Photoshop CS6: 2 GB file saving limit??

[lukaswerth]

Yesterday I worked on a stitched panorama in Photoshop CS6. The Panorama was stitched from 5 files (raw from Nikon d800e), 7 if those are included which I introduced manually, and not only did the program crash on me 2 times when I was working with the brush tool (never happened before), when I wanted to save my work with 5 or six layers (not only adjustment, but with content), Photoshop said the 2 GB saving limit was exceeded. So I had to flatten the image before saving it.

I am somewhat flabbergasted because of this. Is there a way to get around this? (I work on a PC, 12GB RAM, 64 bit Windows 7) After all, what do you do if you work with files from a Phase one camera with 180 MP? Or if you stitch more files together?

And, have others also encountered Photoshop crashing on them with big files?

Lukas

[pnodrog]

Assuming you are using 7 images sized 6720*3776 images with a 50% overlap and 16 bits/channel each layer will be over 0.5 GB. To stay under the 2 GB limit you probably need to limit yourself to 3 layers (maybe plus a few adjustment layers with masks) to be able to save it all.

I am interested in how you plan to use the resulting image.

[davidedric]

I believe that this is a PSD format limitation. I understand that the PSB format was created by Adobe to get around this limit, but that is all I know.

Dave

[Polar01]

You could try saving as a Photoshop Large Format File(PSB) or a Tiff. I saw a shot a little while ago that was 27 shots, 3 banks of 9 shots each with a D800. Now I have come across the same problem as you are now finding, but 27 shots with a D800, how the hell did he do it? So I e-mailed the photographer Kevin Raber from The Luminous Landscape and he replied once through ACR and into Photoshop to get them to look how I wanted, I saved them as high quality j-pegs then stitched no problems.
That was one thing I never had thought of, converting to jpegs on a shot that large, even if throwing away about 2/3 of the date you have a 36MP shot now down to 12MP still lots to work with.

Cheers: Allan

[chauncey]

When you go to "save as" it gives you the option of file format...open the file type and choose the PSB option.

[Manfred M]

When I shoot large panos on my D800, I flatten the image after Photoshop has finished stitching (and I've cleaned up any minor issues). I really don't need all of the individual layers anymore, and the only things I lose by going this route are I bake in my white balance and gamma. I use the ProPhoto colour space, so preserve colour data that way.

If I need to start over, restitching all of the images really does not take all that long and I think I've only done that once.

[lukaswerth]

Thank you for your answers; I must look into the PSB format.
What I tried to do was to save my workflow which I had completed so far in order to continue later to work on the image. Instead I couldn't save, Photoshop crashed, lost about 2 hours of work. Well, never mind that.
Allan, with regard to Kevin Raber, that is certainly a possibility to stitch a large file, but I think it is far from satisfying. I can imagine from the stand 10 things you can't do any more once you stitched jpegs together - too much loss of data, and you just can't do everything in ACR or when working on single files.

Manfred, this is basically also my workflow, but I started adding layers on the stitched and flattened file. With regard to stitchin not taking time, this https://www.flickr.com/photos/lukaswerth/14672541819/
panorama (it is one from 4 files, even if the format doesn't indicate) I had to completely stitch by hand in PS, after both photomerge in PS and Hugin had let me down.

And L.Paul, I am hesitant and feel embarrassed to reply that I am not certain whether I am going to use the picture in question at all, because now since I have been working on it, I simply can't seem to bring the magic into it which I thought I saw when I exposed the frames.

Lukas

[chauncey]

What I tried to do was to save my workflow which I had completed so far in order to continue later to work on the image.
Instead I couldn't save, Photoshop crashed, lost about 2 hours of work

Lukas, it would appear that you need to spend some time in the Preference's menu.

I have 22 of RAM with PS using 85%, history states set @ 50, and cache levels is 6.
I save my recovery information every 5 minutes. How's your video processor?

[Manfred M]

How's your video processor?

Other than some fairly simiple animations, Photoshop does not use it for any processmg; so any very basic graphics card is more than sufficient.

Premiere Pro and After Effects, on the other hand, make significant use of nVidia's processor cards using the Cuda software. Here the use of the right graphics card really speeds up processing.

[proseak]

"Mercury Graphics Engine

The Mercury Graphics Engine (MGE) represents features that use video card processor, or GPU, acceleration. In Photoshop CS6, this new engine delivers near-instant results when editing with key tools such as Liquify, Warp, Lighting Effects, and the Oil Paint filter. The new MGE delivers unprecedented responsiveness for a fluid feel as you work.


MGE is new to Photoshop CS6 and uses both the OpenGL and OpenCL frameworks. It does not use the proprietary CUDA framework from nVidia.


MGE requires a supported video card and updated driver. If you do not have a supported card, performance is degraded. In most cases, the acceleration is lost and the feature runs in the normal CPU mode. However, there are some features that don't work without a supported video card."

from here - http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/...6-gpu-faq.html

[Manfred M]

Thanks Peter; tools I rarely use, so I guess I missed it. It's nice to see that they are finally coding some functions into Cuda. But, again, very limited use to most users unless they are taking weight off a model and getting into trouble with the "waistline police"; i.e. the liquify tool. Warp I use on very rare occasions as well, the other two I can't recall ever using.

