Recently I did a video on Adobe Bridge and some features it has that Lightroom doesn’t. I got a lot of feedback on it and realized that there are a lot of Bridge and Lightroom users out there so I thought I’d follow it up with a video on some ways that Bridge and LR can work together.
Also, my Bridge Mini Course is still on sale and I’m getting some great feedback on it. Click on the image below to find out more… (Click Here)
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
A very clear explanation, dare I say “again”, of how to see in Lightroom what those cryptic messages mean en haw to force Lightroom to tell the Adobe environment what is done to a photo.
With ACR being part of PS I sometimes wonder why not use Ps and Bridge rather than Lr and Ps. Is there a significant reason not to do this?
Hi Colin. Without going in to a long article on differences between the two, they can be very different programs. LR has many features Bridge/ACR doesn’t. But if it’s not something you see or notice, then don’t use it. Your final photo, and people who look at it will never know so use whatever suits you the best. Thanks.
Hi Matt,
For years I have modified folders outside of lightroom and then just use the Synchronize Folders function to get Lightroom back in sync. Why does no one teach that process rather than saying to never modify folders outside of lightroom? Am I missing something? Thanks..
Hi. Syncing can be useful if you’ve added photos to your folders because it tells LR to look in that folder again and find what’s new. But if you move and modify things outside of LR you are asking for trouble, and syncing won’t always (and usually never) help.
Hi Matt,
Watched your vid,
Interesting , thank you,
Question?
Would Bridge be a good option to sort and deleted unwanted images before importing into LR and therefore save wasting unnecessary HDD space ………….. and time?
Regards,
Gary
……… AU
Hi Gary. You could but it’s a process that LR will do and one of the things LR is good at. It doesn’t matter where you delete so give it a try and see what works for you, but you’d just be doing a process that you could easily do in LR. Thanks.
Since I came to Lightroom well after Photoshop and Bridge, I found that Importing into Bridge, I was able to set up a file system that allowed me to have a folder for each year, with subfolders which I name by year_month_date and a title. That allows me to search fairly easy since I am too lazy to put in keywords. Then I import it into Lightroom and now I have my folders and sub folders by year, month, day and topic. I find this is helpful in searching for images. And yes, when I do work in Lightroom, and then open up Photoshop and make additional changes, I see the images in Bridge. Works well
Interesting, I wouldn’t have thought of this. Good to know options. Always enjoy your helpful videos
Interesting thanks
When you read the .XMP file in LightRoom are those changes then saved in the catalog? Will LightRoom remember to use the XMP file in addition to the catalog? I would assume so? Does LightRoom then rely on the XMP file exclusively? (I would assume not.)
I thought I remembered that LightRoom can rely on XMP files instead of the catalog.
Hi Robert
1) Yes
2) No, No
3) No
In short, You can turn on the pref setting to auto write to XMP, but LR is still not looking at it and will continue to ALWAYS use the catalog. The XMP option is redundant and is not what Lr looks at to store your settings.
Lastly, when in doubt… try it and see. It’s free and you can’t hurt anything and experience will answer the questions much better than me. Thanks!
Hi Matt, Thanks for a great video. If the original RAW file is edited in Bridge, no xmp file is created.
Thanks David. No file is actually “edited” in Bridge. It opens in Camera Raw. From there… How else are your raw changes saved then if not in an XMP then?
In this video, you cropped a photo that you opened in Camera Raw. Did that also crop the Raw file, or did it simply add instruction to the XMP file. So, you could go back to that file and un-crop it, correct?
I am seeking to make sure that I use the right Raw action buttons so that I never lose access to my original files.
Hi. When you edit a raw file in Camera Raw or Lightroom, everything you do is non destructive and un-doable at any point in time. Hope that helps
So, Matt, you have said in these recent videos that you have GOOD REASONS for using Bridge for some photo shoots, and Lightroom for others. But, I don’t remember you saying what those reasons are in either video. (Full disclosure, I did not go back and watch the 1st video!) Does the Bridge course cover that?
Thanks for this follow up to your earlier Bridge video = very helpful and clear.
Again I’m reminded that LR appears to have been developed to create a full-employment scenario for under-employed photography software teachers! 🙂
Thanks, Matt. I watched your video on using Adobe Bridge which I had rarely used. I normally use Canon software to look at my photos first to rate them before import them into Lightroom. A few months ago I had to buy a new bridge camera that was light weight because I had some health issues and my Canon kits were too heavy for me. The Panasonic Lumix software that came with it was horrible! After I watched your video on Bridge, I went back and loaded some of my Lumix photos into it and it was great! I was able to quickly view the photos, rate them, and then import only the one I wanted into Lightroom for editing! Thanks for speeding up my work flow!!
Matt, I don’t know why you don’t set up LrC to always save metadata when it is changed. As a sports photog I definitely want all the metadata synced when I move from PhotoMechanic to Bridge and back and forth to LrC. It saves at least one step when moving around between programs and makes sure ALL your Metadata is saved in case of a computer issue.
Hi. Because it slows LR significantly and I use the catalog so I have no reason to set it up that way for me.
But what would you do if your LR catalog crashes or is lost some how (without having all that xmp file info)? Do you have a back-up method for your LR catalog that keeps you confident that it wouldn’t be a great disaster?
I back up catalogs using LR’s catalog backup system which tests integrity. You will not corrupt a catalog that way. The only people that lose or get corrupt catalogs are those that do not do the backup.
Question & comment-
Does the example you did for an xmp file also apply if the raw file is a DNG?
For me Bridge is useful for organizing videos. LR doesn’t handle video. Often in a shoot I will have stills and video.
Hi. It should so give it a try. I don’t use DNG so it’s not something I’d ever use. Follow up and let us all know. Thanks
With DNG files you can use save metadata and readmeta data in LR to transfer changes between Bridge and LR.
Hi Eric – I understand what it does. It’s just not something I’ve ever needed or wanted to do. And definitely not willing to give up the speed hit in LR to get it. I personally dislike and distrust DNG and don’t see a need for it. Thanks.
Hi Matt. Could you or did you already, mention what other reasons, outside of the speed bump, you have to mistrust DNG ?
Hi Frank. It fixes a problem that will never exist. Most apps haven’t adopted it like we originally thought and the ones that have create DNG files that look different from the original. And I simply distrust something that says it will remove 20-30% of the size of my photo – yet nothing about the photo will change. There hasn’t ever been a good reason to adopt it in my eyes.
Wasn’t DNG an attempt by Adobe to create a standard RAW file format that every camera make could use? So there wouldn’t be all of the different raw formats out there? There was also fear, and this was a long time ago, that some of the RAW formats would become obsolete and be unsupported at some point and you wouldn’t be able to work on them. For example, if a camera manufacturer went out of business.
It was a good idea, but no camera maker was going to give up its proprietary stuff hidden in their RAW files. Which also gave them an element of control over their users.
I could see using Bridge to cull through images before importing into Lightroom. That way you can review all your images without the tedious process of importing all your images..
Thanks for explaining the “…import from disk?…..” dialog box. A lot of Adobe’s descriptions are a little obtuse.