Rotating an image with orientation specified in EXIF using Python without PIL including the thumbnail

I have the following scenario:

  • I am sending an image from iPhone along with the EXIF information to my Pyhon socket server.
  • I need the image to be properly oriented based on the actual orientation when the image was taken. I know IOS always saves the image as Landscape Left and adds the actual orientation as EXIF field (EXIF.Image.Orientation).
  • I am reading the EXIF field to see the actual orientation. Then I am rotating the image using wxpython to the proper orientation.

I am using pyexiv2 for EXIF manipulation.

Issue: The EXIF information incluiding the thumbnails lost while rotating the image using wxpython.

What I did: I am reading the EXIF before rotating the image. I reset the orientation field in the EXIF. Then I am putting it back after rotation.

The problem:

The thumbnail inside the EXIF is not rotated. So, the image and thumbnail have different orientations.

Questions?

Is there any module other than PIL to rotate an image keeping its EXIF info?

Is there a separate EXIF field for thumbnail orientation?

Is there a way I can just rotate the Thumbnail alone?

Thanks for your help...


This solution works for me: PIL thumbnail is rotating my image?

Don't need to check if it's iPhone or iPad: if photo has orientation tag – rotate it.

from PIL import Image, ExifTags

try:
    image=Image.open(filepath)

    for orientation in ExifTags.TAGS.keys():
        if ExifTags.TAGS[orientation]=='Orientation':
            break
    
    exif = image._getexif()

    if exif[orientation] == 3:
        image=image.rotate(180, expand=True)
    elif exif[orientation] == 6:
        image=image.rotate(270, expand=True)
    elif exif[orientation] == 8:
        image=image.rotate(90, expand=True)

    image.save(filepath)
    image.close()
except (AttributeError, KeyError, IndexError):
    # cases: image don't have getexif
    pass

Before:

Before

After: After


If you're using Pillow >= 6.0.0, you can use the built-in ImageOps.exif_transpose function do correctly rotate an image according to its exif tag:

from PIL import ImageOps

image = ImageOps.exif_transpose(image)

Pretty much the same answer than @scabbiaza, but using transpose instead of rotate (for performance purposes).

from PIL import Image, ExifTags

try:
    image=Image.open(filepath)
    for orientation in ExifTags.TAGS.keys():
        if ExifTags.TAGS[orientation]=='Orientation':
            break
    exif=dict(image._getexif().items())

    if exif[orientation] == 3:
        image=image.transpose(Image.ROTATE_180)
    elif exif[orientation] == 6:
        image=image.transpose(Image.ROTATE_270)
    elif exif[orientation] == 8:
        image=image.transpose(Image.ROTATE_90)
    image.save(filepath)
    image.close()

except (AttributeError, KeyError, IndexError):
    # cases: image don't have getexif
    pass