Thombar Loc: Hominy, OK

I have the Photoshop CC subscription. It has Lightroom and Photoshop CC with Adobe Bridge. Seems to me like Lightroom and Bridge do the identical thing when importing photos to your computer. But I suspect Lightroom has more/better editing features. Does one need to do both? Is one better than the other? If doing both which one do I initially import into first?

Adicus Loc: New Zealand

I use Lightroom to import the files and then export them to my photos folder from Lightroom.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I don't think you need both. I don't know anyone who uses both, but perhaps someone will speak out who does, they seem redundant to me too. Their photo editing tools are nearly identical right now. Though opinions differ, I personally prefer Lightroom as my primary photo management application, for downloading, organizing, key wording, raw file development, basic editing, book-making, printing and slide shows. I like having all those functions lumped together in one effective package and I like the organizational interface of LR. I export those few photos that require Photoshop from LR to PS and back again so they sit down beside the original file. I shoot raw and don't export as jpegs until I need a jpeg, then I usually delete it as soon as I use it for whatever (posting, emailing, sending for prints) because it only takes a second to export another, and next time I might want a larger size or different crop.

Since you have both, you could do a test run with a few images and find which you prefer.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Lightroom and Bridge are a bit redundant... but Lightroom requires you to IMPORT photos into the catalog before you can do anything with them, Bridge will let you BROWSE them - no import/catalog required.... if it is on a disk Bridge can find it....but Bridge is NOT an image editor, instead it acts as a bridge or front end to Photoshop or to make use of Adobe Camera Raw...

That being said - I use Lightroom myself for 80-90% of my editing, the remainder is done in Photoshop....once Lightroom knows about the images, it can send them to Photoshop fine, bypassing the need for Bridge.

There are people that will swear that Bridge is a better way to work, but for me I prefer to use Lightroom. I started with Apple Aperture, which also imports files into a "catalog", so I really feel right at home with the way Lightroom works.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Different functions. That they are bundled together for a year or so may mean that Adobe is planning to merge the two. Other than that I do not use either so...

Adicus Loc: New Zealand

with bridge you can see the raw images as an image not just a file and I find that useful.Not sure if Lightroom allows that also as I still find Lightroom a not intuitive program yet and should persist more with it but I am a bit lazy and I know that.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

I think it's important to understand the fundamental difference between LR and PS. The former is meant to be a workflow tool for photographers with many images taken at a given event, where not only can the images be be named, have Metadata applied, and organized in various ways as well as ranked but also color correction and other edits might be done en masse to a whole series of photographs.

Photoshop, on the other hand, is designed to work on one image at a time and gives an infinitely greater set of tools to the user who might need it. By using layers and other fine-tuned tools in Photoshop you can manipulate the image with much greater detail then might be possible in Lightroom.

So of course there's a certain amount of overlap-both programs can perform color corrections for example-but with PS you would have to do it image by image while with LR you could select hundreds of photos and correct them all at the same time.

Additionally, LR is a nondestructive editing program, which means that whatever propping, correcting or other manipulations you perform are stored as a separate file that the program applies each time you view or print that image. In Photoshop when you make alterations to the image and save it you are re-creating the file in its new form (unless you perform a "save as").

Erik_H Loc: Denham Springs, Louisiana

I use lightroom for nearly all of my post work. I have my working catalogue, but where Bridge really comes in handy is when I want to find a pic that's not in the catalogue, but on one of my external archive drives. I can quickly locate the shot and from Bridge I can either re-import into LR or open it in PS.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

This is mostly correct. However, you can nondestructively work on images in PSCC. Smart objects and adjustment layers are non-destructive and save off as PSD files automatically.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Lighroom is a catalog for photo images and video. Bridge is not catalog based, but it's a good file browser. It does allow seamless transfer between all of Adobe's applications, since it recognizes all the file formats.

This may help:

http://terrywhite.com/adobe-bridge-cc-vs-lightroom-5/

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

I use Lightroom to import and do preliminary culling and editing, then I export them to a folder. Next I use Bridge as a "lightbox" to review and cull again. Then I use it as an image browser and open them in Photoshop.

Graham

steveg48

This has nothing to do with the question. The OP is asking about the difference between Lightroom and Bridge.

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

The editing features are identical. They have a different interface but that is it. Over 65% of professional photographers works exclusively in PS, so posted another subscriber. And it makes sense.

Lightroom is a database. It links to the original image. If you move files outside of LR, LR will lose the link. You have to mange all of your files in LR. If you work in Bridge/ACR/PS you are basically working on the image and not a link.

I work exclusively in PS and have a good file management system. I don't need a database. I also finish all of my images in PS. It has many features and superior functions that LR does not have or can not do such as focus stacking, resize, selection tools, etc.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Yes, Lightroom displays the IMAGES.... not a list of files, in fact, LIGHTROOM cannot display a list of files and folders - you need to IMPORT them into the Lightroom catalog first...it only knows about what has been imported - THAT is a BIG difference over Bridge...as well as the editing capabilities.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Not quite 100% factual, Lightroom does not edit a link... it uses a link in its database to get to the file.... when you work on an image, you are working on that image....non destructively...

Bridge, as has been said before, is a BROWSER, like EXPLORER/FINDER - it has no catalog/database, but looks at your files and folders on disk, Lightroom must first IMPORT the files so you can work on them.

Much more efficient to search a database then to search a file system from what I have found.