70 c h a p t e r 2: BRIDGE ■ Creating Collections The idea behind collections is that you may want to view certain groupings of your images even though the files are housed in different folders. To begin, click on the Collections panel. If it’s not visible choose Window > Collections Panel. Then click the icon. Name the collection, then click and drag one or more images into it. To remove an image from a Collection, right-click/Control-click on the thumbnail in the Content panel and choose Remove from Collection. By clicking the Refine icon and choosing Review, you can view all the images currently visible in the Content panel in a full-screen Preview-only mode. If there are more than a few images, the images will appear in a carousel. By clicking the arrow, you can delete images from view. Click the icon to place the remaining images into a collection. A dialog will appear in which you name the new collection. You can opt to have Bridge create collections for you based on certain param- eters that you specify as shown in Figure 2.34. To begin, click the new Smart Collec- tion icon . In the new dialog box that appears, specify where Bridge should check for potential images. You could choose a folder or a broader part of your computer. Then specify the criteria. The first drop-down window says Filename by default, but by clicking within it you can choose from among a huge number of options. If you want to specify more than one parameter, click the + sign at the end of this line and then repeat the process until you have specified all the criteria. Next choose between If Any Criteria Are Met and If All Criteria Are Met in the drop-down window. To create the collection, click Save. The Smart Collection will have a blue icon in the Collections panel. To edit the criteria, click the Edit Smart Collections icon in the lower left of the panel. Figure 2.34 Smart Collections help you organize your images in groupings that are meaningful to you. Using Keywords Applying keywords to your images is essential if you want to be able to easily find par- ticular images, or types of images, in the future. Although it may feel like a nuisance, it’s important to apply keywords to your images early in your workflow. It’s all too easy to procrastinate and figure you’ll do it later so that you can get on with the fun part of optimizing your images. But if you skip adding the keywords, you’re likely to wind up with thousands of images stashed in various folders without an easy way to 607343c02.indd 70 4/11/10 11:03:21 PM 71 ■ SORTI NG A ND E DI TI NG locate any particular image. By applying keywords, you can later search for an image using the Find command in Photoshop or using the search function on your computer. Using Keywords to Locate Images To find images using Bridge, choose Edit > Find. A new dialog box appears in which you specify the criteria for which to search. In the Criteria drop-down menu, choose Keywords. By using a series of keywords, you can do a more comprehensive search than just searching by filename. At the end of the line, click the + radio button to add additional keywords to use in the search. Under Results, choose If Any Criteria Are Met and If All Criteria Are Met. Then proceed with your search. Assign keywords every time you import images. In Bridge, you do so by high- lighting one or more images, clicking the Keywords tab, and checking the keyword(s) to apply. It’s really quite simple! Keywords are organized into sets containing specific nested subkeywords in each set. By default Bridge has a few keywords, but for most nature photographers these will not be of much use. You’ll need to create your own. Fortunately, it’s easy. First you need to think of what organizational scheme you want to use. Since Bridge CS5 is able to create nested keywords, you can create multiple levels within a set. For example, we might begin with a set called Places, then add a subkeyword Japan. We’ll click on Japan and then click the subkeyword icon to add yet another, more explicit, location called Hokkaido. We’ll click on Hokkaido and add a new subkeyword called Lake Kussharo. Or, as in Figure 2.35, we might create a keyword called Birds, with a subordinate keyword Shore Birds, with a subordinate keyword Egret, and subordi- nates Cattle, Great Egret, Reddish, and Snowy. Figure 2.35 Organize your keywords in a logical way with main keywords and nested subordinate keywords. Note: At the very least, you should have a keyword for the location of each shot and the subject matter. If you submit your images to stock agencies, you’ll want to add keywords according to their recommendations. To create new keywords, click on an existing keyword at the desired level. Then click the New Keyword icon and type the name. To create new subkeywords, first Using Keywords to Locate Images To find images using Bridge, choose Edit > Find. A new dialog box appears in which you specify the criteria for which to search. In the Criteria drop-down menu, choose Keywords. By using a series of keywords, you can do a more comprehensive search than just searching by filename. At the end of the line, click the + radio button to add additional keywords to use in the search. Under Results, choose If Any Criteria Are Met and If All Criteria Are Met. Then proceed with your search. 607343c02.indd 71 4/11/10 11:03:21 PM 72 c h a p t e r 2: BRIDGE ■ select the parent keyword by clicking on it, and then click the New SubKeyword icon . To create an additional keyword at the same level, click the Add Keyword icon rather than the Add Subordinate Keyword icon. To delete a keyword or keyword set, select it, right-click/Control-click, and choose Delete. Before creating a new keyword, you can search to see if it already exists in your keyword list by entering the text in the search field (see Figure 2.36). Then any place that word exists in the keyword structure will be highlighted, as shown in the figure. Figure 2.36 Searching for a keyword avoids creating duplicate or nearly identical keywords, as well as misspellings. You can also import or export keyword categories by right-clicking/Control+ clicking and choosing the Import/Export options. Keywording is easier than ever and should be a routine part of your workflow. Try It! Create a new keyword set and several new keywords, and apply them to various images. Although it may seem intimidating at first, once you do it, we’re confident you’ll see how easy it is to do. Additional Features Bridge contains a variety of additional features that we find useful. For example, we use Tools > Photoshop > Image Processor (see Chapter 