Workaround Apple's limited API for obtaining the "full resolution" cropped & rotated photo. Uses CoreImage on iOS 6+. Punts on iOS <6

gistfile1.m

static CIImage* ApplyFiltersToImage(NSArray *filters, CIImage *inputImage)
{
  CIImage *img = inputImage;
  for (CIFilter *filter in filters)
  {
    [filter setValue:img forKey:kCIInputImageKey];
    img = filter.outputImage;
  }
  return img;
}

static UIImage *EditedOrOriginalImageFromAssetRepresentation(ALAssetRepresentation *ar)
{
  UIImage *originalImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:ar.fullResolutionImage scale:ar.scale orientation:ar.orientation];
  if ( ! [[CIFilter class] respondsToSelector:@selector(filterArrayFromSerializedXMP:inputImageExtent:error:)])
  {
    // No CoreImage available, so we will just return the original image
    return originalImage;
  }
  
  // most common case: if the image has not been edited, just return the original image
  NSData *xmpData =  [ar.metadata[@"AdjustmentXMP"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
  if (!xmpData)
    return originalImage;
  
  // The image has been edited: use CoreImage to apply the crop & rotate metadata on the full resolution image
  NSError *xmpError;
  CGRect imageExtent = (CGRect){CGPointZero, ar.dimensions};
  NSArray *filters = [CIFilter filterArrayFromSerializedXMP:xmpData inputImageExtent:imageExtent error:&xmpError];
  if (!filters)
  {
    NSLog(@"WARNING: failed to apply AdjustmentXMP. Error %@", xmpError);
    return originalImage;
  }
  
  CIImage *inputImage = [CIImage imageWithCGImage:ar.fullResolutionImage];
  CIImage *outputImage = ApplyFiltersToImage(filters, inputImage);
  return [UIImage imageWithCIImage:outputImage scale:ar.scale orientation:ar.orientation];
}