I'm using Windows 7 and Windows Photo Viewer (Default program) to scan through my pictures. If I rotate an image the viewer saves the image so it's rotated next time I look at it. Is this saved rotated image still considered an original for verification?
Set your originals (RAW or JPG) to read only as soon as you download them. Then you have nothing to worry about. Any modification to an image file, no matter how minimal, is a modification, and invalidates its originality.
I'm using Windows 7 and Windows Photo Viewer (Default program) to scan through my pictures. If I rotate an image the viewer saves the image so it's rotated next time I look at it. Is this saved rotated image still considered an original for verification?
The answer is "it depends." Specifically, it depends on whether the photo viewer actually rotates the image data, in which case it is definitely not an original. If it does not, then it simply remembers that "this photo needs to be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise." If this setting is stored *within* the file in the metadata, I'd virtually guarantee it is no longer a valid original. If the data is stored outside the file, then it is probable that the file is still a valid original.
One way to tell if the file itself has been changed (though not necessarily a foolprof way) is to open the file with another application. Is it still in the original orientation, or the rotated one?
If your camera automatically records orientation, use something like FSViewer to view them, and Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) to edit them. FSViewer will rotate to view, but won't save the rotated image.
If it doesn't, you can still use FSViewer to view them and rotate every time, since it will ask you if you want to overwrite the original before moving to the next image. Just use L and R to rotate when viewing, [<-] and [->] (arrow keys) to move to the next/previous image, and Esc to exit. There are lots of other options as well, including batch convert and batch rename, that could be useful for managing loads of images. By default, smoothing is disabled so images will look kind of pixelated if they don't fit on screen at 100%, but if you're just looking through quickly, you won't see much of a difference (and with smoothing off, you don't have to wait before each image loads).
My experience has been that the Windows photo viewer saves the changes to the file. I don't rotate them in the viewer. That could be why my neck hurts...
I'm using Windows 7 and Windows Photo Viewer (Default program) to scan through my pictures. If I rotate an image the viewer saves the image so it's rotated next time I look at it. Is this saved rotated image still considered an original for verification?
To be safe, the answer is no - a modified original is not an original - regardless of the modification or whether it was made intentionally or no. SC may want to chime in on this.
What I do is download all my images to an 'originals' file, and never open them. Then I download them into a second file that is specifically for edits.
