Is there any good reason to save a photo in an orientation that does not match the orientation that the device is being held in? Shouldn’t up be up? If that results in a NxM photo, save it NxM. If it results in a MxN photo save it that way!

The only edge case is a camera pointed straight up or straight down. Or a camera in space.

Correct orientation is relative to the photographer, not to the ground. Most of the times the photographer is in the usual, vertical orientation but sometimes you really want to take a shot at an angle, and you have to fight with your phone to do it correctly. I really dislike these kinds of "convenience" optimizations.

Coming back to ancient software design principles:

> The user is always right

Let them have a setting. It's really that easy.

> Or a camera in space.

Or freefall

Would it really be too much of a burden for python image libraries to decode jpegs to the correct orientation? I understand lack of knowledge about exif in the 2000s, but surely these days that can't still be a problem?