PK Sharpener - File size concerns

[Michael H. Cothran]

I just purchased PK sharpener last week. My concern and inquiry is on the (large) file sizes that the sharpening layer produces. The first file that I tried it on was 521 mb's in 16 bit. My intent was to add two Creative sharpening layers, one with a masked Narrow edge for one area, and one with a masked Medium edge for another area of the image. Adding one layer increased my file size to 1.5 Gb, and adding the second layer pushed it up to 3.3 Gb. You can imagine the amount of crunching time required on my 10yo Mac G4 (even with an upgraded 1.8 Gz processor). At my age, I don't have that much time to donate.  

Is this normal for the PK sharpening layers to be this enormous? Is the software producing duplicate background layers for the sharpening?
Wow! was I ever surprised.
I'm sure a quad G5 might solve most of this problem, but it would cause (financial) problems elsewhere.  

Michael H. Cothran
Nashville, Tennessee

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi!

Your files seem to be pretty large. You don't happen to have unnecessarily high resolution?

Best regards
Erik

I just purchased PK sharpener last week. My concern and inquiry is on the (large) file sizes that the sharpening layer produces. The first file that I tried it on was 521 mb's in 16 bit. My intent was to add two Creative sharpening layers, one with a masked Narrow edge for one area, and one with a masked Medium edge for another area of the image. Adding one layer increased my file size to 1.5 Gb, and adding the second layer pushed it up to 3.3 Gb. You can imagine the amount of crunching time required on my 10yo Mac G4 (even with an upgraded 1.8 Gz processor). At my age, I don't have that much time to donate.  

Is this normal for the PK sharpening layers to be this enormous? Is the software producing duplicate background layers for the sharpening?
Wow! was I ever surprised.
I'm sure a quad G5 might solve most of this problem, but it would cause (financial) problems elsewhere.  

Michael H. Cothran
Nashville, Tennessee

[PeterAit]

I just purchased PK sharpener last week. My concern and inquiry is on the (large) file sizes that the sharpening layer produces. The first file that I tried it on was 521 mb's in 16 bit. My intent was to add two Creative sharpening layers, one with a masked Narrow edge for one area, and one with a masked Medium edge for another area of the image. Adding one layer increased my file size to 1.5 Gb, and adding the second layer pushed it up to 3.3 Gb. You can imagine the amount of crunching time required on my 10yo Mac G4 (even with an upgraded 1.8 Gz processor). At my age, I don't have that much time to donate.  

Is this normal for the PK sharpening layers to be this enormous? Is the software producing duplicate background layers for the sharpening?
Wow! was I ever surprised.
I'm sure a quad G5 might solve most of this problem, but it would cause (financial) problems elsewhere.  

Michael H. Cothran
Nashville, Tennessee

Once you have the effect you want, flatten the image. The changes become permanent but the file size will revert to what it was originally.

[digitaldog]

Adding layers makes your files larger. Nothing you can do about that. I’d never flatten a master with any output sharpening layers because you’ll use different sharpening for different needs. You could in theory flatten capture sharpening if the larger files are really a burden but no back door here. If you’re happy with the creative sharpening, again, like any creative work on a layer, you can flatten if you wish.

There’s no free lunch here. You either have big honking files but everything can be altered or changed, or you flatten and you burn the edits into the document. PKS gives you layers to make the decision on your own.

[Schewe]

I'm sure a quad G5 might solve most of this problem, but it would cause (financial) problems elsewhere.

Hate to tell ya but Apple quit selling the G5 about 4 yeas ago...they are now MacPro's with Intel chips which compared to your G4 is light-speed in difference...

The facts are, as Andrew pointed out, multiple layer large high resolution files are, well, big honking files...there is no magic sauce you can add that will change that. There are methods of mitigating the file size creep (or jump)...I tend to keep the Background layer plus one on top...then when I work on stuff I'll merge down to that top layer while leaving the Background intact (retouched and spotted mind you, but essentially unaltered).

I also agree with Andrew that that would hold true for capture and creative sharpening but I will stack multiple output sharpening (and deal with the file size) because I don't want output sharpening in my master file...

If time is of importance to you, I gotta tell you even a Mac Mini (filled with ram) would knock the crap out of a G4 these days...