Section 3.3. Working in Bridge


3.3. Working in Bridge

Bridge is fairly intuitive. The following features of Adobe Bridge will be useful at almost all stages in the workflow, but most are required at this stage.

3.3.1. Sizing Thumbnails and Previews

Sizing thumbnails is dead easy and totally interactive. You just drag the Thumbnail Sizing slider to the right to enlarge. Furthermore, you can do it any time, so it's no big deal if you need to see larger thumbnails when you have to make a critical decision about which image is a keeper. To go back to your original sizing scheme, drag to the left to make them smaller.

There will also be times when you want a smaller or larger area in which to show the thumbnails. That, too, is totally easy and interactive. Of course, you'll gain more room for thumbnails if you've clicked the Maximize Window button.

You can also size the Lightbox panel by simply dragging the vertical bar that separates it from the other panels on the left. This doesn't resize the images, but it does give you room to see more columns of images. It also gives you more room to see a thumbnail, which means that you can create the largest thumbnail possible when the vertical panel divider is dragged farthest to the left. However, the largest thumbnail you can make is only large enough to fill about half your screen. One of the reasons for this is that verticals must be the same size as horizontals, so you really never have any more room than it takes to fill the screen horizontally (see Figure 3-7).

Figure 3-7. The maximum size thumbnail you can get. If you don't need any of the panels in the left column, you can get two columns of images at this size.

NOTE

The only view modes you can't resize thumbnails in are Filmstrip and Slide Show. Slide Show is the one mode that makes the preview fill the entire screen, so it's the Workspace to use when you need to preview as much detail as possible.

3.3.2. Lightboxing

This doesn't have anything to do with the weight class you fight in. (After all, if you weren't a Photoshop heavyweight, you wouldn't be reading this book.) It has to do with the fact that you can rearrange the order of slides (thumbnails) by simply dragging and dropping; this allows you to compare apples to apples and rename and automate a thumbnail's RAW processing more easily.

NOTE

It's called lightboxing because you can drag and drop thumbnails into any position in any of the View modes. You're not restricted to using Lightbox view to do lightboxing. To drag a thumbnail to a row higher or lower than you can see in the current screen, just drag the thumbnail to the very top or bottom of any space between two columns of thumbnails.

3.3.3. Batch Renaming

You can easily rename all the images in a folder at anytime. Moreover, you don't have to completely rename them. Often, you can just add to the filename. So, say that two years after you originally processed an image, you want to employ a new feature or you have a new inspiration. With batch renaming, you can simply add an abbreviation after the part of the filename that was originated by the camera. Batch renaming is completely interactive. The original filename is displayed alongside the new name you've just created, which means you know instantly if the information doesn't work or make sense, so you can make the appropriate correction right then.

NOTE

As far as I'm concerned, the real beauty of this feature is that you can use it over and over to modify your existing filenames so that you can more easily recognize a version or workflow stage.

In the "Batch Rename the Images for the Shoot" section, I'll go over how to use this tool specifically to rename all the images in a shoot. In general, all you have to do to start batch renaming is select the images you want to rename, then either press Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-R or choose ToolsBatch Rename. You see the Batch Rename dialog in Figure 3-8.

Figure 3-8. The Batch Rename dialog. Notice that, in this case, information has been added to the filename both before and after the existing filename. Also, there's no need to add the extension after changes to the end of the filename.

One of the coolest tricks with the Batch Rename dialog is that you can move or copy files to a new destination folder at the same time you rename them. All you have to do is select the appropriate radio button in the top-left corner of the dialog.

3.3.4. Renaming Individual Files

If you've just spent time editing one image, you want to rename it immediately so the name reflects its workflow state. To change the name of an individual file, there's no need to go through the batch rename routine. Just click on the filename in the thumbnail. It will be highlighted, as you see in Figure 3-9. You can type over the highlighted name if you want to completely rename the file. If you're maintaining your workflow, however, you probably want to add an abbreviation to the end of the filename that reflects its current state. Later, if you make further modifications, you'll probably want to rename it to reflect that workflow stage. This makes it very easy to look at the filename and know whether the image still needs work before it's delivered. So do it this way:

Figure 3-9. A thumbnail showing the filename undergoing a partial change.

  1. Ctrl/right-click (Windows) on the thumbnail of the image you want to rename. The filename will be highlighted. On a Mac, you have to (regular) click and wait for name to highlight. If you want to completely rename the file, just type over it. I do not recommend you do that, because you'll lose the camera's filename. Instead, click at just the point in the filename where you want to insert the workflow stage abbreviation (for instance, ret for retouched or crv for an overall Curves Adjustment layer). Then type your abbreviation (Figure 3-9).

  2. Press Return/Enter or click elsewhere on the thumbnails.

3.3.5. Rotating the Image

I seldom do this since graduating almost exclusively to DSLR cameras. The cameras I've owned (and even some point-and-shoots) rotate the image automatically. However, there may be a time when your friend or assistant accidentally rotates an image. As long as it was rotated in Bridge, there's no data destruction as a result of the accidental rotation. That's because all Bridge does is tell the Metadata to rotate the image in Bridge and to open it as rotated when in Photoshop.

To correct the problem, click the rotation arrows at the top right of the Bridge workspace. If you click the left one, the image rotates 90-degrees to the left. And guess what happens if you click the right one.

3.3.6. Duplicating Files in Bridge

There may be times when you want to create a completely different look and approach for a file that you've already started working on, without messing up the workflow you originally intended for that file. In that case, the smart thing to do is to work with a duplicate.

No problem. No steps. Just highlight the thumbnail and press Cmd/Ctrl-D. Be sure to rename the duplicate in a way that tells you later that this is a completely different interpretation of the image that had the same original camera name.

3.3.7. Deleting Files in Bridge

This operation is a perfect demonstration of how Photoshop lets you do it, as Sinatra would've said, your way. There are three (well, four on a Mac) ways to delete a file in Bridge, and they're all just about equally as easy. First, highlight the targeted thumbnail(s), and then:

  • Press Backspace/Delete

  • Click the Trash icon in Bridge's Options bar

  • Choose FileMove to Trash




Digital Photography(c) Expert Techniques
Digital Photography Expert Techniques
ISBN: 0596526903
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 124
Authors: Ken Milburn

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