Adobe makes a DNG Converter to convert camera manufacturer-specific RAW formats into DNG format. It supports both lossy and lossless compression and up to 32-bit floating point. DNGĭNG is Adobe's Digital Negative format for RAW files. Let’s go over a few common file formats and their limitations-keep in mind that a file format might be able to hold a larger image than your program can read. Sometimes it is confusing to figure out what is a program limitation and what is a file format limitation. Other programs will have their own image size limitations.
This is probably a limitation of Camera RAW, the engine underneath Lightroom’s hood. For example: 32,000 x 16,000 is the largest 2:1 equirectangular spherical panorama you can work on in Lightroom and fit under 512 megapixels. Lightroom also has a silly limitation of 512 megapixels for an image regardless of the longest side, which makes things very frustrating for a panoramic photographer. Lightroom is a lot more restrictive at 65,535 pixels along the greatest side.
Photoshop internally supports a maximum image size of 300,000 x 300,000 pixels or 90 gigapixels (assuming you have enough RAM!), but very few file types support this insane size. Let’s talk about application limitations first. Photoshop & LightroomĪpplications and file formats both have their own set of limitations when it comes to pixel dimensions and file sizes. I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned while dealing with such large images that might help other panoramic photographers struggling with poorly documented limitations of various file types and their compatibility between common applications. I’ve been working with some very large 5+ gigapixel panoramas lately.