Explanation of Adobe Bridge

What is Adobe Bridge?

Adobe Bridge is a companion program to Photoshop. Bridge is often referred to as Digital asset manager Or Media manager .

That's because Adobe Bridge gives us powerful ways to find, manage, and organize our ever-growing collection of images.

In fact, Bridge is not just about photos, or just Photoshop. Bridge is actually a companion program per application In Adobe Creative Cloud (or Creative Suite).

We can use Bridge not only to manage images but also to manage Adobe Illustrator files, InDesign files, videos and more! Since we're primarily interested in Photoshop, we'll focus on how to use Bridge with our images.

Adobe Bridge features overview

Before we look at Adobe Bridge in more detail

Let's quickly go through some of the many great features that Bridge has to offer.

Explanation of Adobe Bridge

01. Bridge is a file browser

At its simplest, it's Adobe Bridge file browser . Bridge is in many ways similar to the file browser you use with your computer's operating system. As we have already seen

We can use Bridge To download our photos from our camera or memory card. But we can also use Bridge to find the images we are looking for on our computer.

Bridge allows us to copy or move images from one folder to another. It can also copy or move entire folders from one location to another.

With Bridge we can create new folders, rename folders and pictures, and delete folders and pictures.

Every basic function that we can do with our operating system's file browser, we can do with Adobe Bridge.

02. Bridge is a file management system

If we can do these things with a regular file browser, why bother learning how to do them in Bridge? The reason is simple.

Bridge is not Just file browser. Adobe Bridge is Complete file management system . For starters, Bridge Thumbnail previews for all images in a folder.

Sure, your operating system's file browser can also display thumbnails. But the thumbnails in Bridge are scalable Fully customizable .

We can adjust the size of the thumbnails in Bridge just by dragging the slider. Bridge can also display more information about an image (file name, pixel dimensions, date created, copyright information, and more) below the thumbnail.

Also, Bridge allows us to change Sort order pictures easily.

We can order images by file name, file type, the date each file was created or modified, or by file size or dimensions.

We can also request photos as per Star rating (more on that later) or some other criteria. And we can change the sort order manually just by dragging the thumbnails!

03. Preview a bigger and better image

Besides resizing thumbnails, Bridge provides us with other ways to preview our images. exposure Preview panel In Bridge we have a larger preview of each image we choose.

One of the best features of Bridge is the mode Full Screen Preview . It allows us to instantly go to a full screen view of any image for a closer look!

04. Image review mode

in review mode In Bridge it allows us to sort through an entire group or series of images.

This makes it easy to separate the guards from the "others". Review mode let us quickly flip through photo after photo, keeping only the ones we like and dropping the rest!

05. Add ratings and labels to photos

You mentioned that one of the ways we can sort our images in Bridge is Star rating .

Bridge allows us to quickly apply ratings to our images using a one to five star system. A picture you absolutely love may get five stars

Another “good but needs work” photo might only get one star. Other Pictures That Are Beyond Hope (Hey, This Happens to Us All)

You may not get stars at all. Or, you can rate a photo a "disapproval" if it's so bad it's embarrassing.

In addition to star ratings, Adobe Bridge also allows us to apply Colorful stickers on the pictures.

A yellow label can indicate which images still need work.

Green can be used for those that have already been approved. We choose the meaning of each color ourselves, so how you use them is entirely up to you!

06. Add keywords and copyright information

Bridge allows us to add information  task about Copyrights to our photos. We can view and edit a whole host of additional information ( Metadata ) about our pictures.

We can create keywords and apply them to our photos with Bridge, making it easier for us (and others) to find those photos when we need them.

07. Filter images and create groups

Bridge can filter images to only show us images that meet certain criteria. We can only see five star rated photos.

Or just pictures taken with a specific lens, or a specific focal length. Bridge can merge images into Groups It makes it easy for us to group related photos together.

Groups can even group photos spread across different folders or even different hard drives. And it works Smart groups In Bridge like dynamic search results.

Smart Collections tell Bridge to automatically add any images to the collection if and when they meet criteria we specify.

08. Batch rename files

in batch rename The feature in Bridge lets us quickly rename multiple files at once.

We learned that we can rename our files in Photo Downloader while downloading them from the camera.

