Really fat Photoshop file?

[Vellum]

So how does this flatten file actually work in practice. Let me see if I can ask this correctly. If I save a file with all its associated layers etc as a "base file" (one with all elements intact) and then flatten it. Say I work on the flattened image but I need to correct something or modify the base file, I then loose all the work placed on the flattened image, so what's the advantage? I understand flattening and lowering resolution for finished product but I really don't have a handle on it for in progress work. Anyone care to explain that a bit more? Jax I get the idea of multiple file save increments

[Jaxilon]

So how does this flatten file actually work in practice. Let me see if I can ask this correctly. If I save a file with all its associated layers etc as a "base file" (one with all elements intact) and then flatten it. Say I work on the flattened image but I need to correct something or modify the base file, I then loose all the work placed on the flattened image, so what's the advantage? I understand flattening and lowering resolution for finished product but I really don't have a handle on it for in progress work. Anyone care to explain that a bit more? Jax I get the idea of multiple file save increments

While you could use the "flatten" feature and slam everything down to one layer what I usually try to do first is just "merge down" as many layers as I can while still leaving me some room to modify things. For example, I might merge all my forest layers or my mountains or anything I am not planning on changing again. Doing this I might take 15 layers and reduce them to 8 or something. I then 'save as..' to a new file name that I work on from then on.

Now, lets say you needed to go back to your original to make a change you couldn't make on your new version. You would open up the original, make the changes, turn off all the unmodified layers and then save or cut paste only the layers you needed back into the new version, getting rid of the layers they replace of course. That is like worse case scenario though. If you are like me, I'm a layer hoarder so you may find you don't miss all those extra layers.

That's just how I've done it in the past, I'm sure there are some folks here who do it quite often and they may have some better methods. I do know it will take a huge file size and greatly reduce it. Just make sure that when you merge down your layers it looks correct because mergeing down doesn't always act the way you would expect. If it doesn't look right just undo the last merge and that's as far as you can go merging that particular layer.

I hope this helps.