Opening File Size in Photoshop

[allanb29056422]

Hi,

I searched the forum site and found some details on my issue, but not anything that actually resolved it.

NEF File size from Nikon Camera = 46MB.

Imported to Lightroom as NEF = 46MB.

Hard Drive File Size = 46MB

When I first started working with Photoshop, all files would open at the initial file size for that image.

Regardless of how I open an image in Photoshop now, it opens at approximately 4 times larger file size (e.g. 46MB file is opening as 260MB file) when viewed in the bottom left corner (i.e. doc: 260.0M/260.0M).  This just the initial opening as a single layer.

My default import to Photoshop is RGB 16-bit.

Anyone know how to resolve this so that the image opened in Photoshop is not 4 times larger than the original?

Thanks.

Regards,

Allan

[davescm · Accepted solution]

Hi

Don't confuse the file size on disk (46MB) with the RAM size shown in Photoshop (260MB).

On disk the NEF file uses 14 bits for each pixel site (less than 2 bytes) and then uses lossless compression to reduce the saved file size

Opened in Photoshop at 16 bit, each pixel site used 6 bytes - 2 for each channel of RGB. There is no compression in RAM.

So the comparison is a bit "apples and pears".

Dave

[allanb29056422]

Hi Dave, Thanks for your reply.

Making more sense now.  I wasn't grasping compression differences between image and RAM.

Thanks again for the response.  Much appreciated 🙂

Regards,

Allan

[davescm]

You're welcome

Dave

[jasonsee123]

Hello - I recently purchase a Nikon Z7ii and am having a similar issue.  When I convert the NEF file to PSD or TIFF it becomes 4-5 times larger than the NEF file (on the stored version on the hard drive....not just RAM).  Is this supposed to be happening?