Max cropping before hurting the image quality with D7100

As in the title - how much do people crop there pictures before loosing IQ with their D7100's?.

P.

I would think it all depends on the quality of the original image. I have cropped out very small bits of very good images (on a 5200 body) and had a useable finished image.

Paganman2 said:

As in the title - how much do people crop there pictures before loosing IQ with their D7100's?.

P.

Click to expand...

Not sure of your question... quality how, where? It surely depends on your goal.

But... You have 24 megapixels.

To fill a 1920x1080 pixel wide screen, all we need is 1920x1080 pixels... about 2 megapixels.

To print a 4x6 print, all we need is about 1200x1800 pixels, about 2 megapixels.

To print a 8x10 print, all we need is about 2400x3000 pixels, about 7 megapixels.

Here is one example of an extreme crop: (click it to enlarge it)

I try to not crop any more that necessary but you can crop some. The better your original the more you can crop. Lower ISO the more you can crop. The better the lighting the more you can crop. You get the idea.

WayneF said:

Not sure of your question... quality how, where? It surely depends on your goal.

But... You have 24 megapixels.

To fill a 1920x1080 pixel wide screen, all we need is 1920x1080 pixels... about 2 megapixels.

To print a 4x6 print, all we need is about 1200x1800 pixels, about 2 megapixels.

To print a 8x10 print, all we need is about 2400x3000 pixels, about 7 megapixels.

Here is one example of an extreme crop: (click it to enlarge it)

Click to expand...

What lens did you use. Amazingly sharp image!

Depends on the ultimate use of the image. If it's just posted on FaceSpace or MyBook, or emailed to Auntie Edna, you can crop like crazy.

If it's going to be made into a 30x40" enlargement, you need to curtail your cropping.

I was on about cropping a small part of the image as wev describes above, if its a bird in a tree for sake of argument and you want to make it look bigger, then save the image as a full size file eg - say you are using the 1.3 crop mode and get a 4800mp image, you then crop away and by 50% and are left with a 2400mp image and displayed after pp work, on a 1300mp screen.
Is there a limit that most will stick to with cropping a very good image with the d7100 and say using the 70-300Vr.

P.

Sorry if i crossed folks.

P.

Moab Man said:

What lens did you use. Amazingly sharp image!

Click to expand...

Thanks, it was the older 70-200 at 120mm f/8. D800, single point focus.

I am specifically on about when then d7100 is used with the AF-S 70-300VR and at its center and sweet spot, i have been trying not to go over cropping past 2400mp long edge, as this way i get a closer image of what i am shooting without to much loss in IQ.

P.

OK, shot is from the D7100 with the 70-300

f9
1/2000 sec
ISO 320

Same frame and you can see the crop

and there is no need to use the Crop mode at all on the D7100. Shoot it straight and do what cropping you need to in the Computer.

Same sensor FX body....
From this



To this

Don Kuykendall said:

and there is no need to use the Crop mode at all on the D7100. Shoot it straight and do what cropping you need to in the Computer.

Click to expand...

It helps my workflow through LR as it already jams up due to my mem capacity on my laptop, so keeping the files smaller and doing a little bit of cropping in camera(as long as it is not anymore destructive with the IQ as in post can be) so smaller files help, big files and it really sticks...

P.

Paganman2 said:

It helps my workflow through LR as it already jams up due to my mem capacity on my laptop, so keeping the files smaller and doing a little bit of cropping in camera(as long as it is not anymore destructive with the IQ as in post can be) so smaller files help, big files and it really sticks...

P.

Click to expand...

It is a personal choice, do what you want. There is no One Answer that you seek. My choice is obviously very different than yours (so we should each do what we choose).

Video monitor screens (or HD TV screens) or 4x6 inch prints only need about 2 megapixels. That is very much smaller than the 24 megapixels the D7100 can take.

But when you do end up with that one very special image, you really want a lot more pixels and quality. There is no going back then.

I use Nikon's Capture NX2 for my D7100 pictures. And I had to experiment, when I first got both products. I found that if you keep the cropping under 50%, you get good results, provided other things, like low ISO are happening. I almost always add sharpening too. If you go over 50% you start to see artifacts. Also, I shoot raw. If you modify jpeg's too many times (more than 1 or 2 saves) you start to get degraded picture quality.

My usual cropping percentage is around 30%. No noticeable degradation.

If you had a D800/D810, you could probably go a little further.

I can crop as far as the quality of my shot at 100%. If that quality is good, I can crop until the image size is identical to the size I use to display it. For here that is 1024*600something.

But those heavily cropped shots usually don't survive long in my collection since web display is all they are good for. I consider a shot only good if I don't need to go below 50% the size. But because I'm using an FX for birding or macro, even half that original size is a hard task to accomplish.

Here's a section of an unprocessed shot cropped to the max. If I want more than this, I need to start blowing it up.



If I have shots that are of less quality at 100%, I can't crop as much since I need to obscure that quality loss.

The better the shot you take, the more it can be cropped. In this case, the bird is too small to make it a good enough shot for anything but web display.

To add: I've taken plenty of good 100% shots with my D3300 too so the D7100 can easily do the same. Mostly when 100% isn't good, not the cam or lens but we are to blame.

Here's the full:

Thank you all for a marvelous lesson about cropping. What little I do , I do in post. Y'all have inspired me to do more!

Did it in nx2. 200mm f/4 ai. a jpeg,used a preset crop and bingo. Now to get much better at it.

The Ferrari pic has a lot of noise/grain in it. What crop-percentage did you use in Capture NX2?

It looks like that is a good example of 'over cropping'. With NX2, if you keep the crop below
50%, 30-40 is best, then you normally won't see any artifacts, like grain.

This picture might have had grain/noise in it from the beginning. I noticed the ISO is quite high.
If you reduce the noise in NX2 first, but don't do a 'save' (because it's jpeg), and then try cropping, you might get
a better result. Only save once, after all edits have been made.

Also, if you shoot RAW/NEF, you'll have quite a few more options for post-editing your pic's, and
no degradation from saving a jpeg. Each time you save a jpeg it degrades the image quality a
little bit.