Bridge is one of those programs that got a bad rap during the transition to digital Photography. Adobe used it to be the RAW processor and it just wasn’t that great at it. Then Lightroom came out and became the RAW processor of choice. Then the mantra became Lightroom is awesome and Bridge sucks. But the real answer to that is Lightroom is an awesome RAW processor and image cataloger. And Bridge is an amazing image browser and sorter. When I just need to open a folder view and sort images, I just use Bridge. It’s fast and easy.
Labeling
The biggest job I use Bridge for is labeling my keepers after a shoot. I pull in all images, and give all my keepers a “6” label. After finishing I put all of the “non-labelled” images into a subfolder called “duds.” The second biggest job is using the labels to tag my “promo” images. These are images I want to use in a blog collage or brand for my blog or Facebook.
Sorting
Using the Filter window in Bridge makes it easy to filter out images. The best time to use this is while designing an album. You just don’t see the images you’ve already used in the design. Cool, huh?
Here is a screenshot of it in action.
