100% Crop

[mjsneddon]

I have read the term "100% crop" many times in various forums and I know that it means looking at a image "close-up". But I would like to know precisely what it means. Can someone help me out?

Thanks, and have a good day.

Mike Sneddon
Mattoon, IL USA

 

[gizmo2071]

A full res image from an 8mp camera is about 2300 x 3400 pixels.
This will be huge on a screen and take alot of scrolling to see the whole image.
Now if there is part of this image that you want to crop down on to fit on the screen then you will view it at full size and crop down onto a certain area of the photo.
Some people do this to get an area of an image (like macro) to look like its larger than it is when it was taken.

 

[mjsneddon]

I take it that this means you are looking at a portion of a larger image (which is too large to fit on the screen at the screen resolution). Would this then be at 72dpi which is the most common screen resolution to my knowledge?

Thanks for your help.

Mike Sneddon
Mattoon, IL USA

 

[Digital Matt]

DPI has nothing to do with what you see on screen. You can look at a 300 dpi file and a 72 dpi file and they will both view the same on screen. A 100% crop is showing a portion of a large file at the 100% view. Instead of resizing the photo to 800x600 or whatever, you cut an 800x600 piece out of the full res file to display. It's important for seeing sensor and lens performance.

 

[mjsneddon]

Thanks for the reply. From your statement "A 100% crop is showing a portion of a large file at the 100% view", what is the 100% view?

Thanks again.

Mike Sneddon
Mattoon, IL USA

 

[Digital Matt]

In any imaging program, there is a magnification setting. You can view the entire full res photo on the screen all at once. In this case, you are probably viewing the photo at 20-30%. When you view it at 100%, you see the full size pixels.

 

[Garbz]

DPI has nothing to do with what you see on screen. You can look at a 300 dpi file and a 72 dpi file and they will both view the same on screen. A 100% crop is showing a portion of a large file at the 100% view. Instead of resizing the photo to 800x600 or whatever, you cut an 800x600 piece out of the full res file to display. It's important for seeing sensor and lens performance.

It has nothing to do with how the screen compares to the printer. But the screen's resolution itself also gives a certain ammount of pixels per inch. Suffice to say that with a screen it's constant and dependant on your resolution and screen size. On a printer it is variable.