Pivotwell™
Photo Rotation CheckEvery photo, right way up.
Phones and cameras don't always record which way is up, so family collections fill with sideways portraits and upside-down birthday cakes. Pivotwell finds them for you, so you can turn them without paging through every picture.
What Pivotwell does
Pivotwell looks at the faces, the scene and the sky in every photo and says which way it seems to need turning: a quarter turn right, a quarter turn left, or upside down. It also says how sure it is, so you can glance at the doubtful ones and skip the rest.
It is made for digital photos: phone and camera pictures, downloads, and photos shared by family, where portrait shots often arrive lying on their side.
It comes two ways, with one license for both. The Lightroom Classic plug-in flags each photo with a keyword and the purple label, and turns photos only when you ask it to. The Windows & Mac app needs no Lightroom: it shows every photo the way it would be turned, lets you change any of them, and saves turned copies, never changing your originals.
Features
Faces first
Two face finders look at all four turns and at three sizes of the picture, including faces in profile, partly hidden and in black-and-white prints.
Then the scene
Without faces to go by, a small picture model trained on which way up whole scenes go (buildings, trees and sky, food on a plate) decides. Sky and horizon help when it isn't sure.
How sure it is
Every photo gets a score: High, Medium or Low in Lightroom, and Sure, Fairly sure or Not sure in the app, where Least sure first puts the doubtful ones at the top.
It says why
Each flagged photo says why in plain words, for example “it looks like it needs a quarter turn to the right (from the faces, 82% sure)”.
Only flag the sure ones
If you'd rather, flag only photos it is at least 50% to 90% sure of. The rest get the yellow label, for you to look at yourself.
Turn the flagged photos
In Lightroom, one command turns every flagged photo the way its keyword says, with Lightroom's own Rotate, checking each turn as it goes.
No loss of quality
In the app, a JPEG saved in its own format is copied exactly with only its rotation setting changed, so the picture is never saved again.
Camera raw files too
For raw files the app can write the turn into an XMP sidecar, so Lightroom, Camera Raw and Bridge show the photo the right way up while the raw file stays as it is.
How it works
In Lightroom Classic
- Select the photos: a folder, a collection or a whole import. Hundreds at a time are fine.
- Choose Library > Plug-in Extras > Check rotation. There is no dialog; a progress bar runs at the top left.
- Filter on the “Check rotation” keyword or the purple label, and turn them yourself or with Turn the flagged photos.
In the app
- Choose a folder or some photos, or paste a folder's path.
- Click Check rotation.
- Look them over. Each photo is shown turned the way it will be saved; change any turn with a click or a key.
- Save new pictures, turned the right way up, or XMP sidecars. The originals are never changed.
Requirements
- Windows
- Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). Nothing else to install: Python and the image libraries come with it.
- Mac
- A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 13 or later: nothing else to install. An Intel Mac needs Python 3.9 or newer from python.org, plus a one-time setup the installer offers.
- Lightroom Classic
- For the plug-in only. The app needs no Lightroom, just a current web browser (Edge, Chrome, Safari or Firefox).
- Files
- JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, PNG, DNG and camera raw files (NEF, CR2, CR3, ARW, ORF, RW2, RAF, PEF, SRW), including Lightroom's merged panoramas and HDRs.
Price and free trial
- Every feature works free for 21 days on each computer, with no watermark and no account. After that, Pivotwell keeps working for 7 more days with a reminder; then it stops checking new photos. Keywords and labels already added stay as they are.
- One license is for one person on up to 2 computers, covers both the app and the Lightroom Classic plug-in, and includes complimentary updates within the major version (a version 1 key works for every 1.x release).
- Your key arrives by email. It is checked on your computer: no account or internet connection is needed to use Pivotwell.
- Moving to a new computer? Click “Remove license from this computer” on the old one and enter your key on the new one.
- Also in The Well Tools Bundle: Squarewell™, Spoolwell™, Pivotwell™, Datewell™ and Labelwell™ on one license key for $149.
Windows may show “Windows protected your PC” the first time: click More info, then Run anyway. The Mac download is signed and checked by Apple: open it and double-click the Install app.
Lost your key? · License terms · Refund policy · Questions: info@thepictureorg.com
Questions
Does Pivotwell turn my photos by itself?
No. In Lightroom it only adds a keyword, the purple label and a note, and turns photos only when you choose Turn the flagged photos. The app shows every suggested turn and saves turned copies only when you click Save.
Will turning a photo lose quality?
No. A JPEG saved in its own format is copied exactly, with only its rotation setting changed. In Lightroom, turning only changes Lightroom's own setting, not the file.
Is it ever wrong?
It is a guess, tuned to avoid false flags, so it misses some: close-ups with no faces, sky or recognizable scene (a flower, a document) and pictures taken straight down. The “How sure” score points you to the photos most worth a glance.
Does it look at the rotation my camera saved?
Yes. It looks at each photo the way your camera's rotation setting (or Lightroom) already shows it, so a photo that already shows the right way up is not flagged.
Pivotwell or Squarewell?
Pivotwell is for digital photos that only need turning. If you scan prints, slides or film, Squarewell crops and straightens them and includes the same rotation check.
Is anything sent from my computer?
Only a once-a-day check for a newer version, which fetches a small version list and sends nothing about your computer, your photos or your license key. You can turn it off.
How do updates work?
Pivotwell tells you when a new version is out. Install now downloads it, checks that it carries The Picture Org's signature, and installs it, putting everything back if anything goes wrong. Updates within the major version are complimentary.
What's new
Version 1.0.12 24 October 2026
- Under the hood: Pivotwell now uses the same license, update and error log code as the other Well tools, so a fix made for one reaches them all. Nothing changes in how you use it.
- License messages now give the app's full name, Pivotwell Photo Rotation Check.
- After an in-app update on Windows, the Start menu and Desktop shortcuts move to the new app icon by themselves.