tells
them how the camera was oriented when the picture was taken, so they
can orient the picture correctly themselves? Sure, I can find some
non-awful rotation software, but I really shouldn't have to be rotating
my pictures in the first place.

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John A. Stovall - 31 May 2005 18:33 GMT

>Most of my digital camera images come out fine, but a few seem to be
>broken up into lots of little squares, or lots of vertical lines, or
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>non-awful rotation software, but I really shouldn't have to be rotating
>my pictures in the first place.

Some do and Adobe's Bridge displays them correctly by reading this up.

********************************************************

"The condition of civil affairs in Texas is anomalous,
singular, and unsatisfactory."

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to
Bvt. Maj. Gen. John A. Rawlins
November 14, 1866

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Paul Furman - 31 May 2005 18:37 GMT

> Most of my digital camera images come out fine, but a few seem to be
> broken up into lots of little squares, or lots of vertical lines, or
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> them how the camera was oriented when the picture was taken, so they
> can orient the picture correctly themselves?

Some do! But you normally have to use the crummy software that comes
with the camera to benefit then other programs will maybe re-read it &
re-rotate & all sorts of confusion.

> Sure, I can find some
> non-awful rotation software, but I really shouldn't have to be rotating
> my pictures in the first place.

Irfanview is good for this. Use the shortcut shift-J for lossless rotating.

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Paul Furman
http://www.edgehill.net/1
san francisco native plants

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Owamanga - 31 May 2005 18:43 GMT

>Humph. How come digital cameras don't contain a plumb-bob that tells
>them how the camera was oriented when the picture was taken, so they
>can orient the picture correctly themselves? Sure, I can find some
>non-awful rotation software, but I really shouldn't have to be rotating
>my pictures in the first place.

My D70 does, as I'm sure do most DSLRs. Finding software that takes
any notice of the orientation flag can be a problem. At least half of
what's out there ignore it.

--
Owamanga!
http://www.pbase.com/owamanga

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