Back to the subject at hand; panos. No impact.

Somewhere or other I have an unlock tool that lets the user use any Cuda card; if I can find where I have stored it, I'll post the link,

[proseak]

"MGE is new to Photoshop CS6 and uses both the OpenGL and OpenCL frameworks. It does not use the proprietary CUDA framework from nVidia."

[Manfred M]

"MGE is new to Photoshop CS6 and uses both the OpenGL and OpenCL frameworks. It does not use the proprietary CUDA framework from nVidia."

Thanks - I think I have things figured out (my situation is a bit more complex, as I subscribe to the whole Creative Suite, not just Photoshop.

The good news appears to be that Adobe has recoded much of the Mercury Playback Engine so that it uses OpenCL and OpenCl, rather than Cuda for hardware acceleration. It was always had two modes; hardware and software, where hardware meant using specific nVidia grapic cards that used the Cuda platform to enable processing using the graphics processor.

With the re-write, both AMD and nVidia cards can be used and they've removed the restriction on specific cards, even though not all cards have been tested. The bad news is that my particular card is not compliant, so I will have to upgrade to use hardware acceleration in the two applications where this is critical to me. Photoshop continues to be a no-brainer as the functionality using the Mercury Playback Engine is quite limited and I suspect that the software version will be a touch slower than the hardware, but no big deal.

As I said in a previous post, there the pano work does not use this technaology, so no help on that front.

Again thanks for the head's up.

[lukaswerth]

Lukas, it would appear that you need to spend some time in the Preference's menu.

I have 22 of RAM with PS using 85%, history states set @ 50, and cache levels is 6.
I save my recovery information every 5 minutes. How's your video processor?

With regard to the preferences menu, I guess you are very right, but I could really do with some practical hints in this regard. What would you advise me to adjust in which way, and where to find information about this - understandable to a layman, I should add.

With regard to my video processor, I have no idea, and the Adobe website gives me no clue with regard to which one supports this Mercury Graphics engine and which not.

On a general note, I find it interesting how easily such discussions descend into a very technical language - I had never heard of CUDA, Open CL and Open GL, not of nvidia, and I really hope it is not necessary to know something abut these digital intestines in order to competently operate Photoshop. But again, some practical advises of what to go for and what to avoid in terms of hardware - or compatible software? - would be very welcome.

Lukas

[Colin Southern]

Lukas, it would appear that you need to spend some time in the Preference's menu.

I have 22 of RAM with PS using 85%, history states set @ 50, and cache levels is 6.
I save my recovery information every 5 minutes. How's your video processor?

For what it's worth, I set my history states to 1000; too low a figure and a few clicks with a brush can easily wipe out any ability to revert to an earlier state. I only set cache to 2 though, as the system doesn't seem to have to work too hard to resize the image for display when zooming.

PSB files are good for up to 4 Exobytes (That's 4000000GB!)

[Colin Southern]

With regard to the preferences menu, I guess you are very right, but I could really do with some practical hints in this regard.

Hi Lukas,

Prescription without diagnosis would be malpractice - so before I suggest anything, can you please tell me how much RAM your system has?

[lukaswerth]

Hi Lukas,

Prescription without diagnosis would be malpractice - so before I suggest anything, can you please tell me how much RAM your system has?

It has 12 GB, Windows 7 64 bit. Processor something called dual core, I don't know right now which Graphic card /video card.
(I am sitting right now at another machine.)

[Colin Southern]

Roger that.

Personally - if Photoshop is pretty much all you have running when editing - then I'd suggest setting history states to 1000 - memory usage to around 65 to 70% - and try cache levels at between 2 to 4. Tick "use GPU" if it lets you, but deselect that option if you have issues (in theory it can make a difference, but I'm yet to be convinced that it's anything significant for most of the things I do).

If it doesn't work well then you can always change them back again anyway, so "no biggie" either way.

[HaseebM]

With regard to my video processor, I have no idea, and the Adobe website gives me no clue with regard to which one supports this Mercury Graphics engine and which not.

On a general note, I find it interesting how easily such discussions descend into a very technical language - I had never heard of CUDA, Open CL and Open GL, not of nvidia, and I really hope it is not necessary to know something abut these digital intestines in order to competently operate Photoshop. But again, some practical advises of what to go for and what to avoid in terms of hardware - or compatible software? - would be very welcome.

Lukas

Nvidia 600 or 700 series would do just fine. Not sure if Graphic acceleration would help you but I never had a computer without a graphics card. My main specs:-

16 GB 1600mhz Ram.
560Ti Nvidia
i5 @4.20 ghz ( four cores )
CoolerMaster HAF32 with 2 180mm fans, 1 120mm fan and 2 80mm fans.

I am ready for CS6 as soon as I get the hang of PSE 9 and PSP X6.