60 c h a p t e r 2: BRIDGE ■ Note: If you drag the Filter, Collections, and Export panels from their default locations and place them by Folders and Favorites, the lower pod will collapse unless you have placed another panel there. In fact, once you remove all the panels from any pod, that pod will collapse until you drag a new panel into it. Further, any panel in Bridge can be positioned in any pod by clicking the tab at the top of the panel and dragging it to the desired location. By doing this you could place the filmstrip on the left and the folders on the right, or create any other configuration that suits your needs. When initially viewing images, we usually select the Folders tab and navigate to the desired folder so we can have the Folders panel fill the left pod. (If you have used Adobe Photo Downloader, it will automatically open a new Bridge window and navigate to the folder containing the newly imported images.) However, while we sort through our images, we like to have the Filter and Keyword panels visible on the left. Occasionally we like to use the Light Table view to scan the contents of a folder. Ellen has created a custom view called Ellen 1. The new workspace is automatically added to the list of presets, as shown in Figure 2.21. That way, she can use any of the other presets but still quickly return to her preferred layout. Figure 2.21 Choose a name for each workspace you save that clearly describes it, so you can quickly select the best workspace for any task. To create and save a customized workspace, take these steps: 1. Choose the default workspace that initially is closest to what you want to use. 2. Adjust the size of the pods as described earlier. 3. Select which panels to have visible by choosing Window > Workspace and tog- gling the check marks on and off. 4. Drag the panels to the desired pods. Once you have configured the space the way you want it, save the workspace by choosing Window > Workspace > Save Workspace or by clicking the Workspace- changer drop-down menu in the top of the interface and choosing Save Workspace. A new dialog will appear in which you name your workspace. There are also options to save the current sort order and the physical location of the window. After you save your workspace, it’s available from Window > Workspace or from the Workspace- changer icons at the top of the interface, as shown in Figure 2.21. Other Views Sometimes it’s helpful to be able to see more of the images at once without seeing a larger preview of a single image. The Light Table view shows only the Content panel (see Figure 2.22). This can be helpful when you want to get an overall look at the images. We often use this view when looking for a specific image or checking to get a sense of the images that are in a folder. 607343c02.indd 60 4/11/10 11:03:16 PM 61 ■ BRIDGE VIEWS AND WORKSPACES Figure 2.22 Using the Light Table view allows you to see as many of your image thumbnails as possible for an initial sort. Ph ot os by EllE n An on This view is also excellent if Bridge didn’t automatically rotate your verticals so they appear with the proper orientation (which requires that your digital camera support this feature). To rotate images, simply select them, and click the appropriate rotation button at the top of the Bridge window—these buttons have circular arrows indicating the direction of rotation. To select a group of images to be rotated, click the first one, then Shift-click the last one in the group, and finally click a rotation button. To rotate noncontiguous images, Ctrl+click/F+click the desired images, and then click a rotation button. When you rotate an image in Bridge, only the thumbnail preview is rotated. The actual image isn’t rotated until you open it. Resize the thumbnails using the same procedure as described earlier. Usually you’ll want the thumbnails to be fairly small in this view since you’re not checking the individual files for details but rather getting a sense of what images are in the folder. If you want to see a full-screen preview of your image at any time, press the spacebar. The interface will change to reveal only the selected image. Press the space- bar again to return to your regular workspace. To view multiple images in a full- screen view, click the Refine icon and choose Review Mode. Try It! To get more comfortable with the many options available in Bridge, point it to a folder containing some of your images, and adjust the various options we’ve discussed here for changing the interface, including the view, pod size, and panel locations. 607343c02.indd 61 4/11/10 11:03:17 PM 62 c h a p t e r 2: BRIDGE ■ Recognizing the Icons Bridge CS5 uses a lot of icons in the interface in the main menu bar as well as the Path bar below it, as shown in Figure 2.23. We’ve labeled the icons for you in the figure, but when you hover the cursor over them on your monitor, a tooltip will appear with their names. Still, it helps to know what functions are available from the icons rather than having to go to the menus. Go Back or Go Forward Go to Parent or Favorites Go to Recent File or Folder Get Photos From Camera Path Bar Rene Output Browse Quickly/Prefer Embedded Images Filter Items by Rating View Sort Trash Create New Folder Options for Thumbnail Quality and Previews Open in Camera Raw Return to Last Application Workspace Changer Rotate Left/Rotate Right Open Recent Folder Switch to Compact Mode Search For Field Figure 2.23 The icons in the Bridge interface make it easy to access a multitude of features with a single click. The top bar is always visible, but if the bottom bar, called the Path bar, is miss- ing, choose Window > Path Bar and click to toggle its visibility. Notice that there are icons to control the quality of the thumbnail previews. When you want to browse quickly, click the icon. To specify the overall quality used for the thumbnails and size of the previews, use the icon. We tend to set the Quality to Always High and then use the Quick Browse icon when we’re anxious to see the images and don’t want to wait for high-quality preview generation. You can choose whichever setting best meets your needs. Stacking Images As you go through your images, if you’re like most nature photographers you’ll see that you have a series of very similar images. This is particularly true if you are a wildlife photographer seeking just the right head angle and subject position. Or per- haps you’re taking shots to composite into a panorama. Sometimes it helps to orga- nize your images into stacks. That way, you can rapidly glance through the stacked view to have a general idea of what you’ve captured, and you can edit each stack individually. To stack a group of images, first select them by Ctrl+clicking/F+clicking the images you want to group. If the images were shot in sequence and are all next to each other, click the first one and Shift-click the last one to select the entire series; press Ctrl+G/F+G to group them as a stack. Alternatively, you can stack them by choosing Stacks > Group as Stack. The stacked images will appear with an outline around them and a number on top indicating how many images are in the stack (see Figure 2.24). 