how to make an empty span collapse - css

Question

I have this fiddle I'm playing with to crop and center an image. It works quite well, but I would need the wrapping div.test to have the same width of the image. This is not possible: if I set the width of the img to 300px the magic does not work. I think it's because of the span I use to center the image. I think it leaves a kind of space footprint (maybe the space between letters or words?).
So: how to make its space effects "invisibles"?
Update
My original purpose was: resize the image horizontally and crop-and-center vertically + compatibility from IE8 >. All done with CSS. The solution linked above is almost close to the solution, but not perfect (the little space on the left). That's why I asked for a fix on it.

Answer 1

I am not positive if I am understanding your dilemma, however, I think something like this may be what you are looking for. Here is the link to JSFiddle (http://jsfiddle.net/bUrmK/2/).
HTML:
<div class="test">
<div class="before">
</div>
CSS:
.test {
background-color: grey;
overflow: hidden;
width: 300px;
}
.before {
background-image: url("http://www.news.giudicarie.com/images/Inaugurazione_Muse_Museo_della_Scienze_di_Trento.JPG");
width: 100%;
height: 100px;
background-position: center;
background-size: cover;
/*This will allow for LTE IE-8*/
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src="http://www.news.giudicarie.com/images/Inaugurazione_Muse_Museo_della_Scienze_di_Trento.JPG", sizingMethod='scale');
-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src=""http://www.news.giudicarie.com/images/Inaugurazione_Muse_Museo_della_Scienze_di_Trento.JPG", sizingMethod='scale')";
}

Answer 2

I get it now, you can use a single div:
HTML
<div class="cropped"></div>
CSS
.cropped{
background-image: url("http://www.news.giudicarie.com/images/Inaugurazione_Muse_Museo_della_Scienze_di_Trento.JPG");
width: 300px;
height: 200px;
background-position: center;
background-size: cover;
}