Stop automatic rotation of photos

[chawke]

Photos I take with the Camera app on my Google Pixel 7a, if facing toward the floor, are often automatically rotated to be horizontal. Is there a way to prevent this? The crosshair trick of keeping white above yellow doesn't always work, even when Framing Hints is on (both suggestions are mentioned in comments at https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/s/DYTbrdsC5Y).

 

[VidJunky]

There is no native way to lock the orientation when shooting straight down. I don't know the white over yellow reference but a couple of things you can try would be to hold the camera in the orientation you want before aiming down. So, if you want the side of the phone with the volume rocker to be the bottom of the image, hold the phone vertical with the volume rocker down to get the orientation you want, like you're taking a regular picture, and then move the camera down and try to not over rotate beyond flat. Google says you can try turning off screen rotation in quick settings before entering the camera. It locks the screen rotation but may not have an effect on the camera. It goes on to say to avoid taking pics straight down. Hahaha.

No, the Google Pixel 7 camera does not have a native setting to lock a photo's orientation when pointing straight down, as the camera sensor loses its sense of horizontal and vertical at that angle. To ensure photos are consistently oriented, you will need to avoid taking pictures from a completely overhead position and ensure your phone's general screen rotation setting is off if you are having issues.

How to manage the phone's screen orientation

• Disable auto-rotate:
  Swipe down from the top of the screen twice to open the full Quick Settings panel. Tap the "Auto-rotate" button to turn it off, which will lock the screen to its current orientation (portrait or landscape).

In contrast I asked if it worked for my Samsung and it says that turning off auto rotate will lock it on my S24U but it locks it in portrait.

 

[chawke]

There is no native way to lock the orientation when shooting straight down. I don't know the white over yellow reference but a couple of things you can try would be to hold the camera in the orientation you want before aiming down. So, if you want the side of the phone with the volume rocker to be the bottom of the image, hold the phone vertical with the volume rocker down to get the orientation you want, like you're taking a regular picture, and then move the camera down and try to not over rotate beyond flat. Google says you can try turning off screen rotation in quick settings before entering the camera. It locks the screen rotation but may not have an effect on the camera. It goes on to say to avoid taking pics straight down. Hahaha.

No, the Google Pixel 7 camera does not have a native setting to lock a photo's orientation when pointing straight down, as the camera sensor loses its sense of horizontal and vertical at that angle. To ensure photos are consistently oriented, you will need to avoid taking pictures from a completely overhead position and ensure your phone's general screen rotation setting is off if you are having issues.

How to manage the phone's screen orientation

• Disable auto-rotate:
  Swipe down from the top of the screen twice to open the full Quick Settings panel. Tap the "Auto-rotate" button to turn it off, which will lock the screen to its current orientation (portrait or landscape).

In contrast I asked if it worked for my Samsung and it says that turning off auto rotate will lock it on my S24U but it locks it in portrait.

Thanks, auto-rotate is already off and I've tried holding vertically before aiming down but it didn't always work. Maybe it wasn't held straight up in portrait long enough so I'll retry for more than a few seconds next time. Anyway, definitely an issue so I sent feedback to Google.

 

[VidJunky]

We could also ask that this be moved to the Pixel threads where other users might share their experiences and hacks if they are finding the same thing.

The hold it in the orientation you want before taking the image is something I find myself doing for the same reason as you. It works for me as long as I don't hover too long or rock back and forth too much. But I also have the luxury of not always needing to be straight down on my subject, letting me keep some angle.

When it mentioned locking the orientation by turning off auto rotate, I assumed it would lock it to portrait if anything. Pixel could be different, I've just never heard of locking the orientation to anything other than portrait.

We'll see if one of the admins will move this to the Pixel threads. @B. Diddy @Laura Knotek @mustang7757

 

[VidJunky]

I was thinking how many times I've said "there's an app for that" and wondered if there was an app for this. Google says there is and offered these two.

For taking pictures straight down, you can use a camera app with an explicit orientation lock, such as ProCam X or Manual Camera DSLR.

If there's two there are probably others.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I've moved this thread to the Pixel 7a forum.