But the Batch Rename command is the best way to do it. Batch Rename is more powerful

And it allows us to rename our files after deleting the ones we don't want to keep. This means that there won't be any commas in the naming sequence (which makes it look like some images are missing).

09. Quick access to Photoshop

Bridge makes it easy to open our images in Photoshop. But Bridge also gives us access to some powerful image manipulation commands in Photoshop.

Both are available Lens Correction و Merge to HDR Pro و Photomerge and others directly within Bridge itself.

Adobe Bridge is also the best way to open images in Photoshop's image editing plug-in, Camera Raw.

Again, we'll come back to this in the next series, Opening Images in Photoshop.

Here is a quick overview of some of the main benefits and features of Adobe Bridge. Let's look at some of these features in more detail.

We'll start with an overview of the Bridge interface. Next, we'll look more closely at some of Bridge's key features.

How to turn on Adobe Bridge

Let's start by learning how to open Adobe Bridge. It may be a companion app to Photoshop, but Bridge is actually a separate program of its own.

We can open Bridge the same way we open Photoshop or any other program on our computer. on a Windows computer

Bridge can be opened from the Start menu. On a Mac, Bridge is found in the Applications folder.

Photoshop does not need to be open for us to open Bridge. But we Can open bridge of inside Photoshop.

If you're a Creative Cloud subscriber, check this out Download and install Bridge CC قبل Follow-up . Then, in Photoshop, open Bridge by going to Menu Fillet and choose Browse in Bridge .

You can also open Bridge from your keyboard by pressing Ctrl+Alt+O (Win) / Command+Option+O (Mac). Here's a quick tip. This keyboard shortcut will switch between Photoshop and Bridge each time you press it:

The Browse in Bridge command will open Adobe Bridge if it is not already open. If Bridge is already running

Browsing in Bridge will switch you from Photoshop to Bridge. Photoshop will continue to run in the background. Here's what the default Bridge interface looks like. We'll look at it more closely in the next section:

Adobe Bridge interface

Like Photoshop, Adobe Bridge provides a set of paintings . In fact, the Bridge In full Approx. of paintings. And Folders A panel in the upper left lets you navigate through folders and directories on your computer to find your photos. Overlapping the Folders panel is a panel Favorites . Favorites gives you quick access to the folders and directories you use most. Panel exposure Content In the middle are thumbnails of your photos.

In the upper right is a panel Preview , which displays a larger preview of any thumbnail that is selected. Metadata about your photos, including copyright information, can be viewed and edited in a panel Metadata . in Lyrics Palette lets us create keywords and apply them to our images. And Search The panel makes it easy to filter images so we only see the ones we need. And Groups Dashboard lets us group related images together.

Favorite folders and panels

Usually, the first thing we want to do after opening Bridge is find some images to work on. This is where the two panels at the top left, Folders and Favorites, come in. painting Folders It is our main way to navigate to our images. It displays the folders on your computer in a familiar and easy-to-use "tree" structure. And Favorites Dashboard gives us quick access to the folders and file locations we use most, just like bookmarks in your web browser!

Adobe Bridge groups related panels together to save space, just as Photoshop does. And just like in Photoshop, we can switch between panels in a group by clicking Names tabs along the top of the group. Here, we see the Favorites panel. By default, Bridge adds some common file locations to the Favorites panel, such as the Desktop, Documents folder, and Pictures folder. We can quickly jump to any of these sites by clicking on it. We can also add our own folders and file locations to the Favorites panel. We'll learn how to do that in a moment:

Folders panel

To switch from Favorites to the Folders panel, click on the Folders tab:

The Folders panel is our main way to navigate to our photos. It allows us to navigate through our folders to get to the files we need. Clicking will existing triangle to the right of the folder to open that folder and show the folders inside. Continue working your way through your folders until you reach the folder containing your photos. Here, we can see that I currently have a folder named “JPEG” selected. The “JPEG” folder is located inside a main folder called “photos”. And the “Pictures” folder is on the desktop:

Add folders to the Favorites panel

We can easily add a folder to the favorites panel. Let's say I know I'm going back to the "JPEG" folder again and again. Instead of manually navigating to it each time, I can simply add the "JPEG" folder to my favourites. To add a folder to Favorites, Right click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) it in the Folders panel. Then choose Add to favorites From the list:

I will go back to my favorites panel by clicking on its tab. Here we see that the “My JPEG” folder has been added to the list. The next time I need to access the folder, I'll be able to quickly jump to it:

track bar

و track bar Along the top of the bridge interface gives us another way to see our current file location. Here again, we see I'm in the "JPEG" folder located inside the Pictures folder on my desktop. But the track bar doesn't just show us where we are. It also allows us to quickly navigate to any other location along the path. For example, if I want to go to my desktop, all I have to do is click on Desktop in the path bar and the bridge will take me there:

Forward and back buttons

Bridge also gives us buttons Back و Forward familiar in the upper left corner. These buttons work just like the back and forward buttons in your web browser. Use it to navigate back and forth through your navigation history:

Download images from your camera using Bridge

If the photos you need are still on your camera or memory card, Bridge makes it easy to download them to your computer. You will find Camera icon small in Toolbar along the top left of the interface. This is a code Get photos from Camera :

Clicking the camera icon opens a program Adobe Photo Downloader . Here, we can choose the camera or memory card that holds our photos. We can then choose the location where we want to store the images on our computer. We can rename files as they're being downloaded, add copyright information to them, and more! I had How to download pictures from the camera In the previous tutorial:

Content panel

Once we navigate to our photos using the Folders or Favorites panel, they appear as thumbnails in a panel Content . The Content panel is the largest panel in Bridge, taking up the entire section in the middle. Here, we see thumbnail previews of all the images inside my "JPEG" folder:

و scroll Along the bottom left of the Bridge interface makes it easy to adjust the size of the thumbnails. Drag the slider to the right to enlarge the thumbnails. Swipe left to zoom out. There is also an icon on either side of the slider. Clicking the icons will gradually increase (right icon) or decrease (left icon) thumbnail size:

Here we see that after dragging the slider to the right, my thumbnails are now much larger. In fact, it's big very so that Only a few of them can fit within the viewable area of ​​the content panel. in Slider Along the right the Content panel lets us scroll through our thumbnails when they're either too big, or when there are too many, to fit them all on screen at once:

Preview panel

To select an image in the content panel, click once on its thumbnail. A preview of the image will appear in the panel Preview At the top right of the Bridge interface:

Change the size of the flaps in the bridge

If you find the preview to be too small, as is my case, you can easily resize the preview panel to make it bigger. In fact, we can change the size أي of panels in Bridge in exactly the same way. All you have to do is move your mouse pointer over vertical dividing line to the left or right of the board. or above horizontal dividing line above or below the panel. The pointer will change to a resize icon with two arrows pointing in opposite directions. Click and drag the dividing line to resize the panel as needed. You'll notice that as you resize the preview panel, the image inside the panel resizes with it:

Increasing the size of one panel in Bridge reduces the size of the other panels (because there is more space on the screen). In this case, by making the preview panel larger, I made my content panel smaller. That's okay, because I personally prefer using the space for larger previews. You can customize the interface however you want:

Full screen previews

While the Preview panel is great, Bridge's Full Screen Preview option is even better! With a thumbnail selected in the Content panel, go to List Display in the menu bar along the top of the screen and select Full screen preview . Or just click on spacebar On the keyboard:

This instantly takes your photo to full screen view, with the entire photo on screen. If the aspect ratio of your image is not the same as the aspect ratio of your monitor, you will see gray bars either on the sides or along the top and bottom:

width 100%

Clicking on the image while viewing full screen will enlarge it 100% width . In the 100% view, each pixel in the image takes up exactly one screen pixel. This makes it easy to judge the sharpness and focus of the image. You can click and drag the image while in 100% view mode to view and examine different areas. To zoom out, click again on the image. To exit full screen preview mode completely, tap spacebar Back on the keyboard:

review mode

Full Screen Preview mode is great for viewing individual images. But what if you need to quickly browse through a folder full of photos? This is where Bridge's review mode really shines. You just need to go to a list Display at the top of the screen and choose review mode . or click on Ctrl + B (Win) / Command+B (Mac) On the keyboard:

