pixel peeping

pixel peeping

slang The act, habit, or practice of being particularly or overly critical of or sensitive to the resolution, clarity, and quality of digital images or photographs. When I started getting into digital photography, I'll admit that I that I focused a bit too much on pixel peeping for a while. Later on though, I became less obsessive over technical quality and learned to appreciate well-composed photographs in their own right.
See also: peep, pixel
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • pixel peeper
  • pixel
  • pixel peep
  • be down on (someone or something)
  • a mummy's/mother's boy
  • big bully
  • have (one's)/a beady eye on (someone or something)
  • keep (one's)/a beady eye on (someone or something)
  • keep a beady eye on somebody/something
  • be hard on (one)
References in periodicals archive
When looked on a small screen like a phone the image appears clean to the eye but pixel peeping highlights the loss in detail.
Images taken in low light come out decent as well, unless you start pixel peeping. The HDR mode is off by default and in the little we time we spent with the device, it seems like a hit ormiss at times.
Also, as we move towards low light, there is some noise in the images, but it is only visible when you go pixel peeping.
I know some photographers only want their photos viewed as an entire work and frown on pixel peeping, but I like to dive in.
But that will also only show if you're pixel peeping on your monitor, or printing images in excess of the length of a baby's arm.