Random camera tilt during shooting is a common problem faced by owners of Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones: often the horizon is littered, or the portrait is made in the wrong orientation, which spoils the impression of the shot. Fortunately, you can fix this in a few seconds right on the device without using a computer.
MIUI and the new HyperOS have powerful editing tools built in to quickly change the orientation of the image. You don’t need to download heavy editors, as the basic functionality of the gallery handles this task efficiently and without delay.
In this article, we will take a look at all the available correction methods, from regular funds to third-party applications, you will learn how to process images and what nuances should be considered when saving changes so as not to lose quality.
Use of the built-in MIUI and HyperOS gallery
The fastest and most obvious way to fix orientation is to use the standard Gallery app, which is pre-installed on all Xiaomi smartphones, which is integrated deep into the system, which ensures high speed and no format compatibility issues.
To start, open the image and find the edit button, which is usually located at the bottom of the screen and looks like a pencil or slider, and when you go into edit mode, the interface will offer you a basic set of tools, among which there will be a rotation function.
Click on a square-like icon to turn the picture 90 degrees. Each tap changes orientation, allowing you to choose the perfect position. If you make a mistake, you can always cancel the last action by going back to the source.
- 📸 Click on the image in the gallery to open.
- ✏️ Select the “Change” button in the lower menu.
- 🔄 Use the Turning Icon to Change Orientation.
- 💾 Click "Save" to record the result.
⚠️ Note: When you re-save the edited photo in high resolution, the process can take several seconds.Do not force the application to close during processing to avoid corruption of the file.
It is worth noting that in newer versions of the HyperOS shell, the compression algorithms for saving have been optimized, which means that multiple edits of the same file now result in less noticeable quality loss compared to older versions of MIUI.
Fraternization and alignment function
Often, a simple 90 degree rotation is not enough, especially if the horizon is a few degrees, in which case comes to the aid of the framing function, which allows you not only to trim the excess, but also to align the horizon line with high accuracy.
In editing mode, select the Crop tool, and you'll see a grid overlaying the image, pulling corners or using a spin slider, you can get the perfect position of the frame, and this is especially true for architectural photography or landscapes.
Automatic alignment is another useful feature that sometimes comes up in smart editors, which is that it analyzes the content of the frame itself and suggests correcting the skew, but manual control often produces a more predictable result, since the algorithm can misinterpret the artist's artistic intent.
Once you've set boundaries and angles, confirm the action. The image will be cropped and rotated at the same time. It's important to understand that when you fram some of the pixels around the edges will be removed irrevocably, so it's always best to leave a small margin at the edges of the original image.
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Use the Rule of Thirds grid when framing to make the frame composition look more professional and balanced.
Editing via Google Photos
For users who prefer the Google ecosystem or have smartphones with a pure version of Android, the Google Photos app is the de facto standard.It is preinstalled on most Redmi devices sold outside of China and offers an intuitive interface.
The rotation process is as simple as possible. When you open the photo, you click on the "Change" button. The bottom menu selects the "Capture and Rotate" tab, and you can use the same 90 degree rotation and free rotation functions to align the horizon.
One of the great things about Google Photos is that it's cloud-based, and even if you saved edits, you can go back to the original at any time just by selecting the option from the menu, which makes experimenting with the composition completely safe.
| Function | Xiaomi Gallery | Google Photo | Third-party annexes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch speed | Instantly. | 1-2 seconds | Depends on the app. |
| Turning accuracy | 90 degrees / Manual | 90 degrees / Manual | High (up to 0.1 degrees) |
| Preservation of the original | Yes (copy) | Yes (in the cloud/local) | Re-recording often |
| Package processing | Limited. | No. | There are many |
In addition, Google Photos often offers automatic enhancements ("Improving") that can adjust exposure and colors on their own after you turn the photo, saving time in post-processing.
The secret function of Google Photos
Package image processing
If you have to rotate a dozen or a hundred photos at once, it's not going to be effective to do it manually for each file, and in these situations, batch processing functions come to the rescue, which allow you to apply actions to a group of files simultaneously.
In the standard Xiaomi gallery, you can highlight several images by holding your finger on one of them and marking the rest. After that, the option “Turn” can be available in the action menu (usually three dots or the “More” button).
For more serious work, it is better to turn to specialized applications from Google Play, such as Photo & Picture Resizer or Bulk Image Resize. These programs are designed specifically for mass processing and allow you not only to rotate, but also to change the resolution, format and compress the weight of files.
- 📂 Open a file manager or gallery.
- 👆 Select all the necessary photos.
- ⚙️ Select the “Edit” action or open in a third-party app.
- 🔄 Apply the rotation to all selected files at once.
When mass processing is important to keep track of the space in memory, making copies of files, even temporary, requires disk space, and if the phone's memory is full, the process can stop in the middle.
⚠️ Note: When you bundle, make sure that all the photos you select require this action. If they are the right-oriented ones (such as portraits among landscapes), they will be damaged and you will have to restore them from backup.
Third-party annexes for precise editing
When built-in tools are scarce and a professional approach is required, powerful graphic editors come on the scene. Apps like Snapseed, Adobe Lightroom or PicsArt offer advanced capabilities for working with frame geometry.
Snapseed, for example, has a Transformation tool that allows you to not only rotate an image, but also adjust perspective, which is indispensable for shooting buildings where vertical lines can fall over the angle of shooting.
A unique feature of some advanced editors is the ability to turn in 0.1 degrees increments and automatically fill empty edges (Content-Aware Fill), which allows you to save the size of the frame without black fields.
The use of third-party software also gives access to the preservation in various formats, including: RAW or TIFF, And this is critical for photographers who are planning to do a deep retouch, and the usual gallery is often only working with the other photographers. JPG and HEIC.
☑️ Choosing an editor for a phone
Problems with orientation and EXIF metadata
Sometimes users are faced with a situation where the photo on the phone is displayed correctly, and after transferring to the computer or messenger is turned over, this is due to EXIF metadata, which stores information about the orientation of the camera at the time of shooting.
Different programs interpret this data differently, some ignore the orientation tag and show the picture as is, others rotate it according to the instructions in the file, and to avoid confusion, it is better to use a hard rotation, saving changes in the pixel array itself.
If you use your phone to work and share files with colleagues, make sure that the metadata is updated or reset after editing, otherwise the recipient can see the image upside down, even if you have a normal image.
You can check and change EXIF data through file managers with advanced features or special viewer apps, which will help you understand why a particular image behaves strangely on different devices.
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Hard rotation (saving copy) changes the pixel matrix itself, ignoring programmatic orientation tags, which ensures the same display on any device.