Comments on: Non-destructive raw editing with Smart Objects

By: Ted Dillard

Ted Dillard — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:12:49 +0000

I KNEW it! :)
I’ve been telling classes for years now that I’d suspected the RAW processing SO thing was kind of a bonus!
Great stuff, John!

By: Daniel Schmidt

Daniel Schmidt — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 16:30:53 +0000

The actual problem with a flat 16-bit PSD file is that it is saved using no compression at all (I know, backwards compatibility).
So only this makes 12% look rather small, but being a bit of a unfair comparison. :)
But the same mistake seems to happen again with the 32 bit PSD files. These also aren’t compressed at all, and this really hurts. So future Photoshop versions that maybe support 32 bit layered PSD files (hint) will again have to save the flattened composite image uncompressed for backward compatibility.

By: John Nack

John Nack — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 15:43:39 +0000

Being able to choose whether to embed the raw file or just link to it would be cool, but you might be surprised about the actual cost of embedding. Because raw data hasn’t yet been processed into RGB, it can be much smaller than converted data. I just experimented with a 16MP shot from a 1Ds Mk II. It’s 11.7MB on disk when raw, and 95.1MB as a flat, 16-bit PSD. So embedding the raw data would mean only about a 12% increase in file size. This process would also make it possible to archive your raw data & edits to it together with the converted data (better than leaving them trapped in some proprietary database).

By: John Beardsworth

John Beardsworth — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 15:18:55 +0000

I’ve also heard a lot of talk recently about non destructive editing of raw files….
The disadvantage of this smart objects method is file size. So what about (optionally) removing this need to embed the raw file in your working file? The saved PSD might consist of a simple link to your raw file, plus any adjustment layers and any dust spotting and other selection-based pixel layers. Open the PSD file and Photoshop calls up the raw file dynamically. Smaller PSD files would only really contain processing instructions, separating the performances from the score?