Lightroom Versus Bridge?

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Lightroom Versus Bridge?

At this point you might be asking yourself, “why would I prefer to use Lightroom if the Bridge product that comes with Photoshop can do many of the same functions?” allow me to explain a few of the difference between the two applications.

Bridge is a “File Browser” designed to work with many different file formats in its display.

It is structured to support the complete line of Adobe Creative Suite products, including InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and so on.

So, Bridge is a file browser application that allows the user to view all the file types within a folder (text documents, web files, design files, illustration files, and images) in what could be described as a collaborative environment. Example : the person dealing with the text and design side, working with another person dealing with illustrations, can view all the files in one folder through bridge.

The biggest distinction between Adobe Bridge and Lightroom is the way they view and gather information about images. Adobe Bridge displays a folder’s content on a local hard drive. To view images that are located on removable media, such as a DVDs or Hard Drives that are not connected to your computer, you are out of luck.

Adobe Bridge will not display any information that is “offline.” Lightroom’s reach can extend beyond the local disk and can work with offline files that have passed through the application’s import process. Any images that are in the database can be accessed by Lightroom significantly faster than adobe Bridge.

Lightroom as an application has the advantage of moving rapidly though images because all the thumbnail views are built when you import or ingest your images into Lightroom. on the other hand, when bridge is pointed to a folder of images to look at (that is, when it’s browsing), it must build the thumbnails of the images and document files before the viewer can see the contents of the folder. This process can become very time consuming when bridge is directed to view a folder containing a large number of images.

Lightroom enhancements to the workflow can help photographers in ways that a “file browser” is not designed to accommodate. The application excels on the search side, providing a dedicated database solution, whereas a file browser like Bridge does not have this capability.

If you’re a photographer working predominantly with images, Lightroom’s features push the envelope of Image management, processing and presentation.  So I personally don’t recommend using Bridge. It’s just toooo slooow for me.

If I introduce images into Lightroom via Import, the location path of the image is documented.  Right Click on any Image in Lightroom’s grid view and highlight “Show in Finder (mac) or Show in Explorer (PC) You will be presented with the image location on your hard drive or connected Hard Drive etc.…it’s that easy to find your stuff.

All the best Jerry Courvoisier

http://www.lightroomworkshops.com