« Sidecar » .photo, file size

[Demys]

Hello, since the last two week I’m facing a strange behavior with the size of the .photo sidecar files.



Until now, the files had almost the same size as the raw file, around 50 mo in my case, but know they save at a fraction of this, somewhere around 2mo, which in fact is so much better, but what I don’t understand is why some of my file keep using the old big size, even when I’m doing the same simple edit on all my raw, coming from the same camera with the same setup, some are saved with file around 1-2mo and some around 50mo. You can see an example with the attached image, same king of picture, identical edit, but very different size.







Did you changed something in the way file are saved and store, and why can’t I get the same result between picture, even when some are almost identical ?

[Andrius]

I would guess it's because you've used the Repair tool on those RAW photos because, at least for now, generating image data with extended dynamic range info takes up a lot of space. Does that sound like a possibility?

[Demys]

I would guess it's because you've used the Repair tool on those RAW photos because, at least for now, generating image data with extended dynamic range info takes up a lot of space. Does that sound like a possibility?

I didn't use the repair tool on those, when i use it my file goes all the way to 300mo.
In the example image there was only a crop and some exposure/contrast added on both, that's why i don't understand such a difference.

[Ricardo]

I didn't use the repair tool on those, when i use it my file goes all the way to 300mo.
In the example image there was only a crop and some exposure/contrast added on both, that's why i don't understand such a difference.

I guess the smaller .PHOTO file happens when you use copy and paste adjustments between images, but if you open a raw file and make edits it will generate a .PHOTO file of the same size as the original.

[Demys]

Hi, i didn't use the copy/paste adjustment on those, i just opened them, added a little crop and color correction, and that's all.

Nobody at Pixelmator could explain why is this happening ?

[Andrius]

Apologies, I didn't see you'd responded! This is, in fact, normal — along with the original RAW files inside the .PHOTO file, the files also have a separate edited image with Pixelmator Photo image data, so that leads to this doubling in size. We know this could be improved and it's something we plan to work on in the future. The 2MB files are actually the ones where something isn't quite right (if they are indeed RAW photos). Would you be able to share a sample file with us at support@pixelmator.com?