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Bob Morecraft
Participant
May 27, 2017
Answered

Best way to work and manage a very large composite

  • May 27, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 307 views

Has anyone com up with a easy way to make and work with a very large composite?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer davescm

    What problems are you having in constructing this?

    In general terms :

    1. Label your layers with meaningful names

    2. Use layer groups and label the groups

    3. As you build up a large piece of work, save it incrementally as a PSD (or PSB if it is very large). By incrementally I mean filename001 ; filename002 .....etc. It will save you from posting on here with , "my file with a week of work is now corrupt what do I do..?.".

    4. Consider your final output and viewing distance and don't work in an unnecessarily high resolution (you don't need 300dpi for a poster that will be viewed from 25 feet away)

    Dave

    3 replies

    B
    Bob MorecraftAuthor
    Participant
    May 28, 2017

    Thanks trying my first large composit. Keep you all posted

    Chuck Uebele
    Community Expert
    Chuck UebeleCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 27, 2017

    Depending on what you're doing and compositing, try using auxiliary files to save layered work, which means do your composite in many files, saving parts of your composites for possible future editing. Then use a flatten version of those auxiliary files in your final composite to keep the size down and editing speed up.

    davescm
    Community Expert
    davescmCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    May 27, 2017

    What problems are you having in constructing this?

    In general terms :

    1. Label your layers with meaningful names

    2. Use layer groups and label the groups

    3. As you build up a large piece of work, save it incrementally as a PSD (or PSB if it is very large). By incrementally I mean filename001 ; filename002 .....etc. It will save you from posting on here with , "my file with a week of work is now corrupt what do I do..?.".

    4. Consider your final output and viewing distance and don't work in an unnecessarily high resolution (you don't need 300dpi for a poster that will be viewed from 25 feet away)

    Dave

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 27, 2017

    The main thing, as Dave pointed out: you don't necessarily need 300 ppi. People will tell you that you do; don't listen to them. Very often that's just a misunderstanding.

    My rule of thumb is that anything over 15 000 pixels long side is probably overkill.

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