607343c02.indd 62 4/11/10 11:03:17 PM 63 ■ BRIDGE VIEWS AND WORKSPACES Figure 2.24 Stacking groups of similar images makes it easy to nd specic sequences of images. Ph ot os by EllE n An on We find the following techniques helpful when working with stacks: T• o open an individual stack, click the number at the top of the stack. Click the number again to close that stack. T• o open all stacks, choose Stacks > Expand All Stacks, and to close all stacks, choose Stacks > Collapse All Stacks. T• o move an image in or out of an existing stack, click and drag it in or out of the stack. T• o unstack images, select the stack and choose Stacks > Ungroup from Stack (Ctrl+Shift+G/F+Shift+G). The image on top of the stack will be the image that’s the farthest to the left in the group when you open the stack. You can click any image in the stack and drag it to the right or left, thereby selecting which image will be on top of the stack. Usually you’ll want to choose the best image from the group, as shown in Figure 2.25. Figure 2.25 The image farthest to the left will appear on top of the stack. Ph ot os by EllE n An on 607343c02.indd 63 4/11/10 11:03:18 PM 64 c h a p t e r 2: BRIDGE ■ To open just the top image in ACR, make sure that only the top image is selected. You can tell because the top image will have a gray background, and there will be a rim of black on the right and bottom before the outline of the stack, as shown in Figure 2.26. Figure 2.26 When there is a black space to the right and bottom of the stack, only the top image is selected. Ph ot os by EllE n An on To open an entire stack in ACR, first click in the black space, which will then fill with gray. When the entire stack outline is filled with gray, the entire stack is selected, as shown in Figure 2.27. Double-click in the main part of the thumbnail to open the images in ACR. To select just the top image, click in the space on the right and bottom so that it returns to black. Figure 2.27 When there is no black space to the right and bottom of the stack, all images in the stack are selected. In CS5 if a stack contains 10 or more images, when you hover your cursor over the stack a “play” arrow appears along with a small window with a marker in it. Click the play button to have Bridge rapidly scroll through all the images in the stack while leaving the stack closed (Figure 2.28). Move the marker slightly to the right to manu- ally scroll through the images in the closed stack. Figure 2.28 By using the play option or the manual advance, you can view stacked images without opening the stack. Bridge CS5 can automatically create stacks for images that you shot to com- posite into panoramas or HDR composites. After selecting the folder containing the images, go to Stacks > Auto-Stack Panorama/HDR. You can help Bridge do this by making certain to shoot a blank frame (such as sky or your hand) between the last segment in one series and the first image in the next. Ph ot os by EllE n An on 607343c02.indd 64 4/11/10 11:03:18 PM 65 ■ SORTING AND EDITING Try It! Practice working with stacks on a folder of your own images. Create stacks, rearrange the files in them to change the one that appears on top, drag images in and out of the stack, and so on. We think you’ll like this feature once you get comfortable with it. Sorting and Editing Getting your digital images onto your computer and creating a good way to view them is certainly a start. But as you’ve probably noticed, images seem to accumulate quickly, and keeping them organized can be a bit of a chore, especially if you have a backlog of images stored in many folders. So the first step is to figure out what you have, which images are worth keeping, and which should be deleted. Then you can select the images you’d like to start optimizing. A good approach is to plan to do at least two passes through your images. First reject the images that are obviously poor on the first pass and mark those that you’re excited about with a star rating. Then take a second look at the rejects before deleting them. That way you won’t accidentally delete any files you want to keep, and you can be more aggressive about rejecting images since you know you can opt to recover a file if necessary. Next you may opt to stack the images and go through them a second or third time, assigning more careful ratings as well as labels. We’ll go into more detail about this process later in this section. If you haven’t already navigated to the folder containing your images, do so using the Folders panel. It’s a directory of everything on your computer. If you will be returning to this folder frequently, you may want to drag the folder to the Favorites panel. That way, you can find it quickly without needing to look through the entire directory. To place it on the Favorites panel, right-click/Control-click the folder, and choose Add to Favorites, as shown in Figure 2.29. If both the Favorites panel and Folders panel are visible, you can simply drag the folder to the area under the words Drag Favorites Here on the Favorites panel. Then click the folder in Favorites to view the contents. Figure 2.29 Placing frequently accessed folders in the Favorites panel makes them easier to nd. Instead of using your mouse to haphazardly click images that you want to view in more detail, we recommend taking a close look at all of the images in the folder. Click the first image on the list (scroll to the top of the list if necessary), and then use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate through the images. As you move up and down, the preview is updated based on the currently active image. 607343c02.indd 65 4/11/10 11:03:19 PM . steps: 1. Choose the default workspace that initially is closest to what you want to use. 2. Adjust the size of the pods as described earlier. 3. Select which panels to have visible by choosing. it, save the workspace by choosing Window > Workspace > Save Workspace or by clicking the Workspace- changer drop-down menu in the top of the interface and choosing Save Workspace. A. Click the number again to close that stack. T• o open all stacks, choose Stacks > Expand All Stacks, and to close all stacks, choose Stacks > Collapse All Stacks. T• o move an image in