Chapter 6: Using Bridge to Organize and Process Photos 157 l Folders: The Folders workspace is designed to help you navigate the filesystem to find the folders and files that you need to work with. Organizing Files in Bridge The true value of the Bridge utility is in the ability to quickly find and organize images. Bridge pro- vides direct access to all metadata contained in the images file and allows you to add additional metadata in the form of keywords, labels, and ratings. Bridge also allows you to organize photos in a more usable fashion than a traditional filesystem by arranging them in collections and stacks. When you keep your files organized, you save lots of time looking for images. The following sec- tions discuss how to use Bridge to organize your image files. Importing images from cameras and card readers An extremely useful feature of Bridge is its ability to import files from a camera or card reader directly to your computer filesystem. Most cameras and card readers allow you to easily copy files to your computer, but Bridge offers many more options than just a file copy. To import images from your camera or card reader to Bridge, select File ➪ Get Photos From Camera from the main menu or click the Get Photos from Camera button in the toolbar. The Photo Downloader, shown in Figure 6.4, is displayed. You can click the Advanced Dialog button to also display the images on the device, as shown in Figure 6.4. This allows you to select which images to download from the device. FIGURE 6.4 The content view controls in Bridge allow you to quickly change how files are displayed in the content pane. 10_584743-ch06.indd 15710_584743-ch06.indd 157 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 158 Using the Photo Downloader, you can define where to download the images, what to name them, and several other options. The following sections discuss each of the options available when down- loading images. Get Photos From The Get Photos From option provides a drop-down menu with a list of available devices. If you can plug the camera directly into the computer, it shows up in the list as well as memory card readers. Location You can click the Browse button in the Location area to bring up a dialog box that you can use to select a destination folder for the new files. This is the location on your filesystem where the new image files are downloaded. Create Subfolder(s) You can tell the Photo Downloader to create subfolders on the filesystem for the new files being imported. From the Create Subfolder(s) drop-down list, you can select None, Custom Name, Today’s date, or a variety of combinations of the shoot date with custom data, as shown in Figure 6.5. The sequence of month, day, and year used when naming the folders is noted next to each option as mm, dd, and yyyy, respectively. FIGURE 6.5 Selecting subfolder creation option for a destination folder when downloading image from a camera or card reader The Create Subfolders option can be extremely valuable if you are importing files that were taken on different dates and you want to keep them separate. Photo Downloader can automatically sepa- rate them based on the dates taken. Rename Files Another useful feature contained in the Photo Downloader is the ability to rename files. Most cam- eras use a simple sequence name that has no meaning except to the camera. Using the Rename Files option in the Photo Downloader, you can choose to rename files based on the current date, shoot date, custom name, parent folder name, or a customized name. 10_584743-ch06.indd 15810_584743-ch06.indd 158 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Chapter 6: Using Bridge to Organize and Process Photos 159 Tip Using the parent folder name can be useful if you are using descriptive filenames because when working with collections, you cannot easily see which folder the image resides in. n When you select the Advanced Rename option, a dialog box similar to the one in Figure 6.6 is dis- played. This Advanced Rename option allows you to create custom filenames based on up to ten different components including text, new extension, current filename, preserved filename, sequence number, sequence letter, date, time, and metadata. FIGURE 6.6 Configuring custom filename options when downloading images from a camera or card reader allows you to organize files much more usefully. Using the Advanced Rename option is useful to organize filenames based on many aspects of the image. For example, you could organize photos based on Lens attribute in the metadata. Then you could easily find all your images that were taken with a specific lens. Open Adobe Bridge The Adobe Bridge option is used to automatically open Bridge if it is not already open when using the Photo Downloader. Because we are discussing using the Photo Downloader from within Bridge, you don’t need to worry about this setting. Convert to DNG When the Convert to DNG option is selected, Photo Downloader converts the images to the DNG file format before saving them to your filesystem. When you enable this option, the Settings button 10_584743-ch06.indd 15910_584743-ch06.indd 159 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 160 next to it is enabled. When you click the Settings button, the DNG Conversion Settings dialog, shown in Figure 6.7, is displayed. FIGURE 6.7 Configuring the DNG conversion settings when converting an image to DNG while downloading it Tip You shouldn’t convert files that are not in Camera Raw format, such as JPEG files, to DNG when importing them. Because they have already been converted to another format, the Camera Raw data has already been lost. Editing them will be faster by just using the current format; there is no advantage to converting them to DNG. n Using the DNG Conversion Settings dialog box, you can configure the following settings to be used during the conversion: l Preview: This allows you to set the size of the JPEG thumbnail embedded in the DNG file to large, medium, or none. Using thumbnails can make Bridge run faster; however, they make the file size larger. If you are not sure, use the medium setting. l Compression: When Compressed is checked, the data compression used to store the DNG data is completely lossless. Unless you have a really good reason to turn this option off, you should leave it on to keep your image data intact. l Preserve Raw Image: When Preserver Raw Image is selected, the image data is stored in the original format if the DNG converter can read the raw data. This is the best option because you can always convert the RAW data over to a linear form, but you cannot convert it back. 10_584743-ch06.indd 16010_584743-ch06.indd 160 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Chapter 6: Using Bridge to Organize and Process Photos 161 l Convert to Linear Image: This converts the image to a linear form, which stores the data more efficiently but is different from the original RAW format. l Embed Original Raw File: This embeds the original RAW file inside the newly created DNG file. This option is useful for full preservation of data; however, it more than doubles the size of most files on disk. Delete Original Files When the Delete Original Files option is selected, Photo Downloader removes the file from the camera or memory card after it has been downloaded. This