<?php
$image = imagecreatefromstring(file_get_contents($_FILES['image_upload']['tmp_name']));
$exif = exif_read_data($_FILES['image_upload']['tmp_name']);
if(!empty($exif['Orientation'])) {
    switch($exif['Orientation']) {
        case 8:
            $image = imagerotate($image,90,0);
            break;
        case 3:
            $image = imagerotate($image,180,0);
            break;
        case 6:
            $image = imagerotate($image,-90,0);
            break;
    }
}
// $image now contains a resource with the image oriented correctly
?>