When you upload photos to Photosleeve, we automatically rotate your photos so that you don’t have to. For example, if you held the camera sideways to take a portrait, then we rotate the photo so that the long dimension runs up and down.

Since we weren’t standing there on your last vacation, we have to rely on the camera telling us how you were holding the camera when you took the photo. Unfortunately, not all cameras can do this.

In order for the camera to tell which direction you’re holding it, it must have an orientation sensor. If you’re curious about whether a particular camera has an orientation sensor, the easiest way to find out is by searching Digital Photography Review - they have detailed specifications for most popular cameras. If they don’t have specs for your camera, you’ll have to check the booklet or manufacturer’s site.

If your camera has an orientation sensor, Photosleeve should be able to automatically rotate your photos. Bear in mind, however, that the sensor does make mistakes, especially if you’re shooting at an extreme up or down angle. If your camera does not have an orientation sensor (or if it makes a mistake), you’ll need to manually rotate the photo to fix it. Rotation is available on the individual photo page or on the dragbar (so you can drag down a bunch of photos and rotate them all at once).

Photosleeve always preserves the original digital photo from your camera. So when doing automatic or manual rotation, the original is preserved in its unrotated form. In other words, we never modify the original. Rotation just affects the way the photo is displayed when browsing.

If you’re thinking about buying a new camera: please, please, please don’t buy a camera without an orientation sensor. There is no reason that you should have to spend time rotating all of your photos manually.

We’ve been really surprised at the number of cameras so far that do not have orientation sensors. As far as we can tell, Canon seems to have included orientation sensors in most (all?) of its models over the last few years.

Derek & Ryan