A 100% crop is just a way of showing in a forum what you see on your monitor when you view an image at 100%, without making people have to look at a 3+ MB file.
Here is how I get a 100% crop. I will use the example of making a 800x600 sample (although technically you could use 1024x1024 in the forum, as per current rules).
This is the simplest method I have found, and shows you a true 100% crop of the image. If an image starts out at lets say 3,000 pixels by 2,000 pixels, it would need to be re-sized to fit within the forum rules. All you have then is the same picture with many many pixels removed. With a 100% crop, you only have a portion of the picture, in this case 800 pixels by 600 pixels, with no resizing. This is used to show you the actual quality of the photo. When a photo is resized, it just dumps the pixels out, this method shows every pixel in the sample.
I found that Canon Digital Photo Professional is the easiest thing for me to use to get a 100% crop. These screenshots are technically 100% crops also, as I didn't resize the screenshot. Therefore, you aren't seeing the whole screen here, just the important parts.
I will show you how to get a 100% crop from this image:
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First, after opening up the image, if the tool palette isn't already up, go to view>tool palette and make sure your setting are all at 0, especially sharpness.
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After this, go to Tools>Start Trimming Tool (Alt+C)
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Next I went to Aspect Ratio on the right hand side, although this isn't necessary, it makes it easier. I chose 4x3, but you can use any aspect you want, 1x1 would probably be best as it would yield the biggest result.
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Now you click and drag your marquee until you get 800 pixels in the box on the right hand side, this time I got exactly 800x600, but many times it won't let you get right on 800 for some reason. It is not necessary to get exactly 800, no one will know or care if you have 799 or 798 pixels instead of the 800.
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Now you simply click OK, and you have your 100% crop. It will stretch it to fit your current window, which may show it at 300-400% and will look terrible. Now you go to File>Convert & Save.
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Save as file type Exif-jpeg, Image quality 10. Name it, hit save. Do nothing else, do not resize, dpi does not matter.
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You are then ready to show off your 100% crop here on POTN for everyone to measurebate to!
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Be sure to do no editing (sharpening it kinda defeats the purpose of a 100% crop)to the image, and it is preferable to start with a RAW file (.CR2).
Hope this clears things up.
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