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Adobe Bridge, an image-management tool, is new to Photoshop CS2. Bridge is an upgrade to the File Browser you've come to love in previous versions of Photoshop — but it's better! Bridge is a standalone application that you can launch independently of the Creative Suite (CS) programs or from within Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, GoLive CS2, and InDesign CS2.
Bridge serves as the launching point for processing raw images in Camera Raw. This tool also provides better integration between the Creative Suite programs. If you use only Photoshop CS2, however, it works great as your standalone or integrated program to organize, browse, or locate digital photos.
Go with the workflow
Here's the image-management workflow you can implement with Adobe Bridge, step by step:
1. Navigate and create image folders.
You can view photos that you download directly from your digital camera or card reader. This is a lot better than the old light tables that people used in the past to view those little negatives and slides.
2. Organize images.
Organize your images into Original, Working, and Output folders. Use the Folders panel and the Edit menu (Copy and Paste commands) to move images into their designated folders — or drag and drop images from folder to folder.
3. Add information with the Metadata panel.
You can view the information provided by your digital camera (in particular, technical data for each photo) and add information about each image in the Metadata panel.
4. Apply labels and ratings.
You can color-code your photos for easier retrieval later — and rate your photos (from one to five stars) and save the ratings so you can get to the best ones quickly.
5. Sort and rename photos.
By adding keywords, labels, and ratings to your photos, you can easily sort files later. Renaming files is a snap using Bridge: Double-click the filename and then type a new name.
6. Load images to Camera Raw or Photoshop.
After you've properly organized your image files (and viewed their thumbnails in the Content area) is the time to load your raw images into Camera Raw or your other images directly into Photoshop.
Starting Bridge
The Bridge window is the gateway to all the tasks you can perform, but how do you fire up the application? There are three ways to start Bridge:
- From your computer. Bridge is an independent software program, just like Word, Excel, or Photoshop. From a computer running Windows, choose Start --> Adobe Bridge. From the Mac Desktop, double-click the Bridge icon. (Applications --> Adobe Bridge).
You can start Bridge by pressing Ctrl+Alt+O (Windows) or Command+Option+O (on the Mac)
- From the Photoshop File menu. From Photoshop CS2, simply choose File --> Browse.
- From the Go to Bridge button. From Photoshop, just click the Go to Bridge button on the Option bar.
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