Digital Workflow and File size

[dohearne]

Please advise if I need to do something different with my workflow. For example, the cat picture in my gallery started as a 5.2 MB NEF file that I opened in PSE and changed to the image that you see. I saved a copy as a psd file so I could change it in the future but now it is a 42 MB file. For the image on the site I merged the layers and resized for posting. Is it typical to have files get so large or does it indicate something wrong with my workflow?

[Daviskw]

Hi Dave

Boy that does seem a little large... I would think 10 to 12 MB would be more like it. What file dimensions and resolution did you save the file with?

Sounds like 12 bit size but you would not have been able to work on it as you did....hmmmm

Butch

[Wendy]

Hi Dave ...

It could be that when you were working on your image you added quite a few layers ... they do increase the size a lot !!

I experimented with a tiny jpg of 60KB, made a rough selection and saved the selection to its own layer. Then duplicated the layer again and saved it as a psd ... the file size ended up as 914KB ... so you can see how file size mounts up with extra layers and saving as a psd.

Wendy

[dohearne]

Hi Dave

Boy that does seem a little large... I would think 10 to 12 MB would be more like it. What file dimensions and resolution did you save the file with?

Sounds like 12 bit size but you would not have been able to work on it as you did....hmmmm

Butch

Butch

It seemed large to me but as Wendy suggested I assumed that was the price of saving layers. The picture is 3008 x 2000 pixels at 240 ppi with 3 layers. Should I be resizing pictures before I start changing them and what size files do most people work with?

Dave

[graficalicus]

hi, Dave -

I'd definitely archive the larger size - esp if you ever want to print later (more pixels is always better for printing). CDs & DVDs are so cheap nowadays that you can archive both the original straight from your camera as well as any PSDs you create for it. (As an aside, I've got an article about my way of archiving stuff here (http://www.graficalicus.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=publications&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=4&ttitle=Preserving_your_Digital_Negatives) - it's from an old book never finished and uses XnView for archiving, but any catalog software will work essentially the same.)

It's definitely the layers that's giving you filesize bloat. Someone above did the experiment with a 60k file, and the layers really add up in a hurry. Add to that that PSD is lossless - i.e., it's not a compressed format like jpg or png or tif - and you can get some monster files in no time at all.

The only problem with huge file size is the amount of RAM you have to handle them while working on them. If you're good on that front, don't sweat the size, and only resize/sharpen the final output. Then archive the source, and you've got it for the future. There's nothing worse than having this great image you took a year ago that would really look good as an 8 x 10, but you already reduced it to 640 x 480 - - :eek:

[Wendy]

Hi Dave ...

I have just downloaded some images from a card and one of them is:

2.28 MB .. 2048 pixels by 3072 at 180 resolution

I decide to give the background a blur so duplicated the layer, blurred the duplicate then added a layer mask to isolate the blur to one area

Saved as a psd it it now 27.44MB

Because these are simply my holiday photographs and I am not going to revisit the layers I have resaved it as a best quality jpgs and the file size reduced to 3.32 MB. I know that a lot of people save everything as psd file ... but for me if its just a holiday photo and I am not going to make further changes then back it goes as a jpg :)

Really good images, special ones and my own creations stay as psd ... my own stuff can get hugh. The Tiffany image in my Gallery has over 500 MB of layers.

Wendy

[dohearne]

hi, Dave -

I'd definitely archive the larger size - esp if you ever want to print later or tif - and you can get some monster files in no time at all.


Graficalicus,

Thanks for the feedback and your advice fits my intuition. But being new to this, I wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong.

Wendy, your input is also helpful and I understand fully that some files may be not worth saving in MB-bloat.

Dave