11, “Time-Savers”) to quickly batch-convert images to other sizes and file formats, and we use Tools > Photoshop > Photo merge to stitch together a series of images into a panorama (see Chapter 8, “Com- posites”). We also use Tools > Photoshop > Merge to HDR Pro to combine a series of shots in Bridge into a 32-bit file (see Chapter 8), and we use Tools > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers when we want to create a multiple exposure (see Chapter 9, “Creative Effects”). We tend not to use the Tools > Photoshop > Process Collections option, preferring the more direct approach, but you can use it to have Photoshop examine a group of images to composite into a panorama or HDR and process them accordingly. Bridge CS5 has a new Export panel, shown in Figure 2.37, that makes it easy to export images directly from Bridge without having to open Photoshop. Drag an image or group of images onto the icon in the panel—in this case, Save to Hard Drive. Then click the diagonally upward-facing arrow and complete the new dialog that appears. This leads to a new dialog that offers options for where to store the exported files as well as options for image sizing, image quality, and adding metadata, including key- words. Taking advantage of this new panel can expedite your workflow when you need to prepare images to use in a project. 607343c02.indd 72 4/11/10 11:03:21 PM 73 ■ ADDITIONAL FEATURES Figure 2.37 Use the new Export panel to quickly export images directly from Bridge. In addition, Bridge has a cool feature that quickly generates a slide show of your images. That can be useful to show off some of your best images or to help you with your sorting and editing. To create a slide show in Bridge, choose View > Slideshow from the Bridge menu, or press Ctrl+L/F+L. This will start a slide show of the selected images (or all images in the current folder if none are selected). By default, the images will change every five sec- onds, but you can press the spacebar to play or pause the slide show. To move through the images manually, click the mouse or use the arrow keys on the keyboard. Choose View > Slideshow Options (Shift+Ctrl+L/Shift+F+L) to access a dialog box (see Figure 2.38) to specify options for the slide show. You can opt to have the slide show repeat, and set the timing for the advances, whether the captions show, whether the images are scaled, as well as the transitions and transition speed. We think that the Dissolve feature is quite good and makes for a nice transition between images. Figure 2.38 Add transitions and other controls to your slide show using the Slideshow Options dialog box. 607343c02.indd 73 4/11/10 11:03:22 PM 74 c h ap ter 2: BR I D G E ■ While viewing a slide show, press the H key to access additional slide-show commands, as shown in Figure 2.39. Notice that you can apply or change labels and ratings while viewing images in a slide show. Sometimes it’s easier to decide which image you like the best by viewing the series of images in a slide show. Bridge makes it simple to remember which file you want by applying a label or rating. Press the 1–5 keys to add the appropriate number of stars, and 6–9 to add a colored label. Figure 2.39 The slide show oers a number of useful features, including the ability to easily add labels and ratings to images while viewing the slide show. Try It! Open a folder in Bridge and create a slide show. Try using the various commands and controls to customize the show. We’ll talk about Adobe Output Module, which is based on Bridge, in Chap- ter 10, “Output.” You can use it to generate web pages, contact sheets, and PDFs directly from Bridge. For Photoshop Elements Users: Additional Tools Bridge > Tools provides other useful tools for Elements Mac users, including quick access to the Process Multiple Files tool. This is similar to the Image Processor that we cover in Chapter 11. For Photoshop Elements Users: Additional Tools Bridge > Tools provides other useful tools for Elements Mac users, including quick access to the Process Multiple Files tool. This is similar to the Image Processor that we cover in Chapter 11. 607343c02.indd 74 4/11/10 11:03:22 PM 75 ■ MINI BRIDGE Mini Bridge CS5 includes a miniature version of Bridge aptly named Mini Bridge. It appears as a panel within Photoshop (Figure 2.40). To access Mini Bridge, click the Mini Bridge icon . If the full version of Bridge is not already running, it will launch first, result- ing in a short lag before Mini Bridge appears. Figure 2.40 Mini Bridge appears as a panel within Photoshop. Ph o t o s b y EllE n An o n You can expand the length or width of the panel by hovering the cursor over the edge until it becomes a double-edged arrow. As you explore the panel and hover your cursor above the various icons shown in Figure 2.41, you’ll see that a lot of power is packed into a tiny amount of space. Go Back Go to Adobe Bridge SearchGo to Parent Recent Items or Favorites Go ForwardHome Page Panel View Figure 2.41 A lot of options are available from the icons in Mini Bridge. Click the Panel view icon to choose to view the Navigation pod, the Preview pod, or both, as well as to see the Path bar. Use the icon to search for a file. The Navigation pod provides access to your folders. The Content pod shows the contents of the folders. From the fly-out menu icon you can control what files are visible, and from the Filter icon you can further control which files are visible according to their ratings and labels. The next icon controls the order in which the files are sorted. The last icon enables you to place a file in Photoshop (which we don’t normally do as part of our workflow, but graphic artists may use this feature) and to access the various tools, such as the Image Proces- sor, Merge to HDR Pro, Photomerge, etc. At the bottom of the Content pod there’s a slider that controls the size of the thumbnail, as well as the icon to access Review mode, and the icon to control the actual view within the Content pod. 607343c02.indd 75 4/11/10 11:03:23 PM . images. You could choose a folder or a broader part of your computer. Then specify the criteria. The first drop-down window says Filename by default, but by clicking within it you can choose from. use Tools > Photoshop > Merge to HDR Pro to combine a series of shots in Bridge into a 32-bit file (see Chapter 8), and we use Tools > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers. 11:03:21 PM 71 ■ SORTI NG A ND E DI TI NG locate any particular image. By applying keywords, you can later search for an image using the Find command in Photoshop or using the search function on your