Why photos show up sideways
Your phone camera always records the sensor the same way round. When you hold it in portrait, it doesn't rotate the pixels; it saves a small EXIF tag that says "display this rotated 90°". Phones, Macs and modern browsers read the tag and show the photo upright. Older software, some upload forms and many email clients ignore it, so the same photo appears sideways.
Rotating the image here fixes it for good. The pixels themselves are turned and saved, so the photo displays upright everywhere, whether or not the app reads EXIF.
Which angle do you need?
Angles are measured clockwise. To rotate counterclockwise, use the matching clockwise angle from the table.
| The photo looks… | Rotate by | Same as |
|---|---|---|
| Turned to the left (top points left) | 90° | A quarter turn clockwise |
| Upside down | 180° | A half turn |
| Turned to the right (top points right) | 270° | 90° counterclockwise |
| Slightly tilted | 5°, 10°, 355°… | Small clockwise or counterclockwise correction |
Rotating by a custom angle: what happens to the corners
A 90° rotation simply swaps width and height. Any other angle tilts a rectangle inside a larger rectangle, so the image rotator enlarges the canvas to fit it and the corners around the tilted photo are filled in dark. That's expected. If you want a clean straightened photo, rotate, then trim the edges with the image cropper.
Rotate image is not the same as flip. Rotating turns the whole picture; flipping mirrors it, so text reads backwards. For a mirror image use the image flip tool instead.
Straightening a tilted horizon or a crooked scan takes small angles. Start at 5° in the direction the photo leans, check the horizon or the page edge against the preview, and go up in 5° steps until it looks level. Remember that 355° is the same as 5° counterclockwise.
