When taking pictures of a document or check or just about anything flat on the floor or ground or desktop while holding the camera in landscape orientation, as soon as I take the picture the phone reorients it to portrait.
I never use any other modes other than "photo", so I'm not selecting portrait. If I take the picture several times, sometimes I can get it to remain landscape. I don't have any problem when taking a landscape oriented picture while the subject is perpendicular to the ground so I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the phone's spacial positioning sensor (or whatever that is called).
Do I need to manually override something to stop this "mind of its own" functionality?
Can only assume that since the camera is flat, the device cannot tell which way is up, as up is now back and down is forward, so the software views the 5x8 edges of the subject and orients the image to portrait along those dimensions, which is how the majority of documents are read.
For better document images and control, consider using the Microsoft Lens app.
If the document is actually a horizontal 8x5 subject, you'll have to prop it up at an angle so the sensors are property engaged or simply rotate the image in Edit.
Since it is not always a document and even documents are sometimes in landscape orientation I would prefer to find a solution where I am in control of the camera (if that's possible with a Samsung).
Simply rotating the picture in some photo editor loses some of the detail since the camera decided to ignore my orientation. I'm thinking there must be a setting to tell the "smart" phone that it is not in charge and let me take the picture AND select the orientation.
Lifting the subject matter is only possible when the subject is small and light enough. It is also a pain since I need to try to take the picture with one hand (if there is nothing to prop it up on).
Bottom line, The phone should be smart enough to let me choose the orientation.
It's so hard to use words to describe what we see. I guess that's why a picture is worth a thousand words.
If I take a picture of a rectangle with length left to right and I hold the 16:9 ratio camera with length left to right and the camera rotates the image 90Ā° then I have more blank space top and bottom proportionally. If I then take the portrait photo of a landscape subject and again rotate it 90Ā° using photo editing software then it will lose even more when I crop it to the original length by width with the length depicted left to right.
Even if I accepted this as "the way the camera works". Who would pay nearly a thousand dollars for a camera that does what it wants and not what the owner wants.
I know the difference between crop and rotate. I made an error in describing the edit after rotate. You are correct that the image does not lose pixels. The additional effort is simply unnecessary. No, it is not acceptable that I "prop up whatever subject matter" or edit the picture because the camera does what it wants.
Let me orient the frame of the subject matter, not the camera.
I need to get back to the original issue. Thank you for offering a few "workarounds". I think Samsung should be working on a solution. I should not need to take a picture as I want it and then need to edit it because the camera 'thinks' it knows what I want.
Why doesn't the "smart"phone offer a landscape selection like it offers a portrait selection rather than automatically rotating the image because it thinks that is what the user wants without asking. This is a question in search of a solution (built in from Samsung, not adding an app from Microsoft to accommodate what Samsung chooses not to), not a workaround.
Thank you again DanG92263.
I have decided that I must edit the picture in the phone (rotate it 90Ā°) after I take it because that is what Samsung has built in with its accelerometer override .
I have been doing some testing. I've been able to take photos in horizontal with the phone flat by turning the phone on its side, then slowly rotating the camera body flat, while ensuring the camera doesn't rotate from horizontal to a potrait mode. It's surprising easy to shoot this way on the s23 Ultra.
I do agree that there should be an option to lock-in either portrait or horizontal orientation.
