Virtually rotated pictures extreme long loading times

[plastikman]

Not sure if this is something to write a bug report for, so I will start here:

I am having a blast with IMatch. My 2016 < NEF files are loading like a breeze and very easy to handle. However, everything pre-2016 was converted from original camera RAW file format to Adobe DNG (biggest regret in my life since I didn't keep the original RAW files). These Adobe DNG are often in the wrong rotation so I virtually rotated them. However, every time I want to view them it takes like 15-30 seconds to load the preview (it seems like they are being build on the fly time after time again). This is weird behavior from my point of view since I already build full-size preview files after rotating them. But my computer keeps tripping on those files.

I mentioned this before in some thread and Mario recommended to reconvert the .DNG files which I did using Adobe DNG converter with compatibility set to only the latest Adobe DNG standard (12.1 I believe) with embedded full-size preview. I feel this helped with handling those files in general but not with the loading speed of the virtual rotated files.

The questions I have:

• What causes this behavior?
• Is it a bug?
• What can I do to improve this e.g. does it help to generate JPG previews and then synchronize changes to .DNG files?
• Will it help if I write the rotation to EXIF, and what needs to be done to have IMatch update the files/preview?
• Is there a way to filter out virtual rotated files so I can exclude them so I can go through the non-rotated files fast and deal with the rotated ones later?

The good news is that after15-30 seconds (versus 0.0X seconds for my native camera files) the files do load and I can perform my actions on them and that all my modern files are and will remain camera native formats. It is just very frustrating since this reduces my handling speed so much.

[claudermilk]

I am interested in the answer here, too. I've finally gotten on to updating my database with people tags, and ran into some older files with incorrect rotation (from CR2 RAW to JPEG). I did a virtual rotation on those and in the thumbnail main window they are fine. However, when pulling them up in the viewer panel to confirm & fix face annotations, it hangs trying to load the rotated images. If I move to an un-rotated image, or click any other part of IMatch, it responds fine

[Mario]

IMatch rotates images for the Viewer via DirectX. Some JPEG files (produced from RAW into the cache) seem to cause unduly long delays. The "rotate this image" routine in DirectX suddenly takes 10 seconds instead of 0.2 seconds. I have never found a way around this. But this is usually only very few images. I guess it is caused by some metadata or something. I you have an image with this problem, send it to my support email address post box. Since this post box is full, don't expect anything soon.

Tip: Maybe fixing the wrong EXIF orientation is better than using a virtual rotation in your case?

[plastikman]

If I choose rotate in EXIF, nothing happens to the file in IMatch. It doesn't show in the right orientation. I tried to save metadata and did a "Force update" on the file.

[Mario]

Look at your file in the the Metadata Analyst.
What does it show for the various orientation tags?

[plastikman]

Database:

XMP-tiff Orientation: Rotate 90 CW

EXIF
Orientation (IFD0): 6
Orientation (SubIFD): None
Orientation (SubIFD1): None
XMP-tiff Orientation in Database: Rotate 90 CW

Update:

I reset all my virtual rotations on the .DNG files.

I notice that the ones that have the wrong orientation show this in Metadata analyst:

XMP-tiff Orientation: Rotate 270 CW

Code Select Expand


Database
XMP Created Date: 2011:08:31 11:30:59+02:00
XMP Date Subject Created: 2011:08:31 11:30:59+02:00
IMatch File DateTime: 2011-08-31T11:30:59
XMP-tiff Orientation: Rotate 270 CW
EXIF
EXIF metadata found.
DateTimeOriginal: 2011:08:31 11:30:59
CreateDate: 2011:08:31 11:30:59
Lens Model: LUMIX G VARIO 14-140/F4.0-5.8
Make (IFD0): Panasonic
Model (IFD0): DMC-GH2
Software (IFD0): Adobe DNG Converter 12.2 (Windows)
Orientation (IFD0): 8
Orientation (IFD1): 8
Orientation (SubIFD): None
Orientation (SubIFD1): None
XMP-tiff Orientation in Database: Rotate 270 CW


Is there a way to reset that?

[Mario]

I don't know. Send me the file. 100 unread emails so this may take a while to respond to.

[plastikman]

Just sent you one of the files by mail.

Funny fact: the images that show up in the wrong rotation in IMatch 2020 show up in the right orientation in Windows 10 file explorer and DxO PhotoLab 3.

This is also what I remember from using those converted .DNG images in Lightroom and Capture One in the past: that they never showed in the wrong orientation in those applications. Not sure what is happening here.

[claudermilk]

Here's what I see in a couple of sample images

IFD0
"Orientation": {
        "id": 274,
        "table": "Exif::Main",
        "val": 8
      },

ExifIFD/Camera
"CameraOrientation": {
        "id": 53,
        "table": "Canon::CameraInfo7D",
        "val": 2
      },

XMP-Tiff
"Orientation": {
        "id": "Orientation",
        "table": "XMP::tiff",
        "val": 8
      },

It appears they were processed using DxO Photo Optics Pro a while ago. I've seen there is an issue with rotation on some older versions of the software. I think I've also seen PhotoLab 3 has resolved that--hopefully as that's what I'm just updating to.

[jch2103]

It appears they were processed using DxO Photo Optics Pro a while ago. I've seen there is an issue with rotation on some older versions of the software. I think I've also seen PhotoLab 3 has resolved that--hopefully as that's what I'm just updating to.

Could be, but if so it was definitely quite a while ago. As a long-time user of DxO, I haven't seen this issue in years.

[claudermilk]

I think what I might do for my current project is just process the CR2 files and allow the stacking relationship & metadata propagation rules to shove my updates down to the JPGs. Then I will go and do a virtual rotation of all the wonky JPGs in IMatch so I don't get a stiff neck rotating my head...