Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 170 The Review Mode utility, available by selecting View ➪ Review Mode from the main menu, displays the images in a rotating carousel view of the images in the Preview panel. Selecting an image with the mouse brings that image to the front of the view. You also can click the left and right arrows to rotate the image to the left or to the right. Clicking the down arrow or dragging an image off the screen removes the front image from the list. Using collections A collection is a set of files that are grouped together in Bridge. The collection concept does not exist outside of Bridge, which offers some advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that you can create and delete collections in Bridge without affecting the actual files on disk. You also can add files to collections regardless of where they exist in the filesystem. The disadvantage is that although you can view collections of files quickly in Bridge, you cannot view them in other appli- cations (except Photoshop using the mini-Bridge panel). Using Bridge collections is useful for keeping track of files that belong together. The following sec- tions describe creating collections of files in Bridge using the Collections panel, shown in Figure 6.16. FIGURE 6.16 Using the Collections panel to create collections of files in Bridge Creating collections You create a new collection in Bridge by clicking the New Collection button in the Collections panel. A new collection appears, and you can type the name of the collection. You can rename the collection at any time by right-clicking it and selecting Rename from the pop-up menu. To delete a collection, right-click it and select Delete from the pop-up menu. 10_584743-ch06.indd 17010_584743-ch06.indd 170 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Chapter 6: Using Bridge to Organize and Process Photos 171 After you have created a collection, you can drag files from the Content panel onto the collection in the Collections panel. When you select a collection, all files that have been added to the collec- tion will appear in the Content panel. Creating smart collections Collections are great for creating one-time sets of files. A much more dynamic option is to use the smart collection feature built into Bridge. Smart collections are dynamic collections that update continually. You point them to a location, and they update every time new images are placed into that location. A major advantage of smart collections is that they update based on a configurable filter set. The filter set is the same set that is available in the Find tool. You can specify the search criteria on a specific metadata item or on all metadata by selecting the option from the drop-down list. This allows you to add files to a smart collection only if they are taken with a certain lens or ISO setting or if they contain a specific keyword or rating. To create a smart collection, click the New Smart Collection icon in the Collections panel to bring up the Smart Collection dialog box, shown in Figure 6.17. Then select the source folder to search when looking for new files. Then set up the criteria on which to filter when adding files to the col- lection. You can edit the criteria at any time by clicking the Edit Smart Filter in the Collections panel or in the Content panel when a smart collection is selected. FIGURE 6.17 Configuring a smart collection to dynamically update the collection based on a set of criteria Creating stacks The invention of the digital camera has resulted in one serious side effect. Instead of just single photographs, people tend to take several. This can present a problem when organizing files in 10_584743-ch06.indd 17110_584743-ch06.indd 171 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 172 Bridge. Instead of a simple list of the photos to choose from, you end up with an extended list con- taining sections of duplicate photographs that are difficult to scroll through. Bridge solves this problem with the stack feature. The stack feature in Bridge allows you to take a group of duplicate folders and place them in a stack, just as you would on a desktop. You place the best image on top, and that is the only image you have to view when browsing in Bridge. The other images are still there and can be accessed. However, they are hidden from the general view. Note When you open a stack from Bridge by double-clicking it, the images open as separate files. You also can select Tools ➪ Photoshop ➪ Load Files Into Photoshop Layers to load the stack into layers in the same document. This can be useful if you want to convert the layers to a smart object and then use the Layers ➪ Smart Objects ➪ Stack Mode options to reduce noise and enhance the images. n To create a stack from a group of images, select the images in the Content panel. Then select Stacks ➪ Group as Stack in the main menu or type Ctrl/Ô+G to create the group, as shown in Figure 6.18. Instead of displaying all the images, only the top one is visible in the stack icon with a count in the top-left corner. FIGURE 6.18 Grouping images as stacks allows you to hide duplicate images while browsing through images in Bridge. The stack can be expanded or contracted by clicking the count icon in the top-left corner. To promote an image to the top of the stack, simply drag it to the left so it is in the top-left position in the stack. To remove an image from a stack, select it and then select Stack ➪ Ungroup From Stack from the main menu. To add a new image to an existing stack, select the stack and the image(s) and then select Stack ➪ Group as Stack from the main menu. All metadata operations apply to the stack, so if you add a rating, label, or keyword, it is applied to all images in the stack. Deleting versus rejecting files Bridge allows you to remove files from being viewed in two ways: deleting and rejecting. Deleting a file also removes it from the filesystem. Rejecting a file tags it so that Bridge no longer displays it 10_584743-ch06.indd 17210_584743-ch06.indd 172 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Chapter 6: Using Bridge to Organize and Process Photos 173 normally. These options are straightforward, but you should know