Adobe Bridge

[Jelster]

Anybody here use it, and if so what do you get from it?

I have LR & PS, and am on the photographers package with Adobe, so as it's included I wanted to know whether it's worth having.

 

[troutfisher]

I find it useful if I have taken photographs and want to experiment without having to import them into LR.
I can find and open directly in PS from bridge.
I must qualify that by saying I don't do that very often and as I become more familiar with LR I do it less and less.

 

[Paulie-W]

Anybody here use it, and if so what do you get from it?

I have LR & PS, and am on the photographers package with Adobe, so as it's included I wanted to know whether it's worth having.

I always download to bridge (from card), and have a browse through what I`ve snapped. Then cull all the rubbish out. I used to open in ACR from bridge, but now with fooj, I just use it for first look see. Never liked, or got on with LR.
One thing I do like, is that it can be set to import, then to erase on completion of importing.

EDIT: There`s a new update, which on first glance has a bunch more stuff (also PS update too)

 

[Jelster]

As it's basically a catalogue app, I'm trying to work out if I need it as LR will do most of that....

 

[redhed17]

I use Bridge all the time. Firstly it gives a preview of RAW files when imported, which is all I shoot, so I can easily see what has been captured. You can add to the EXIF data, which I mainly use to to add Copyright information and status. You can also add descriptive tags, which I must say I don't do that often, even though I probably should have with the number of images I have. I also rate images, which helps to organise and cull the good ones and definite duffers. I can also use the Tools menu to open a set of images as Layers rather than individual images in Photoshop. I can also resize and output RAWs as Jpegs.

I prefer the Camera Raw interface for RAW processing, and although working the same as Lightroom, in one specific area, manually straightening an image, Camera Raw is better imho, as you can zoom into the image to align the image to a small area in the scene, whereas in Lr you can also draw a line to align to in the image, but, afaik, you can't zoom in while doing it.

A lot of that can be done by Lightroom, and some of that can be done on import at the same time, as some things can also be done on import in Bridge, but I would rather import my images directly to a folder on my computer, and then look at the folder with Bridge as that is the quickest way to import, and also quickly see the images for me. Lr has to create previews. I only use Lr for my travel images, and then I import into a Catalog from the folder on the computer, and I create Smart Previews, which take a little longer, when doing it.

One thing I do like, is that it can be set to import, then to erase on completion of importing.

As said above, I import directly to a folder on my computer, and don't delete the images on the card until I have seen the images in Bridge. In fact I tend not to delete the images from a memory card until I need to use it again, when it is a two button process to quickly format a card on my camera. And that is 4th back up for awhile. I wouldn't personally import and delete at the same time just in case something were to go wrong on import. If it works for you though, great.

 

[Jelster]

Thanks for the responses; I think I'll install it and have a look (as it's part of the package) and see how I get on.

 

[droj]

I use Bridge CC as my basic, universal image browser, quick and handy. I seem to remember that historically it did go through at least one iteration where it would build up a huge cumulative thumbnail cache that clogged up my hard drive, but I think that things have improved since then.

You can use it for all images, not just those catalogued in LR.

And in it you can select images, hit ctrl+O, and they open in PS for processing.

You don't even have to be a subscriber to use it.

 

[DG Phototraining]

I do pretty much all my initial editing and most final editing in LR, but Bridge is still a vital program for me for viewing, renaming, moving/copying, running actions through, creating PDFs and viewing prior to opening in PS for any specific work

I can also do quick edits in it and get them online while LR is still loading them

I'd certainly miss it if it wasn't part of my cc package

Dave