Julieanne Kost's Blog

Tap the spacebar to enter Full Screen Preview or use Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + B to enter Review Mode and preview images without having to open them in Photoshop. While reviewing images in either of these view:
• The left/right arrow takes you to the previous/next image
• 0-9 labels and rates images
• Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + “[" or "]” rotates the image
• Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + R launches Camera Raw allowing you to make edits – all without ever leaving the Full Screen Preview or Review Mode.
• The Escape key exits both modes.
Note: I believe that there are 2 main advantages of using Review Mode: 1) it allows you to use the down arrow key to remove images from your selection and 2) it provides the ability to create Collections from your edited selection (icon appears in lower right). However in the carrousel view, the images are smaller.

Select Preferences > Thumbnails to assign and display (up to) four additional lines of Metadata under the image thumbnails in the Content panel (in Thumbnail view). Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + T toggles (show/hide) the additional metadata displayed.

By default, star rating and color labeling items in Bridge requires the Command (Mac) / Control (Win) keyboard modifier. However, selecting Preferences > Labels allows you to remove the keyboard modifier when applying the ratings/labels. After removing the modifier, 0-5 rates applies star ratings, and 6-9 applies color labels. Command (Mac) / Control (Win) > or Labels allows you to change the name of the color ratings (by default they are the color name) to something more specific like “Urgent” or “For Review”. Note: if using both Lightroom and Photoshop, you will probably want to make these labels match.

Here are some of the shortcuts that I find handy when using the Content panel in Bridge:
• To navigate through images in the Content panel, use the up and down, left and right arrow keys.
• Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + \ (backslash) will cycle the Content panel through Thumbnails, Details and List views.
• Tap the Tab key to display only the Content panel. Tap again to display all panels.
• Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + “[" or "]” rotates selected images in the content panel.
• Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + “+” or “-” increases/decreases thumbnail size in the Content panel

Command Option (Mac) / Control Alt (Win) + O toggles between Bridge and Photoshop (and vice versa).

If you need to save a number of images to a different different format (PSD, TIF and/or JPEG), Photoshop has a feature called Image Processor. Although you can find it under File > Scripts > Image Processor, this method requires that you select a folder of images. If you prefer to only convert a selection of images, begin by selecting the desired images in Bridge and then choose Tools > Photoshop Image Processor (note that you can also select all of the images in a folder (or collection) using this method by not selecting any files (if no files are selected, Bridge will assume that you want to process all of them). In the Image Processor dialog box, choose a destination folder, and a File Type (or types, you can process files to multiple formats at once) with any additional options such as Resize to Fit and Compression etc.. You can even choose to run an action after Image Processor batch converts the files. Of course all of this can be done through actions, but Image Processor is a simple and powerful way to quickly convert images without having to know how to create Actions and run the Batch command.

Shift-double clicking on a RAW image in the Bridge will bypass the Camera Raw dialog, applying either settings that have been saved with the file, or if there are no setting applied, opening the file with the camera defaults.

When launching Bridge, Command-Option (Mac)/Control-Alt (Win) + Shift to choose “Reset Preferences”, Purge Entire Thumbnail Cache”, and/or Reset Standard Workspaces”.

For most people, the fact that Camera Raw is a plug in that works in both Bridge and Photoshop is completely transparent. The most common workflow is to find the desired image in Bridge, double click to open it in the Camera Raw dialog box and start editing edits. When you’re finished, you click Open Image (or Open Object if the “Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects” is checked) to open in Photoshop.

But there is a subtle difference when you use one of the other methods (ie not double clicking in Bridge) to open a raw file For example, when in Bridge, if you choose File > Open in Camera Raw, click the Open in Camera Raw icon, or Command (Mac) / Control (Win) + R to open Camera Raw files, Bridge launches the Camera Raw plug in so that it runs within Bridge. The advantage to this workflow is that you can make edits without having Photoshop open. Another small change that you will notice if you choose one of the previously mentioned methods for opening raw files-when you are finished making edits, the default button is “Done” and by clicking it, you will be returned to Bridge.

Note if, when in Bridge, you choose to double click on a raw file (thus launching the camera raw plug-in in Photoshop) clicking the Done button will close the raw plug in and leave you in Photoshop.

In this video tutorial (What’s New in Bridge CS4), Julieanne Kost shows you how easy it is to trim valuable time off of your workflow with the new advancements in Adobe Bridge CS4.

Discover the new features in Adobe Bridge CS4 in this video tutorial (New Features of Adobe Bridge CS4), as Julieanne Kost walks through the new features, tools, refined interface and integration with Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw.

In this video tutorial (Working with Lightroom and Adobe Bridge), Julieanne Kost demonstrates the push and pull of metadata to allow Lightroom and Bridge to work together so that your photographs appear the same in both applications.