UIImage orientation incorrect from AVCaptureStillImageOutput - iphone

Question

I'm trying to capture pixel data from an AVCaptureStillImageOutput and noticed that upon cropping the image to a CGImage, it becomes re-oriented. To test this, I output a temporary image to the photo library. Now I've noticed that even before the image is cropped, it's thumbnail is rotated while the full image is not. (This later becomes a problem when I pass the UIImage to my custom pixelDataManager that requires proper dimensions of the image.)
Setting captureVideoPreviewLayer.orientation = AVCaptureVideoOrientationPortrait; and [videoConnection setVideoOrientation:AVCaptureVideoOrientationPortrait]; did not seem to change anything.
Any thoughts???
I'll break it up into sections...
1) Setting up the session, input, and output:
// Create a capture session
AVCaptureSession *session = [[AVCaptureSession alloc] init];
session.sessionPreset = AVCaptureSessionPresetMedium;
AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer *captureVideoPreviewLayer = [[AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer alloc] initWithSession:session];
// Add capture layer to visible view
captureVideoPreviewLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravityResize;
captureVideoPreviewLayer.frame = screenBounds;
captureVideoPreviewLayer.bounds = screenBounds;
captureVideoPreviewLayer.orientation = AVCaptureVideoOrientationPortrait;
[self.vImagePreview.layer addSublayer:captureVideoPreviewLayer];
AVCaptureDevice *device = [AVCaptureDevice defaultDeviceWithMediaType:AVMediaTypeVideo];
// Setup error handling
NSError *error = nil;
AVCaptureDeviceInput *input = [AVCaptureDeviceInput deviceInputWithDevice:device error:&error];
if (!input) {
// Handle the error appropriately.
NSLog(#"ERROR: trying to open camera: %#", error);
}
[session addInput:input];
// Start session
[session startRunning];
// Output image data
stillImageOutput = [[AVCaptureStillImageOutput alloc] init];
NSDictionary *outputSettings = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys: AVVideoCodecJPEG, AVVideoCodecKey, nil];
[stillImageOutput setOutputSettings:outputSettings];
[session addOutput:stillImageOutput];
2) Setting up the video connection:
AVCaptureConnection *videoConnection = nil;
for (AVCaptureConnection *connection in stillImageOutput.connections)
{
for (AVCaptureInputPort *port in [connection inputPorts])
{
if ([[port mediaType] isEqual:AVMediaTypeVideo] )
{
videoConnection = connection;
break;
}
}
if (videoConnection) { break; }
}
if ([videoConnection isVideoOrientationSupported])
{
[videoConnection setVideoOrientation:AVCaptureVideoOrientationPortrait];
}
3) Output the captured image:
NSLog(#"about to request a capture from: %#", stillImageOutput);
[stillImageOutput captureStillImageAsynchronouslyFromConnection:videoConnection completionHandler: ^(CMSampleBufferRef imageSampleBuffer, NSError *error)
{
NSData *imageData = [AVCaptureStillImageOutput jpegStillImageNSDataRepresentation:imageSampleBuffer];
UIImage *image = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:imageData];
UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(image, nil, nil, nil);
//......
}

Answer 1

When you do this, though the image is being provided to you as a UIImage, it's actually using the underlying Quartz CGImage data which has a different origin point (lower left I think) which means that when you use the image it's rotated to the side.
I found a C function that you can call with the UIImage as parameter that fixes it and returns the fixed UIImage.
http://blog.logichigh.com/2008/06/05/uiimage-fix/