Review mode displays your photos as a circular circle. You can rotate from one image to another using Left and right arrows in the lower left corner of the screen. You can also press Left and right arrow keys on the keyboard. When you come to a photo that you don't want to keep, tap down arrow at the bottom left of the screen (or Down arrow key on the keyboard). This will drop the image from the selection and move to the next image. When you have finished reviewing your photos, click X in the lower right corner or Esc . keykey on the keyboard. This will close review mode. Back in the Content panel, only the images you didn't drop during the review process will be selected:

Contact lens tool

While in review mode, we can click on an image to view Contact lens tool . The contact lens tool in Adobe Bridge acts like a magnifying glass. It magnifies the point we clicked on until we see it at 100% zoom level. This makes it easy to check image sharpness and focus. Click and drag the contact lens tool to check out different areas. To close the contact lens tool, click anywhere inside it:

Image classification

To make it easier to separate the good images from the bad ones, Bridge allows us to apply Categories on our photos. It uses a popular rating system from one to five stars. To show how labels work, I've selected three images in my content panel. The images I selected are the second, third, and fourth in the top row. To select multiple photos at once, press and hold Ctrl . key (Win) / Command (Mac) on your keyboard and click on the pictures you want. Or, if all the images you want to select are in a continuous row, there is an easier way. Click on the thumbnail of the first image to select it. After that, press and hold a key Shift And click on the last image. This will select the first photo, the last photo, and all the photos in between.

Note that with three images selected, my preview panel shows larger previews of all three images. The Preview panel can display up to nine images at a time:

Let's say I really decide that I like these three photos. I might want to point this out by giving them a five star rating. With the three photos selected, I'll go to a menu Label at the top of the screen. From there, I'll choose five stars . Choose There is no rating To clear the previous rating from the image. For photos you know you don't want to keep, choose Reject :

Note that all three images now display a five-star rating below their thumbnail:

Filter photos by star rating

Once you have rated some images, you can filter the content panel to show only images with a specific rating. Click icon Filter items by rating (asterisk) in the upper right of the Bridge interface. Then choose an option from the list. To display only my XNUMX-star photos, I'll choose Show 5 stars :

And now, only those three 5-star rated photos remain in the content panel. Photos with less than 5 stars or no rating at all are temporarily hidden. We can also choose to display only objectionable images or images without a rating. Or we can just show the images we have without a color label assigned to them:

clear filter

To view all your photos again, tap an icon Filter items by rating And choose Clear Filter From the top of the list:

With the filter cleared, the Content panel again shows all the images in the folder:

Metadata panel

Below is the preview panel on the right meta و Lyrics Panels nested together in a group. Each of these panels is highly valued. The Metadata panel displays everything we need to know about an image. We can view the date of shooting, camera settings used, file size and type. We can also view the image's color mode and bit depth, whether or not the flash has been fired, and much more. The metadata panel can also be used to add additional details to the image, such as copyright and our contact information. Use the scroll bar along the right to scroll through all the details. Click the different category headings (File Properties, IPTC Core, etc.) to open and close them:

Keywords panel

The Keywords panel is nested next to the Metadata panel. Click Tab keywords to unlock it. The Keywords panel allows us to create and assign descriptive keywords to images. Later, when we need to find these images again, we can search for them using their keywords. To add a new keyword, click the button. new keyword” at the bottom, then type in your keyword. To assign an existing keyword to an image, select the image in the Content panel. Then, click inside the checkbox for the keyword you want to set. You can set multiple keywords for the same photo. To remove a keyword, select the image in the Content panel, then deselect the keyword:

filter panel

Below the Favorites and Folders panel to the left of Bridge is a panel Filter . Earlier, we saw that we could filter the images displayed in the content panel based on the star rating. But this is nothing compared to what a filter board can do. We can use the Filter panel to filter images by keyword, date created, whether the image is in landscape or portrait orientation, by aperture, shutter speed, ISO settings, focal length, and much more. We can even filter the images by the specific camera model or lens that was used.

To use the filter panel, click on the different category headings to open and close them. Then click on any of the filter options in the category to select it. Note that you won't always see every filter option listed. This is because the Filter panel in Bridge is dynamic. The options you see are based on the photos in the currently selected folder. For example, all the photos in a folder might be using landscape orientation. Since none of them use portrait orientation, the Portrait option will not be shown in the orientation class: