P: Support cataloging PSB files

[alanterra]

Lightroom should catalog psb files, just as it does psd files. I have many psb files that are not over the 65,000 pixels per side or 512 megapixel limits, but are larger than the 4GB limit on psd files, and it would be nice to see them in Lightroom.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

3 years later,... can't believe this is still not fixed!
really?? You first make up a (great) file format and now you don't support it. 
unbelievable. ☹️

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I've been using Adobe products professionally for almost 20 years now.  I've made many feature requests over the years (e.g. dark interface, macbeth card profile tool, custom panels - to name a few) and they've typically taken years to show up in a release (Photoshop / Lightroom).  I've never seen a feature request, as essential and intuitive as 'support PSB in Lightroom', go unrecognized and blatantly ignored like we've seen here.

The PSB format is widely used by many users and the request for Adobe Lightroom to support this feature has been around for 7+ years.  Many users use Lightroom as their cataloging software.  Now, not only does Adobe seem to be readying Lightroom for dismantling with the shift to a 'Classic' release, it continues to lag behind in features.  The notion that 3rd party developers (i.e. C1 Pro) support this functionality and Adobe does not, speaks volumes as to Adobe's priorities and practical common sense.  Advanced and Professional users are not a priority to them or we would see the PSB file format supported in Lightroom.  The notion of supporting their own file format is apparently worthy of completely ignoring... for years.

It's certainly time to steer our ships away from Adobe and look to more suitable solutions.

[StevenMColorado]

On that note, what other softwares do people recommend that have the full cataloging capabilities and editing tools like Lightroom? Thanks.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Capture One Pro https://www.phaseone.com/en/Products/Software/Capture-One-Pro/Highlights.aspx

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hey Steve, I've been testing other solutions outside of LR. There are a ton on the market now, but they all have their own caveats:

• OnOne Photo Raw can read .PSB files, but in my opinion lacks a lot of professional RAW editing features that LR has, for example camera profiles. I think the sharpening is terrible right now. But I like that you can also just use it as a file browser (no cataloging required) just like Adobe Bridge. Overall, OnOne has been listening to feedback and making constant updates, so there's hope...
• Capture One doesn't recognize .PSB files. It's awesome for tethering, but I hate the overall C1 workflow. If you simply want to open a RAW file in Photoshop, you can do so, but it automatically creates a .psd file and ads it to your working folder, thus creating more files. So if you decide that you don't want to work on that file in Photoshop, you've still created an additional file for no reason. Though, it offers Cataloging abilities, I just use this tool for tethering.
• ACDSEE is something I just briefly tried out. It's nice because it works as a file browser similar to Adobe Bridge. But my initial impressions is that it felt a little slow
• Luminar 2018 by Macphun (software developers from NIK Software) looks interesting, but it's not out yet.
• The only other one I know of is Exposure by Alienskin software. I haven't used it yet. Looks very similar to LR and I know some pro's using this software. I need to look into this one to learn more about it.

Bottom line, there are a lot more options now than there used to be. Everyone likes to work a little differently and has features that they can and can't live without. For now, I keep going back to LR, but it sure would be nice if they would add .PSB support. The easiest work around that I've found to at least get to your PSB files from LR is to right click on the folder and select "Show in Finder" (on a mac). This will at least open the folder and then you can double click on PSB files to open them.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Catalog large files even if editing is not possible. I recently produced my first gigapixel image only to discover it was too big for Lightroom. Even if understandable, LR cannot process such a file, it would be awesome to have it cataloged so that I can find it if needed and apply keywords.

[John R Ellis]

Check out my Any File plugin, which lets you catalog any file type, including PSBs.  

[StevenMColorado]

YES!!! Just so we know it there. I don't mind having to open in photoshop, but if I could just see it . . . and Ideally export to different file types. Please adobe.

[Stephen Newport]

John, 
While your plugin is definitely appreciated, I don't want adobe to believe it is a solution. It should not be an issue to edit a large file in Lightroom, not just catalog it, especially if it is an adobe born file!

[John R Ellis]

"I don't want adobe to believe it is a solution."

I agree entirely -- a plugin can't provide nearly the convenience and ease of use as a built-in solution.  Unfortunately, this request is 6 years old, and moving forward, Adobe has indicated they'll be focusing their LR Classic efforts on performance and editing tools (not Library).  

[alanterra]

"I don't want adobe to believe it is a solution"

Stephen, it is clear that Adobe doesn't respond to hectoring. If they did, the cacophony on these pages would cause them to do anything to make us quiet.

My advice is to thank Adobe for building in an extension platform to Lightroom, support the plug-in programmers, and get on with whatever you use Lightroom for. And pray that Adobe doesn't take away functionality while we are still editing and storing photos on our personal computers. (Which for me will probably be decades).

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

+1 for me too. Many of my photos done using digital blending of multiple images and the file can get easily get over 4GB. Also I am getting may feet wet with Gigaramas and those also get pretty big in size. I cannot believe this has not been addressed yet.

All Adobe cares is how to charge for the software instead of adding useful features that photographers want. It like Adobe does not want photographers use their product.

