PE resizing images automatically when editing.

[CivicMan]

I'm being driven crazy!

A lot of my images are around 3/4 mbs. In the last 24 hrs, if I'm doing any editing, PE grinds SO slowly on EVERY action, and in the end, when I eventually get to save the edited image, it has been resized to sometimes up to 50/60 mb.


Anyone any idea what I've done wrong? I'm a fairly experienced user, but joined these forums just to ask this question!!!

[ATR]

Just a question....

Are you saying that a 4 MB image goes to a 40 MB image after a series of edits?
Or, AFTER Saving a 4 MB image that has undergo a series of edits, you see the the 4 MB image is now 40 MB?

Also, what is the file type that you are working with?

You are using Photoshop Elements 5.0?

ATR

[RobertSchuldenfrei]

Hi CivicGuy and NG,

First, let me welcome you to the friendliest newsgroup (NG) on the web. People will rush to answer your questions as ATR did. When files "blow up" as your file did, it is always due to storing lots of new data. If your original file was .jpg and you stored it in the native .psd the file is going to get bigger. This could account for a file size of 10 to 15 MB. Now if you created a lot of layers and did a lot of processing this file could grow to the size you observed. I am working on a "faux" Monet that is 135 MB! Even if you flatten your layers, the file size stays big. Did you ever wonder how "Undo" does its magic? Information is stored!

Once you explain how your file got to be so big I can help you put it on a "diet." Here is one tip: If you only need to print small images, resize the final photo, not the original, to 4" by 6" at 72 Pixels per inch (PPI). Save it as a .jpg image.

Here is a question for you people in the metric world: What is the standard monitor resolution in centimeters that corresponds to 72 PPI?

Cheers,

Bob

[GaryK]

Hi CM

Welcome too the forums.:)

I know when I bring in a 6MB file from my camera it automatically jumps to 18MB (6MB per colour). Duplicate the layer, and 36MB is the smallest I can work on.

What is your pixel size (2500x2500 or whatever)? Are these photos or created from scratch? How many layers.

Maybe the fact that you are experienced means you are adding and doing more than you used to.

Let us know.:)

[TonyW]

If you only need to print small images, resize the final photo, not the original, to 4" by 6" at 72 Pixels per inch (PPI). Save it as a .jpg image.

Bob: That's really too small for printing a 4x6. OK for screen viewing a small picture but not for printing - somewhere around 300 ppi is needed for printing a 4x6.

And the 72 ppi is a strange number from the early days. No monitors these days are 72 ppi. It depends on screen size and resolution but mine runs around 90 ppi. Take out a ruler and see how big the 200x200 pixel box is on your screen here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixels_per_inch

Bet it's not 200/72 ins :)

Tony

[Michel B]

Hi CivicGuy and NG,


Here is a question for you people in the metric world: What is the standard monitor resolution in centimeters that corresponds to 72 PPI?

Cheers,

Bob

Well, it's 72 PPI, even in the metric world... You can calculate 28.35 PPcm...

Michel B

[RobertSchuldenfrei]

Hi Tony and & NG,

I feel you must be right about screen resolution, but almost every book I have read notes that saving images for monitor screens should be 72 ppi. For example, Andrews: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 A Visual Introduction to Digital Photography, page 43 suggest 72 dot per inch (DPI). Now my HP f2105 21" monitor is set for a resolution of 1680 by 1050 and 300 ppi pictures look better than 72 ppi ones. So I am sure you are right. So what is all this folklore about monitors and 72 ppi?

About 4X6 @ 72 ppi, our question was about saving space. At 4X6 on plain paper you get a "reasonable" print. This is nothing I would want to enter into a contest, but for snap shots it is OK. Having said that, one person's OK is another person's "fabulous" shot and yet another person's garbage:).

Cheers,

Bob

[TonyW]

Back to the OP's problem a handy way of seeing what's going on in terms of document sizes and memory usage (which will effect the speed with which it works) is the Info Palette (Window>Info). You can use the More arrow to add useful info about the document and memory usage. Here's mine at the moment with a 3MP JPEG file open:

1225

The Doc size is the number of MP my 3MP file is taking up when editing (so about 10 times as big). The next number are the dimensions and corresponding resolution.

Scratch sizes is very useful. The first number is how much RAM is being used and the second number is how much RAM is available for Elements to use. If the first number gets close to the second then Elements has run out of RAM memory and has to start caching the the hard drive (the scratch disc). That will really start to slow things down. So take a look at what your numbers are showing when you experience slow operation.

Tony

[TonyW]

Hi Tony and & NG,

I feel you must be right about screen resolution, but almost every book I have read notes that saving images for monitor screens should be 72 ppi.

Bob: I know what you mean and I cringe when I see statements like that in books. It's just plain wrong. Monitors and the web don't care what the resolution is (in fact they don't even use the number). All that matters are the numbers of pixels. So if you send a 600x400 pixel image to the monitor it will be the size determined by the size of your monitor and the screen resolution you are using. So it would be big if your screen resolution is 800x600 pixels, smaller if it's 1024x768 and so on. A 6x4 in image at 100 ppi and a 3x2 image at 200 ppi is going to look exactly the same on your monitor.

Don't know the whole history of where 72 came from but it's related to type size equivalents. 1 point is 1/72 of an inch (at least that's the Postscript equivalent that is in fairly standard use)

Tony

[RobertSchuldenfrei]

Hi Tony and NG,

Once again Tony is spot (well pixel) on! I took the test on Wikipedia and my HP f2105 moniter is 94 ppi.

Thanks,

Bob

[CivicMan]

Thanks for the replies so far. The reason I'm puzzled is that this problem has suddenly started overnight. Elements 5 has always flown for me.

It doesn't have to be adding layers - for example, a simple crop can take up to two minutes to take effect, and as the new cropped image appears, it appears in it's new supersize, multi megabit format. As an example, I've just slighty cropped an image that originally was 4.2mb, and the resultant crop is now 58.5mb. It's mad.

The images I'm working on have all been shot on a Nikon D80, and saved as fine jpegs.

[Chuck S.]

If it did happen overnight, perhaps something is a little askew with Elements. Short of uninstalling and reinstalling it, you may want to try to reset the preferences using the following technique:

Close Elements
Hold down Ctrl, Alt, and Shift keys down while restarting Elements
When you get the little popup that asks "Delete the Adobe Photoshop Elements Settings File?", click Yes
Elements will open and the file you deleted will rebuild. You'll have to go back into Edit>Preferences to restore any custom preferences you might have specified.Try again to see whether you're still getting the big file phenomenon.

[CivicMan]

Chuck, I LOVE YOU!! It worked..... life is back to normal. Thank you SO much as I have a barrowfull of work to do tonight editing.

And a thank you to this forum. I shall now be a regular visitor.

Thanks again!!!!

[pixlbandit]

I know I read a very good and pretty complete explanation about the screen resolution issue, but could not remember where! :( However, on the off chance that I anticipated this when I originally read the article, I looked through my "Tutorials" bookmarks, and lo and behold, I found it!!!! (I sometimes surprise myself.)

http://www.scantips.com/no72dpi.html

Now, I need to go read it again, :)
Vicki

[Chuck S.]

Chuck, I LOVE YOU!! It worked..... life is back to normal. Thank you SO much as I have a barrowfull of work to do tonight editing.

And a thank you to this forum. I shall now be a regular visitor.

Thanks again!!!!

CivicMan, glad it worked for you!

Now that your problem is fixed....welcome to the forum!:)

Best wishes,

[TonyW]

Chuck: Thanks for stepping in with that suggestion. I've heard of resetting preferences doing some wonderful things but never something like that :). I guess we were all completely off track :o

Tony

[Chuck S.]

Tony, that used to be the fix-all back in the PSE 2 days. Seems like the software is less vulnerable to this sort of aberrant behavior in later versions, but when all else fails....