Why Are File Sizes So Large For Upscaled Gigapixel Images?

I just upscaled a bunch of images and admittedly they were already large images so now they are 13000x19000 after upscaling. Each image is now approximately 1GB in size which is pretty ridiculous. I ran the images through XnConvert and it lowered the file sizes down to about 7MB each and it seems to have not lost any image quality (I’m viewing on an 8K TV). Why are the file sizes so huge when using Gigapixel when they don’t have to be.

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Did you ever find out why? I came here with the same question.

sorry for the late reply. i haven’t figured out why. I can say that with the newest iteration of Gigapixel it isn’t as bad. Now it seems to depends on how much you are enlarging so for example if my source photo is 3MB and i decided to do a 2x enlargement then it will now be 6MB, if I do 3x then it will be 9MB. It has definitely gotten better with the newer versions. And as I mentioned in my original post there is the option of using XnConvert to shrink the file size without losing much quality. Although, it seems lately that that program has gotten worse. I’ve used it for a few photo sets and it actually either doesn’t shrink the file or it makes the file size a tiny bit larger.

I came here for this topic too… I used to have a 2x upscale about 7k x 10k pixels and it about around 20mb. Now I have to upscale similar images 6x and they end up over 500mb. I don’t understand what changed?? i can’t work with files that large…

Same problem here, any solution guys ?

Hi. I’m having this problem also. When i process a 54MB file in Gigapixel and upscale it 3X i somehow end up with a 450 (or so) MB file. I resized it on export from Lightroom Classic at 24"x36" - the print i’m making - and it cut the MB about in half, down to 225 or something like that. I was originally doing the 4X and “Max” upscaling and coming up with wild file sizes - 5.4GB.
So i guess that’s sjust the nature of the beast. I’ve been outputting a 300DPI. i guess i could go to 250? Would like to have a smaller file still with all that information, but it seems it may not be possible. Any thoughts anyone?

When you upscale a 54MB image 3x you’ll end up with an image about 486 MB because you increase both the width and height by 3x giving you an overall size increase of 9X (3 x 3 =9, a 4x upscale gives you an increase to 16x etc.) Changing the DPI won’t change you filesize but will make it print at a bigger size.

Hi Paul, Thanks a lot for explaining this to me! Although I’m a long time photographer selling my work i’ve always been light on many of the technical aspects (I almost flunked algebra in high school!). Since a customer had ordered a 24"x36" print I thought I’d try upscaling and sharpening it in Gigapixel instead of trying to just sharpen it in my old Sharpen AI. I don’t know if that was a proper way to go about it or if there may have been a better option.

I have my printing done at Bay Photo and i think I saw somewhere they advise to send on the larger file instead of “sizing” it when exporting out of LRc. As I said, by sizing it to the print size it did cut the file size in half. Do you have any opinion/knowledge on which might be the better file size to send on for printing. I may call Bay Monday and ask them but wondering if you have any thoughts? Appreciate what you’ve shared! Now i see how it got into that crazy GB size!

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If you want to print at 24" x 36" @300PPI, all you need to do is make sure your image is at least 7200px x 10800px and send that to your print service. Depending on the original size you might not need to upscale as much as 3x.

Once again, thank you for sharing your knowledge! I might finally begin to understand sizing now!

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