ridiculously large file sizes

<p>Recently I have been having some performance problems with my computer. My workflow is LR --> PS. I use LR to catalog and do 90+% of my editing. I use PS for more serious editing (removing wrinkles, clone-stamp, content-aware fill, and stitches).</p>

<p>I recently did a bunch of stitches. I used LR to browse and select images, and then used LR to select the images to stitch and send the files to PS (Edit in... Merge to Panorama in Photoshop...) use the PS defaults and then ctrl-S and ctrl-W to export the finished stitch back to LR in the catalog as a .tiff. PS does an excellent job of stitching and the images look very nice.</p>

<p>When I do the stitching, my computer is unresponsive for several minutes. Even afterwards, LR can be amazingly slow if I am in a catalog that has some stitches.</p>

<p>So, I looked at the file sizes. In most cases I am using a Canon G10 for stitches (when I have my D3, I don't do many stitches... I've got a 16mm lens). The Canon G10 in stitch-assist mode makes _STA.JPG files which are about 8 MB each. The stitches come back from PS as very large .tiff files, typically about 1 GB, which is > 100x one individual exposure. Good golly! When I export the stitch as a full-res JPEG in LR, the finished file is only 18M.</p>

<p>OK, so I've got a couple of questions:</p>

<ol>

<li>are these file sizes what is hosing my computer? I can understand if PS takes its time to do all the math, but once the file is exported to LR I want LR to behave nicely.</li>

<li>are there any preferences I can set in PS to minize the file size? why does a stitch take 1 GB?</li>

</ol>

<p>I probably need to upgrade my computer. My laptop is an i5 with 4 GB RAM. My desktop is a dual-core Pentium with 6G RAM. Adobe claims you need 2G RAM for LR and 1G RAM (2G recommended for PS. I'm definitely willing to spend $ to fix this. A new computer, more RAM and maybe even an SSD. I believe I've heard that graphics cards don't make much of a difference, particularly with i5 or i7 processors.</p>

<p>P. S. -- You might ask if I have a D3 + 16mm why am I using a G10 and stitching? I am photographing mountains from a bicycle and don't want to carry the D3. The subjects are mountain panoramas and switchbacks. I very often stitch 2, 3, 4, or even 5 images into one image.</p>

It sounds as if your stitched composite panorama file consists of multiple layers. The composite is the background layer

and then the indivual frames plus a mostly black mask for each individual frame is a seperate layer stacked up above it.

If you are happy with the stitched result and can find no glitches or stitching errors when you inspect it at 100% (full size)

resolution , flatten the file. I recommend duplicating the file and choosing the flatten layers option and then saving it with

some indication -like "fltnd" in the title of the new document.

Tiff vs. PSd wont make a difference in file size. My stitching program of choice, PTGui Pro, prefers the TIFF format over

PSD but I output the stitched and layered file in the PSB format. Some of my layered panos weigh in at 12-16 GBs and

when flattened are in the 800-900GB range.

<p>Allan,</p>

<p>Stitching photographs together uses a lot of temporary memory. The large final file size can be created in a layered version, with each layer equal in storage size due to the same dimensions. PTgui is a better stitcher and uses a lot less space when open. Only the temp file size is huge when stitching.</p>

<p>The final output size will be due to two options, and assuming you create the file at the largest size or quality in the stitching.</p>

<p>1. An 8 bit tiff file will be smaller than a 16 bit tiff file.</p>

<p>2. A JPG will be smaller than a TIFF output.</p>

<p>Just guessing, but on your file size of the original images and the few involved, you could have used about 1.2 gigs for the stitch processing. However you do not tell us what the final dimensions are for the stitched file. In PTGUI, you can set the dimensions for a final output which is close to the actual printing size you are looking for before cropping and final sizing. The print size can be smaller or larger depending on the print size. Keep in mind that it only adds up higher as you move to using more photos for the stiches.</p>

<p>CHEERS...Mathew</p>