
The best conclusion that can be drawn is that PSD is certainly more efficient at smaller file sizes while quickly becoming a worse option at larger ones. With a larger, multi-layer file that approached the PSD limit you can see a much different story: PSDs dominance in efficiency, however, appears to diminish as the file size increases. In this situation PSD offers much better efficiency when saving the same file. For example, I opened one of my photo stitch files that enjoy a healthy 10,000 px by 6668 px resolution and saved both. The distinction isn't quite as clear-cut though as PSD seems to do a better job compressing small images. The first, and most obvious conclusion we can draw from this comparison is that PSDs appears to be objectively worse than a TIFF file as both are supported in Lightroom but the PSD offers a far smaller ceiling. Each has its own merits so I have constructed a handy little table below to compare them. The three formats Photoshop offers that preserve all your working data are Photoshop Document (PSD), Large Document Format (PSB), and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). The first step to keeping your files at a manageable size is in choosing what format you should actually be saving your files in. All is not lost, however, there are some pretty easy strategies for eliminating this problem without having to flatten your working file into destructive nothingness. This is a problem that photographers are continually faced with that can become insanely annoying. After spending many, long painstaking hours diligently working in Photoshop you are greeted with the horror that your file cannot be saved because it's too large. You just finished working on what may be your coolest photo ever. We now are faced with file size limits that are becoming more and more restrictive as cameras collect bigger and bigger chunks of data with every photo. Times have changed, and unfortunately the formats have not. Each was designed many years ago for photos made by cameras with single-digit resolution. All that by (IMHO) negligible visual difference.There was a time when file limits were considered near impossible to reach ceilings.
