affinity photo - from raw to another editable file

[VirginiaL]

Hi you all,

 

I would like to have a suggestion for the management of files

I am editing some raw files (each 32 mb) but once saving them in a afphoto format - with few modifications, I would need more than 10 gb of space... which editable format is much more compressed and manageable?

 

thank you!

X

[Old Bruce]

5 minutes ago, VirginiaL said:

I am editing some raw files (each 32 mb) but once saving them in a afphoto format - with few modifications, I would need more than 10 gb of space...

Modifications can mean layers with masks which can add up to a much larger files size as will saving them as 32 bit files instead of 8 or 16 bit files. I recommend using 16 bits for the output from the Develop persona if you intend to do more editing. Also it could be that you have scaled it up somehow, unlikely though.

I am of course assuming that you mean one 32 mb raw file is saved as one 10+ gb Affinity file. Your sentence could be read as meaning (an unknown total number) some files need 10+ gb space in total.

[VirginiaL]

Hi Old Bruce,

yes correct I was  not precise, each 32 mb becomes 300 mb / 250 mb by only adding two layers of contrast or exposure.

No scale, nothing more than this, but since they are a lot of photos, it is too much the increment.

I try as you suggested, thank you very much

 

ps. at the moment is 16 bit, I try 8 bit

pps. it saved only 7 mb. Are there other possibilities?

[walt.farrell]

I think your first consideration should be whether you're developiing to RGB/32 or RGB/16. That's controlled in the Assistant Manager. You probably don't need RGB/32, so initially I would suggest changing it to RGB/16.

Next, you might not even need RGB/16. Perhaps your images will work as RGB/8, and you can make that conversion using the Document > Convert Format option in Photo.

Next, if you're Saving .afphoto files, you can look in the Snapshots panel (View > Studio > Snapshots if it's not already showing) and you can delete the initial Snapshot that Photo automatically creates. That will save a significant amount of space.

Finally, use File > Save As and save the .afphoto file under a new name (or Save should work if this is the first Save operation), and now see how big the file is.

If they are still too big, you could consider Exporting as a TIFF file with some form of compression chosen. TIFF compression is lossless, meaning you won't lose any data. Of course, you will have a flattened file, with no layers, and so various edits you've made will be "baked" into the file, and you won't be able to adjust them easily later. That's the advantage of saving the native .afphoto format. But the choice is yours between editability and file size.

To really save more space you could Export as JPG, but JPG files use a lossy form of compression that throws away some of your data.

[VirginiaL]

Hi Walt,

thanks a lot first. I saved to 8bit from 16 bit but I obtained only 7 mb less.

EUREKA-  Second test: by removing snapshot + 8bit transformation -> + save as -> 140 mb LESS!!

Thank you sooo much 😍

 

[lphilpot]

10 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Next, if you're Saving .afphoto files, you can look in the Snapshots panel (View > Studio > Snapshots if it's not already showing) and you can delete the initial Snapshot that Photo automatically creates. That will save a significant amount of space.

Just out of curiosity I deleted the background snapshot as a test on several files and on many of them the new size was actually larger by a bit. I haven't made any configuration changes that would impact file size, but looks like a little detective work will be in order. Unfortunately, I don't have before / after copies of the files, but there were several that definitely went up - One was 180MB and now it's 203MB. Weird. A couple went down by a tiny amount but they weren't large in the first place (less than 100MB). Adjustment and live layers will really build file size.

[walt.farrell]

9 hours ago, lphilpot said:

Just out of curiosity I deleted the background snapshot as a test on several files and on many of them the new size was actually larger by a bit. I haven't made any configuration changes that would impact file size, but looks like a little detective work will be in order.

If the files had been previously saved, you would need to use Save As and a new filename in order to recover previously used space in the file that was no longer needed.

[lphilpot]

Hmmm... interesting, thanks. Most of the files shed maybe 10% to 15% but a couple that had several adjustment and / or pixel layers dropped to 20% - 25% of their previous size. That's a huge savings.

I've looked but not found it, but I'll ask anyway - Is there a way to configure Photo to simply not save any snapshots at all? I understand their utility, but I've also worked in countless programs for 35+ years that had no such recovery method. As a result I never became dependent on it and wouldn't miss it if absent.

[walt.farrell]

29 minutes ago, lphilpot said:

Is there a way to configure Photo to simply not save any snapshots at all?

No, as far as I know.