How to change orientation of a JPG image without rotating it?

Sometimes we need to change orientation of a JPG image. One simple way is just to rotate it in an image editor. However, in this process your JPG image needs to be re-encoded. As a result, your image losses quality.

The other way to change orientation is to change EXIF metadata of a photo. In this process, no re-encoding is required.
 

How edit orientation meta tag in Exif Pilot:

1. Open Exif Pilot.

2. Browse to select your JPG image.

3. Select the “Exif” tab, go to the “Image” section and find “Orientation”:

How to change orientation of a JPG image in Exif Pilot

4. Double-click on “Orientation”. In the opened window, select one of the options:

How to change orientation of a JPG image in Exif Pilot

5. Click OK.

You’ve managed it to rotate JPG without loosing quality.
 

Example from our user:

Making Panorama stitch
 
“Just wanted to say thank you for creating Exif Pilot. I was trying to do a pano stitch and 1 NEF image was showing as oriented the wrong way. This meant that Capture One could not create the pano at all. Exif Pilot fixed it and the pano works great.”

Bill Boswell
 
 
 

Exif Pilot lets you edit about 7600 different image meta tags. With Exif Pilot & Batch Editing Plug-in, you can change orientation of a JPG image or edit any other meta tag in a batch mode. More about Exif Pilot…