Big file size increase of images when using denoise

Discuss Photomator and photo editing.
User avatar

2022-09-27 15:47:11

I have a bunch of JPG files, each one about 5MB large.
When doing any color adjustments or other edit, the linked image from PP on icloud stays around same size as the original, so about 5MB. That makes sense.

Now after using denoise, the file size increases to over 60MB. So the size is about 12 x the original file size.
This only happens when using denoise. I tried with other files and it always increases the file to over 60MB.

is this normal behavior? Just curious why with denoise files get so massively large? I haven't tried this with raw files. Does it mean a 30MB raw file would create an additional linked file of 360MB for each image when using denoise on them?
User avatar

2022-09-28 10:34:22

Good one to see
User avatar

2022-10-06 11:40:49

by denisbkk I have a bunch of JPG files, each one about 5MB large.
When doing any color adjustments or other edit, the linked image from PP on icloud stays around same size as the original, so about 5MB. That makes sense.

Now after using denoise, the file size increases to over 60MB. So the size is about 12 x the original file size.
This only happens when using denoise. I tried with other files and it always increases the file to over 60MB.

is this normal behavior? Just curious why with denoise files get so massively large? I haven't tried this with raw files. Does it mean a 30MB raw file would create an additional linked file of 360MB for each image when using denoise on them?
Yes, this is normal behaviour. Pixelmator creates a sidecar file when you use non-destructive editing options. This is a wrapper that can contain a variety of other files, such as metadata, thumbnails and a full size TIFF version inside the "xxx.photo" file. As TIFFs are uncompressed files, they can be huge, my 28MB Nikon Raw images can typically reach 150-200MB, depending on what edits and effects you apply to an image.

Try the resolution upscaler tool too, that does a similar thing.

It's not uncommon though, my record is using Affinity Photo, which got one of my images up to 300MB.

My only solution to this is to carry out my edits, and once I'm happy they are finished, I save the image to wherever it's ending up (mine are all stored inside my Photos library), then I delete the sidecar file.

Using an iPad, it's only possible to store on local storage (the iPad's internal storage), or on iCloud (so whatever space you have available there). In my case it's 512GB on the iPad, or 2TB in iCloud. My library is almost 1TB, so it's obvious that editing large numbers of images using Pixelmator, and keeping them non-destructive simply isn't practical, or eventually possible.

It's a shame there isn't a way round this. It's certainly possible to not need such large files, but then you start to affect performance, as images have to be completely re-rendered every time you use them. Although for viewing, a standard Hi-Res JPEG would be sufficient.

This could certainly do with some user options.

Cheers.