100% crop: This term is one of the most subjective in all of Photography, so I am going to set everyone straight. From this day forward I will proclaim a 100% crop to be an uncropped...

Streets Loc: Euless, TX.

This term is one of the most subjective in all of Photography, so I am going to set everyone straight. From this day forward I will proclaim a 100% crop to be an uncropped image. Thus, a 50% crop is one that has half the pixel count, and a 25% crop will have 1/4 of the pixel count of the original image. Now, does everyone agree? I just can't wait for all the good, respectful replies that are sure to come.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Streets wrote:

This term is one of the most subjective in all of Photography, so I am going to set everyone straight. From this day forward I will proclaim a 100% crop to be an uncropped image. Thus, a 50% crop is one that has half the pixel count, and a 25% crop will have 1/4 of the pixel count of the original image. Now, does everyone agree? I just can't wait for all the good, respectful replies that are sure to come.

No argument here... I will point out that you got Google AdSense to present me with an ad for ladies' crop tops! Funny how that happens...

You might want to differentiate between 100% CROP and 100% VIEW of an image in a software package. 100% view is "One pixel in the file is displayed with one pixel on the monitor." People sometimes get those two mixed up!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Streets wrote:

This term is one of the most subjective in all of Photography, so I am going to set everyone straight. From this day forward I will proclaim a 100% crop to be an uncropped image. Thus, a 50% crop is one that has half the pixel count, and a 25% crop will have 1/4 of the pixel count of the original image. Now, does everyone agree? I just can't wait for all the good, respectful replies that are sure to come.

I have never heard of anyone referring to an uncropped image as a 100% crop. It seems to me that "100% crop" is an oxymoron. If it is 100% of the image, it is not a crop.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Wouldn't a 100% crop be a photo with 100% of the pixels cropped out?

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

JohnSwanda wrote:

I have never heard of anyone referring to an uncropped image as a 100% crop. It seems to me that "100% crop" is an oxymoron. If it is 100% of the image, it is not a crop.

I agree with John. If you crop an image 100%, there is no image left to view.

BebuLamar

I would agree that 100% crop is a bad term so we either not use it at all because if it means uncropped or all cropped out with nothing left it makes no sense. Of all the people who have used the term they all meant that it's a crop of an image but not resized so it will show pixel for pixel of a small area of the original image.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

To me a 100% crop means cropping to 100% resolution. In Photoshop or a viewer like Hornil Photo viewer that is shown as 100%. On UHH if you look at a posted image in Download and then click on the "+" you get a 100% view. Same in Flickr. Cropping an image to 100% (as in cropping a small bird image or cropping a full moon image) is the largest you can display the image without pixelating. If you display this on UHH, the download doesn't get any larger if you click on the "+". If your cropped image is smaller than the thumbnail view, it won't have the download option available for viewing, even if you clicked on "store original". Some people consider this pixel peeping, but shooting small birds at a distance, you are cropping at 100% to get the largest image possible without pixelating the image. It's also the only way to judge how sharp and detailed your image actually is. Even if I don't crop to 100% view, I always review my images at 100% view to judge their sharpness.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

"100% Crop" is what is called a "term of art". Its meaning does not necessarily make good sense, but it has a very specific meaning within the field or profession where it is used.

In photography 100% crop means an image has been cropped before display such that the cropped section being displayed has one pixel from the original image for each display pixel.

Hence if you want a 100% crop display on a monitor window that is 1000x1000 pixels the cropped section must be 1000 pixels on the longest dimension.

A practical use for a 100% display is to allow an image to be sharpened by inspwction before it is printed.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

burkphoto wrote:

<snip> will point out that you got Google AdSense to present me with an ad for ladies' crop tops! Funny how that happens...
<snip>

Well I guess that explains the seven minute lag between the original post and your response. If the crop tops had been missing, it might have taken you ten minutes.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Apaflo wrote:

"100% Crop" is what is called a "te... (show quote)

Actually, view at 100% or display at 100% simply means one pixel in the file is displayed with one (RGGB) pixel on the monitor. You don’t need to fill the screen or display the entire image.

The term, “100% crop” is linguistically meaningless because of its ambiguity!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Streets wrote:

This term is one of the most subjective in all of Photography, so I am going to set everyone straight. From this day forward I will proclaim a 100% crop to be an uncropped image. Thus, a 50% crop is one that has half the pixel count, and a 25% crop will have 1/4 of the pixel count of the original image. Now, does everyone agree? I just can't wait for all the good, respectful replies that are sure to come.

Sounds good to me! I agree with everything everyone says. The politicians love me when they come around campaigning.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

burkphoto wrote:

Actually, view at 100% or display at 100% simply means one pixel in the file is displayed with one (RGGB) pixel on the monitor. You don’t need to fill the screen or display the entire image.

The term, “100% crop” is linguistically meaningless because of its ambiguity!

Monitors are not "RGGB", so I assume that is a typo.

I didn't say it needs to fill either a screen or that it has to show the entire original image. The cropped section has to fill one dimension of the display window.

A term of art need not, and often is not, longuistically valid. That is exactly why it is called a term of art.

The simple fact is that 100% crop has been in use for decades, and like it or not it has to be understood because it will continue to be used for decades.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I hadn't heard the term 100% crop used before, and there doesn't seem to be a consensus here. I Googled the term, and there are different definitions there also, but the most common is an image which has been cropped, but not resized - in other words, a portion of an image at the original resolution.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Streets wrote:

This term is one of the most subjective in all of Photography, so I am going to set everyone straight. From this day forward I will proclaim a 100% crop to be an uncropped image. Thus, a 50% crop is one that has half the pixel count, and a 25% crop will have 1/4 of the pixel count of the original image. Now, does everyone agree? I just can't wait for all the good, respectful replies that are sure to come.

An uncropped image is not the same at a 100% crop. Attached is a full image and a 100% crop of a portion of it. If you download both and then click again for maximum 100% resolution you will see that the components in the cropped image are the same size as in the original. At less than 100% resolution cropped sized to fit the space they are displayed at so it appears zoomed in here. Don't over think it.

Full Image
Full Image...

(Download)

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

mwsilvers wrote:

An uncropped image is not the same at a 100% crop. Attached is a full image and a 100% crop of a portion of it. If you download both and then click again for maximum 100% resolution you will see that the components in the cropped image are the same size as in the original. At less than 100% resolution cropped sized to fit the space they are displayed at so it appears zoomed in here. Don't over think it.

So according to Apaflo's definition (https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-546544-1.html#9272388) what we see above is two images. Neither of them is a 100% crop but the download from the links below the images are both 100% crops.

His definition calls for a 1:1 correspondence between the pixels in the image and the pixels in the display. The images in the post above are reduced by standard UHH protocol while the downloaded images show the full definition. Many browsers also reduce the display but give you a way to see the full size image by clicking on it.