photomerge creates huge dng files

[elfelm]

LR classic 8 (2019) - when I'm done with a project I convert to lossy dng for archiving.  files are usually around 14MB.

If I used LR to produce a [photomerge] - [hdr] the file becomes average 165MB.  Attempts to convert this .dng to lossy .dng do not result in any file size savings.  

A .tif with zip compression is better at 40MB (export using LR) - but requires a few more steps.

and export as a high jpeg the size is about 15MB as expected.

Is there a way to get the convert to dng process to work as expected ?

[john beardsworth]

Get a bigger hard drive and stop worrying about file sizes. Seriously.

Lossy DNGs are lossy because you've thrown away image data. They have their uses, but if you re-edit images in future you won't have as much image data available. The merged DNG contains raw data, so one would expect it to be bigger.

[JohanElzenga]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/john+beardsworth  wrote

Get a bigger hard drive and stop worrying about file sizes. Seriously.

Lossy DNGs are lossy because you've thrown away image data. They have their uses, but if you re-edit images in future you won't have as much image data available. The merged DNG contains raw data, so one would expect it to be bigger.

AFAIK, the merged DNG does not contain raw data anymore. They contain linear demosaiced data. That is exactly the reason why the DNG becomes so big. Raw data are one color channel per pixel. Demosaiced data are all three color channels per pixel.

[elfelm]

Thanks for that - so if i want a reduced and lossy version I should export as a different file type. 

[GoldingD]

"Is there a way to get the convert to dng process to work as expected ?"

Huh? That is exactly what is expected, large files with lots of dynamic range.