gorgehiker Loc: Lexington, Ky

I have recently discovered Photoshop and I am really enjoying learning to use it's powerful features. However, my files are huge after my edits even if I flatten the image. Is there a way to save the file with reasonable quality without the huge file size?

Vargnel

yea, like small "Roll Royce"

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I think if you flatten the image and save as a DNG (not speaking from experience). If you want to go more compact than that then you're looking at lossy compression.

Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

PSD files with layers can get fairly large, especially if editing in 16-bit instead of 8-bit. But, in some cases it's worth using the extra space to store an edited image.

If an image may need additional changes, I believe in keeping a copy of the image in PSD format without flattening. Since my final product for viewing on-line or printing will be a 8-bit jpeg file, I almost never work in 16-bit. That saves some space.

If I feel that future edits will be unnecessary I save only the Raw file and a final copy in JPEG format at the highest quality.

Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

DNG does not appear to be an available file format from "Save As" in Photoshop. A raw file can be saved as a DNG directly from ACR should you choose to do so. This may or may not reduce file size depending on the save options chosen.

gorgehiker Loc: Lexington, Ky

I have been working with 16-bit files, but I like your idea of using 8-bit instead. I don't even know if my Canon Pro 10 printer detects a difference between 8-bit and 16-bit files. Thanks for responding.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

You cannot save an edited image as a .dng; AFAIK it is only for saving raws in a supposedly non-proprietary raw format.

Storage these days is so cheap I cannot understand why anyone would save edited images in a compressed format--if there were any chance that further adjustments might be called for in the future. Actually, saving them as smart objects is the wisest course, because all alterations to the original image are non-destructive and editable after saving and reopening.

ClaudiaA Loc: Venice, FL

Hopefully someone in this thread will be able to figure this out. Last week I made a couple of composites, one had 12 layers and one had 56 layers. I saved them without flattening and the 12 layer 480,423KB but the 56 layer Alaska composite was 343,611KB. Why?

The flattened Tiffs were 182,791 and 105,030.

I don't mind the storage, I hate to flatten all that work. As soon as I do, I see what I should have done.

ClaudiaA Loc: Venice, FL

Hopefully someone in this thread will be able to figure this out. Last week I made a couple of composites, one had 12 layers and one had 56 layers. I saved them without flattening and the 12 layer 480,423KB but the 56 layer Alaska composite was 343,611KB. Why?

The flattened Tiffs were 182,791 and 105,030.

I don't mind the storage, I hate to flatten all that work. As soon as I do, I see what I should have done.

ClaudiaA Loc: Venice, FL

Hopefully someone in this thread will be able to figure this out. Last week I made a couple of composites, one had 12 layers and one had 56 layers. I saved them without flattening and the 12 layer 480,423KB but the 56 layer Alaska composite was 343,611KB. Why?

The flattened Tiffs were 182,791 and 105,030.

I don't mind the storage, I hate to flatten all that work. As soon as I do, I see what I should have done.

ClaudiaA Loc: Venice, FL

must have pushed the button to hard! How do I get the repeats out?

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

DON'T FLATTEN, IMO.
For the most part all PSD files will grow as you edit, TIFF even more, the biggest jump IMO is duplicating the background layer, doubles the file size right away, which I do most of the time just in case I screw something up. Also as you become more experienced you'll find certain layers can be deleted when no longer needed depending on what they were used for, even the copy of the background layer if you haven't made any direct changed to it can be deleted. Till then, buy bigger external storage drives...GB & TB size drives are pretty cheap considering.
I never flatten a file cause you never know when you may want or have to change something. Layers is one of many things that makes PS so powerful. Why get rid of them.
In fact, when about to print, If my test print is too dark which it is at times,
I'll use CTRL+ALT+SHIFT +E (NOT Merge visible) while the top most layer selected, it will crunch all visible layers (without Flattening) and create a new top layer that I will set it to screen mode and then lowering the opacity to about 25%. which will lighten the final print, once I'm done printing I delete that layer.

Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

Duplicating a pixel layer increases file size significantly.

Adding a blank layer and copying pixels to it increases file size.

Adding adjustment layers (levels, curves, hue/sat, etc.) has little or no effect on file size.

So, it's not the number of layers that affects size, it's the content of each added layer.

ClaudiaA Loc: Venice, FL

I realize that, but can't figure out how 12 pic vs 56 pic handled the same way could end up with those numbers. Must be something about the complicated little petals on the Dahlias.

Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

Just as my cameras always capture the same image dimensions in pixels, the actual storage space needed for the raw files to represent those image pixels will vary from capture to capture. The following 2 images are from the same 16mp camera. The top takes 24MB raw storage and the bottom only 17MB. They have the exact same image dimensions, but one uses 30% less storage.
Knowing exactly why will not keep me awake at night. :)

If you want to know how much each layer adds to your psd files, make a copy of the psd and in your copy delete layers one at a time. Watch how the file size indicator at the bottom of the screen changes with each deletion.