When Should I Auto-Orient My Images?

Auto-orienting images is recommended in most cases because it ensures that images are displayed correctly by interpreting the EXIF orientation metadata, which dictates the correct orientation relative to the stored pixel arrangement. This metadata allows cameras to efficiently capture images without unwanted artifacts by simply signaling whether to display the pixels as-is or to rotate them. Ignoring this metadata can lead to one of the most common bugs in computer vision projects, as it can cause inconsistencies in how images are presented and processed. Roboflow addresses this issue by offering an "Auto-Orient" setting in its pre-processing options, which should generally be enabled to prevent errors. However, there are specific scenarios, such as developing a mobile app where all images share the same known EXIF orientation, where disabling auto-orientation can be advantageous for speed optimization. In these cases, as long as the model is trained with consistent inputs and the labeling tool accurately manages the orientation, issues can be avoided.