[Guest]

This should be a non-issue, for a program that claims it does digital asset management, and doesn't support its own file format is silly!

[naestyoh]

It's officially 2018. Time to update how large the files can be in LR and Raw Converter. I have 128GB ram and a capable system. Why does LR insist I downsize my files? Why won't it recognize PSB yet? Why is the PSD capped? Why does the pano routine die if it can't fit an image. So many questions. I'm a pano guy. Please expand the limits. PLEASE make PS Camera Raw behave the same as LR. Tired of the same tools having different interactions... IE, scrollwheel in PS doesn't adjust brush size. scrollwheel in LR does adjust the brush size. Get the teams together, settle it. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

We are a high-end image production facility, and have dealt in large files as long as I can remember, with CGI, Motion and Retouching. We have dealt with professional photographers and advertising agencies for over 22 years. Lightroom is a great product for cataloging and handling files (as well as treating them), and we were hoping to use it widely to search our huge image database, but it cant read some of its own Adobe formats? We find this absurd! Even if it cant EDIT a 14gig PSB file, at least it should be able to RECOGNISE and thumbnail it! How hard is it Adobe? People have been asking here for 6 YEARS, and you have been ignoring them for 6 years. At least be polite and answer people.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I just got through to Adobe chat by pretending I had an account problem, and after being referred 3 times, I got sent a link that sent me back to these forums where Adobe is supposed to listen to support queries. Catch 22.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I've never used this particular forum before so I hope I am replying in the right place.  I'm an advanced amateur, yet I have enough image files that are important enough to me that I feel I need a database management system to support storage and post processing.  Although I have used Photoshop for decades and certainly intend to keep using it, I added Lightroom about 5 years ago primarily in order to organize my files.  Of course I also perform some initial image processing steps in LR, but I could easily use Bridge or Capture One for all that.  Adobe has been aware for over 6 years of a looming crisis in file size limits, but has chosen to do nothing so far about it.  That's at least two or three cycles of Moore's Law; it can't be a surprise to Adobe.
My basic problem is that I make complex composites with many layers, all in Photoshop.  This kind of post-processing represents considerable value added over the original raw files. I may work on a composite for several months before I stop changing it.  If I have to keep an elaborate informal system of flattened sidecar files in LR catalogues as surrogates for the Photoshop files, I am likely to stop using LR for database management.  Perhaps this is what Adobe wants, since they have now renamed LR to LR Classic and made the new LR dependent on Cloud storage.  For those of us who sometimes work in hotel rooms, this precludes using the new LR for database management.

I will try to use TIFF when I safely can to store Photoshop files, but if Adobe doesn't fix this problem in the next two years, I will change my workflow to stop using LR. I know one customer doesn't matter, but it looks like many customers have similar problems.

[StevenMColorado]

It is absurd that they are not dealing with this, as it is a major issue. I LOVE lightroom, but this issue is a major problem for many of us.

[naestyoh]

RIGHT! They could easily read the file, create a proxy and catalog the proxy and only allow edits on that. Exports would be generated from the PSB. Not sure why they are not connecting the dots here. My computer has 128GB ram. I'm fine if they say "PSB requires 64+"

[John R Ellis]

The amount of engineering effort for LR to support PSB is modest at most. The PSD and PSB formats are nearly identical, the only difference being that PSB uses 64-bit file offsets where PSD uses 32 bits. For my PSB Quick Look plugin, I modified ImageMagick's PSD module to read PSBs and only had to change less than a dozen or so lines.

LR already imposes maximum size limits on all photo types, 65,000 pixels on a side and no more than 512 megapixels, and it could impose those same limits on PSBs. (Many, if not most, people who want PSB support in LR need it because their layers cause the 2 GB/4 GB limits to be exceeded, not because they have too many pixels.)

[naestyoh]

heh. Many of my files are well over 512MP... Rodeon Pixplorer and D850 w/50mm panos... 

[John R Ellis]

Increasing the pixel limits significantly might involve much more re-engineering in LR (e.g. throughout the Camera Raw engine).

[naestyoh]

Maybe it's high time to rebuild and optimize the camera raw engine.

[Stephen Newport]

Agreed, its not like there hasn't been time to get this working, it's taken the photo industry 14 years to go from 12MP standard to 45MP standard, and that's if you totally disregard the Pro pro guys that have been shooting 60-120 for years, it basically makes Lightroom unusable for them for any sort of comp workflow. 
But the 65,000px limitation is besides the point. I can open a PSB in Lightroom if I flatten it first and save it as a compressed TIF in PS. Why can't Lightroom work with a flattened proxy so I don't have to maintain two different files and multiple saves every time I make a change to a PSB?

[John R Ellis]

"Why can't Lightroom work with a flattened proxy"

That's exactly how LR works with multi-layer PSDs.  When you have the Maximize Compatibility option checked (required to work with LR), Photoshop saves a hidden "compatibility layer" in the PSD that's a flattened copy of the image, and LR reads that compatibility layer. LR chokes on PSDs that don't have it.