for sure that you want to per- manently remove the file before deleting it. To delete or reject a file in Bridge, select the file and click the Delete key. A dialog box appears that enables you to either reject or delete the file. Note Even if you have rejected a file in Bridge, they can still be viewed in the Content panel by selecting View ➪ Show Rejected Files from the main menu. n Processing Images Using Bridge and Photoshop As you have seen in the previous sections, Bridge is a powerful tool that allows you to organize and manage image files. In addition to organizing image files, Bridge utilizes an interface with Photoshop to help you process the images directly while you are organizing them. The following sections discuss some of the main image-processing operations that you can do from within Bridge. Opening images in Photoshop One of the most common processing tasks done in Bridge is opening images in Photoshop. Photoshop is where the images are edited. Rather than having to open Photoshop and use the stan- dard File ➪ Open dialog boxes, you can open images in Photoshop directly from Bridge, where you have great tools for organizing and finding them. Opening image in Photoshop Bridge makes it fast and easy to open images as their own document in Photoshop. Simply select the image(s) that you want to open in the Content panel, and then select File ➪ Open with ➪ Adobe Photoshop CS5 (default) from the main menu in Bridge. If Photoshop is not already loaded, it loads and then the selected image(s) are opened as separate documents in Photoshop. From there, you can edit them as you need. Placing images in Photoshop Bridge also makes it possible to place images into other images in Photoshop. To place an image into another image in Photoshop, make sure the original image is active in Photoshop. Then select the image in the Content panel and select File ➪ Place ➪ In Photoshop from the main menu in Bridge. The image is placed into the original document as a smart layer, exactly as if you had selected File ➪ Place inside Photoshop itself. Note When placing images from Bridge into Photoshop, you can only place a single image at a time. n 10_584743-ch06.indd 17310_584743-ch06.indd 173 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Part I: Getting Started with Adobe Photoshop CS5 174 Loading files as Photoshop layers Another useful way of opening images in Photoshop from Bridge is to open them as layers in a sin- gle document. This is useful when you are working with a series of images that you need to com- bine into a single composition. To open a series of images in Photoshop using the Bridge utility, select the files in the Content panel of Bridge that you want to open as layers in Photoshop. Next select Tools ➪ Photoshop ➪ Load Files into Photoshop Layers from the main menu in Bridge. The selected images are loaded into a single new Photoshop document as individual layers, as shown in Figure 6.19. FIGURE 6.19 Using the Photoshop interface with Bridge, you can open a series of images as individual layers in a single document in Photoshop from the Bridge interface. Opening in Camera Raw When you are working with Camera Raw images, you likely will want to first open them in the Camera Raw editor, which is discussed in Chapter 7, before opening them in Photoshop. This allows you to make adjustments directly to the unprocessed Camera Raw pixel data. Bridge allows you to open images directly into the Camera Raw editor using an underlying inter- face. To open images in the Camera Raw editor from Bridge, select the image(s) in the Content panel and then select File ➪ Open in Camera Raw. The Camera Raw editor is launched if it is not already open, and the images are opened as individual documents. Batch processing One of Photoshop’s strengths is the ability to automate the processing of images. One of the utili- ties that Photoshop provides to automatically process images is the Batch tool. Bridge makes use of Photoshop’s batch tool by providing a direct link to it from the Bridge utility. This allows you to combine Bridge’s strength in organizing and finding images with Photoshop’s automated processing engine. The result is that you are more efficient in collecting files and then quickly processing them. 10_584743-ch06.indd 17410_584743-ch06.indd 174 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM Chapter 6: Using Bridge to Organize and Process Photos 175 To use Bridge to launch batch processing of files, select the files you want to process in the Content panel and then select Tools ➪ Photoshop ➪ Batch from the main menu in Bridge. Photoshop is launched if it is not already up, and the Batch utility window, shown in Figure 6.20, is displayed. Using the Batch utility, you can select the action set and action to apply to the files. Do not change the Source from Bridge because it is using Bridge to get the list of files to process. However, you can modify the Destination and Errors settings. We discuss the Batch tool in much more detail in Chapter 31. FIGURE 6.20 Using Bridge, you can select files to be processed by Photoshop’s Batch process utility. Using the Image Processor Another very useful tool Photoshop provides when processing images is the Image Processor util- ity. The Image Processor utility is especially useful to quickly convert a set of files, one or all of, to the JPEG, PSD, or TIFF formats. Bridge provides a direct interface with Photoshop’s Image Processor utility, allowing you to quickly find the files using Bridge’s interface and then convert them using Image Processor. 10_584743-ch06.indd 17510_584743-ch06.indd 175 5/3/10 10:21 AM5/3/10 10:21 AM . with ➪ Adobe Photoshop CS5 (default) from the main menu in Bridge. If Photoshop is not already loaded, it loads and then the selected image(s) are opened as separate documents in Photoshop. From. from Bridge by double-clicking it, the images open as separate files. You also can select Tools ➪ Photoshop ➪ Load Files Into Photoshop Layers to load the stack into layers in the same document Bridge. Opening images in Photoshop One of the most common processing tasks done in Bridge is opening images in Photoshop. Photoshop is where the images are edited. Rather than having to open Photoshop and