selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

If you Google 'reasons to pixel peep' you will get about 10 Google pages. No need to list them here, it's easy to do.

The prevailing sentiment is that you should not waste your time on it and that it can be detrimental to the quality of your work.

While I might do it occasionally out of curiosity to check a lens or a processing effort, my own reason for avoiding it is that I am more interested in the image as a whole.

A 100% view of a detail is just not relevant to an image I might post, print or offer for sale. That whole image will not fit on my monitor.

Pixel peeping can lead to endless arguments over minute details that have no visible impact on the image as a whole. The importance of details gets blown out of proportion. That's something we should all avoid.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Everybody listen and heed his advice. A wise man speaks here

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

There are times when looking at the details of an image can be a useful diagnostic tool. Most of the time, I believe that effort and energy can be better directed to other elements of a photograph.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

A good frame can enhance a picture, but it can’t make the subject better. Like the time my biking buddies and I set out a downpour in Mrs Wilkes Kitchen (restaurant) in Savannah GA. It was in the basement of a very old building, family style eating, no classy silverware but the food was WONDERFUL! Improving details such as the location, fancy tablecloths and so on would not have made the food any better or the dining experience any more memorable. Be it photo or good southern cooking, it’s the basic intent that counts.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

If you have to tell a story on why it's a keeper, it's likely not a keeper.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

The ONLY time I would pixel peep is when shooting a white wall to see if/how many buggered pixels I might have.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The only time I don't review an image at the 1:1 pixel-level details is never.

User ID

Generally I greatly agree. Occasional pixel peeping is a really useful way to check on things including the operator.

A very practical use, for me, is that to augment IS for hand held shots I use max burst speed with the limit set to three frames. I will peep to determine which is the ultimate keeper. (FWIW, usually its the middle frame.)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

If you have to peep to see any difference...

I know, just knowing is the key.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

If your photos are not good enough, get better at using the <Delete> key.

User ID

If I always cull out two of every three verrrry similar frames, magnified inspection saves time and eye strain.

For one thing, middle frames are usually best, which reinforces the idea of using three frame bursts to improve handheld results. Only peeping would inform me about that.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Some folks are preoccupied with a sharpness that they begin producing images that are so that the are actually UNreal!

Some folks spend so much time testing their gear, analyzing the lenses, and counting pixcels, that it is a wonder any time left to TAKE PICTURES(?)

I learned an important lesson very early in my DIGITAL experience. It seems like a lifetime ago when I was kinda considering going into digital- a big deal if you are operating a commercial studio with all kidsof film gear,r 3 darkrooms, and a color lab. So I went to my dealer and picked up a newfangled Nikon D300. It had a zoom kit les and I had some older Nikon glass to fool around with.

So, I packed the camera in my location gear bag and had it tag along on a few assignments. I would shoot a few frames alongside my medium and large-format film gear. For fun, I ran some rather large prints and my first and very surprising response was "HOLEY **%^$%*&^%$%^"! The images were as we say here in Canada, BLOODY SHARP! That was a crop sensor kinda rudimentary camera with an OK lens! From that point on, and nowadays, especially with more current and sophisticated gear, I never worry about pixels, cropping, all kinds of reviews, myths, paranoia, claims, and hyper-crazy stuff!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Well written! One of my current favorite printed 12"x19" wall hangers right now is a "frame grab" from a 4K video clip. No need to pixel peep.