1. A system for encoding light field image data as a light field image file, comprising: a processor; and memory containing an encoding application and light field image data, where the light field image data comprises a plurality of low resolution images of a scene captured from different viewpoints; wherein the encoding application configures the processor to: synthesize a higher resolution image of the scene from a reference viewpoint using the low resolution images, where synthesizing the higher resolution image involves creating a depth map that specifies depths from the reference viewpoint for pixels in the higher resolution image and the higher resolution image has a higher resolution than the low resolution images; encode the higher resolution image; and create a light field image file including the encoded image and metadata describing the encoded image, where the metadata includes the depth map.