Bridge’s Collections tools help you find particular pictures quickly, and in this tutorial we show you how to use it effectively.
Adobe Bridge enables you to create and assign keywords to images so that you can find them with ease using filters. Keywords are one of the most useful ways of locating specific photographs, although Bridge has other tools that will help you to organise your ever-growing library of photos.
In the film era we’d place prints into photo albums, often arranged around themes such as weddings or holidays. In these digital days we have many more images to manage, so we can end up scrolling through hundreds of thumbnails in search of a particular shot.
In this walkthrough we’ll demonstrate how to use the old photo album model to collect themed images together so that they are easier to access, courtesy of Bridge’s Collections panel.
You’ll also learn how to use the Smart Collections feature to find photos according to specific metadata information, such as the shutter speed or camera model used to capture the images.
01 Assign ratings
In Bridge, click the Filmstrip workspace so that you can get a good look at each image when you click its thumbnail. If you like an image, you can click the star icons below a thumbnail to assign up to five stars. You can also assign ratings by pressing Cmd/Ctrl and a number between 1 and 5.
02 Label your images
You can assign ratings by clicking the Label menu at the top of the workspace, too. As well as star ratings, there are colour-coded labels that indicate the status of a file. If a picture is ready for print, you could apply a green Approved label. Images that need editing might have a purple To Do label.
03 Filter your photos
Once you’ve assigned ratings and labels, you can search using them. Go to the Filter panel and click a coloured label to see all the files with that label. Narrow down your search by clicking other criteria, such as a particular rating. You can also use the Filter items by rating option.
04 Create a Collection
To create an album-style Collection, click the Collections panel. Click the New Collection icon at the bottom. Label the Collection with an appropriate name, such as ‘Landscape collection’. Drag thumbnails from the Filmstrip into the Landscape collection’s folder.
05 Create a Smart Collection
Click the New Smart Collection icon. Choose a Source for Bridge to look in. In Criteria, choose an attribute, such as Rating equals five stars. Click the + icon to add other criteria if necessary. Click Save. The Smart Collection will automatically gather appropriate images together.
06 Export to Photoshop
Once you’ve finished organising files in Bridge, you can double click to take a specific file into Photoshop. You can also go to Tools>Photoshop and use shortcuts that will jump-start a variety of Photoshop edits, such as placing two images into separate layers in the same document.
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