option is useful in managing photos. At some point, most people end up with a memory card containing files that they are not certain have been downloaded to their computer. Using this option eliminates that problem. Save Copies To When the Save Copies To option has been selected, Photo Downloader saves an additional copy of the image file to a location specified using the Browse button. This option is useful to help you keep an automatic archive of your images. Apply Metadata The Apply Metadata feature allows you to automatically add metadata items to images as they are downloaded to the computer. This can save lots of time later adding metadata to individual files. You can select one of the custom defined metadata templates (discussed later in this chapter) using the Template to Use box. The selected custom template is applied to each image as it is down- loaded to the filesystem. You also can add the Creator and Copyright metadata to the file by typing into the appropriate text boxes. Working with image metadata The metadata of an image is often as valuable as the pixels in the image itself. Some files simply are not useful without their metadata, and others are much more useful because of their metadata. Bridge displays metadata about files in various views and even allows you to filter a list of files based on the metadata. The metadata contained in each file can provide lots of useful functionality. For example, the metadata of photos typically contains information about the time and date that the photo was taken, which can be used later to accurately label and organize files. Photo files also typically contain information about the camera, lens, and settings that were used for each photo. For serious photographers, this saves lots of time recording the settings that were used for each shot. Photographers can use the settings to compare results in multiple images to get a better feel for what camera settings and lenses to use. This section discusses the two major features of Bridge that you use when viewing and changing metadata: the Metadata panel and the File Info utility. The Metadata panel, shown in Figure 6.8, allows you to quickly view all available metadata for the image selected in the Content panel. The Metadata panel is accessible by selecting Window ➪ Metadata Panel from the main menu. 10_584743-ch06.indd 16110_584743-ch06.indd 161 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 162 FIGURE 6.8 Viewing the metadata for an image file in Bridge The data in the Metadata panel are organized into the following major sections; you can expand or collapse these sections by clicking the triangle next to the section title: l File properties: Displays information about the image file itself, such as the filename, size, type, dimension, and color mode. l IPTC Core: Displays the IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) data, including creator info, copyright description, and keywords. l Camera Data (Exif): Displays information about the camera used to take the photo, including the lens, ISO setting, aperture, and so on. l Audio: Displays the information about audio files, including the artist, album, song, genre, and so on. l Video: Displays information about video files, such as the tape name, scene, shoot, and date. l DICOM: Displays the DICOM information associated with the image, including patient name, date of birth, study information, physician, and so on. l Mobile SWF: Displays information about SWF (Small Web Format) files, such as content type, persistent storage, and background alpha. 10_584743-ch06.indd 16210_584743-ch06.indd 162 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Chapter 6: Using Bridge to Organize and Process Photos 163 Bridge also allows you to edit the metadata associated with a file using the File Info utility shown in Figure 6.9. You can use the File Info utility to add keywords, copyright data, descriptions, and much more. To use the File Info utility, select one or more images and then select File ➪ File Info from the main menu in Bridge. After you have launched the File Info utility, select the tabs at the top to select areas of the metadata to alter. After you select each tab, you can add or alter certain portions of the metadata. These saved metadata changes become a permanent part of the image file so it’s available later, and you can filter and search on those metadata items from within Bridge. FIGURE 6.9 Modifying the metadata for files using the File Info utility in Bridge Tip The File Info utility allows you to set the metadata on multiple images at the same time. When setting metadata for multiple files, select all files that have the same metadata settings and then make the changes. n Assigning ratings and labels to files Bridge allows you to assign ratings and labels to files. Adding ratings to files helps you organize files that you like better than others. Ratings are based on values of one to five stars. This helps when you are finding files because you can filter out the ones with fewer stars. 10_584743-ch06.indd 16310_584743-ch06.indd 163 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 164 Bridge also allows you to add labels to files to help you organize them to use later. You can label files with the Select, Second, Review, Approved, and To Do labels. To add a rating or a label to a file, select Label from the main menu in Bridge and then select one of the options shown in Figure 6.10. FIGURE 6.10 Adding ratings and labels to files helps you organize, prioritize, and find files easier. Assigning keywords to files An extremely useful feature of file metadata is the ability to add keywords that identify or link the file with a person, event, place, or some other piece of data. Bridge makes good use of the keyword feature by allowing you to create new keywords and keyword groups and assigning them to files using the Keywords panel, shown in Figure 6.11. After the keywords have been assigned to files, you can use them to find the files much easier later. Adding an existing keyword to a file To add an existing keyword to one or more files in Bridge, open the Keyword panel. Then select the file(s) in the Content panel. Then select the keyword you want to add to the file(s); the key- word is written to the metadata of the file. Adding a new keyword The Keywords tab displays only the basic keywords and keywords that exist in the selected files. If you want to add a new keyword to a file that doesn’t exist already, click the New Keyword button in the Keywords panel or right-click in the Keywords panel and select New Keyword from the pop-up menu. A new keyword is added to the list, and you can type the name in the provided text box. 10_584743-ch06.indd 16410_584743-ch06.indd 164 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM . accessible by selecting Window ➪ Metadata Panel from the main menu. 10_584743-ch06.indd 16110_584743-ch06.indd 161 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 162 . 10_584743-ch06.indd 15910_584743-ch06.indd 159 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 160 next to it is enabled. When you click the Settings button, the DNG. pane. 10_584743-ch06.indd 15710_584743-ch06.indd 157 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 158 Using the Photo Downloader, you can define where to download the