gordnanaimo Loc: Vancouver Island

I have adobe CS5, Elements, and Lightroom, I just noticed I also havve BRIDGE, Can anyone tell me what BRIDGE is for?

PrairieSeasons Loc: Red River of the North

Bridge is a program for sorting through pictures and an easy way to put them in Camera Raw. If you are already using Lightroom for those purposes, Bridge is redundant.

gordnanaimo Loc: Vancouver Island

Thought so. Thanks

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

it is similar to the organizer in elements with a few differences.

Wheezer1

For those that don't have Adobe CS6, B&H has a sale for 24 hours on CS6 and your choice of Elements10, Premier or Lightroom. I just ordered CS6 and Elements 10 for $315 total. They are throwing in a copy of Kelbys training video on DVD free, a $49 value..The sale lasts until Aug 31.

PrairieSeasons Loc: Red River of the North

The Student/Teacher edition I would presume?

Wheezer1

It's supposed to be the full version in the box with elements 10 and the training video. The info below is a copy and paste from their web site.

Included Free
Kelby Training - DVD: What's New in Adobe Photoshop CS6
Kit Items
Photoshop Elements 10 for Mac & Windows
Photoshop CS6 for Windows

PrairieSeasons Loc: Red River of the North

Sounds too good to be true unless it's the student/teacher edition. Too late for me - I already have CS6, but that price would have been nice.

Wheezer1

I thought it was too good to be true myself. I read the ad carefully before I bought it. Apparently they run this software at deep discount every once in a while. I'll try to let you know if it's as advertised.

queencitysanta Loc: Charlotte, North Carolina

Got Photoshop C6 yesterday, the Lightroon that comes with it is a 30 eval copy. Photoshop is a full program.

Flyfishn

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

Bridge is much, much more than just "a program for sorting through pictures and an easy way to put them in Camera Raw." As well, Lightroom has some things that Bridge has but definitely not all.

Bridge allows you to do lots of things that you can't do in Lightroom or Photoshop CS6 itself.

For those who have not yet explored Bridge in Photoshop CS6 (not sure what it was like in CS5 and earlier), you're missing out on some great functions.

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

I just can't quite grasp why anyone who owns Photoshop CS5 or CS6 would have any need for Lightroom or Elements. Bridge comes with CS3 through CS6. Elements is a scaled down version of Photoshop. I don't own Lightrrom and I wonder what it does that Photoshop CS5 or 6 does not??? Bridge is an excellent organizer and browser, yes! But it does much more. You can view and edit the metadata, set ratings, sort on keywords, do a quick browse of downloaded images in order to quickly delete unwanted ones, see an instant full screen preview of an image by pressing the space bar, set your workspace up exactly the way you want it and easily switch among several preset workspaces, and much more. Just right click on any image in Bridge and look at the things you can do right there. So why wouldn't anyone want to use this valuable tool that comes with Photoshop. Oh by the way, I always shoot in RAW. Bridge shows me the RAW thumbnails as well as any other image format such as tif, jpg, bmp, gif, etc. I then can simply double click the image to open it in Photoshop. I can also choose to open a jpg or tif in Adobe Camera RAW by making that selection right in Bridge.

I hope that answers what Bridge is and why you should be using it. I am sure this will get a lot of pro and con comments and that is perfectly OK.

lnhaynie Loc: Southwest Colorado

Bridge and Lightroom are similar. I used Bridge for years until I got Lightroom. I find LR to be easier to use and it offers a more robust set of tools. I use LR for most of my PP and printing now. Photoshop for the heavy duty stuff. If I had a choice between the two, it would have to be LR. Just my opinion. My neighbor prefers Bridge. Whatever works for you.

lightchime Loc: Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I have LightRoom, Photoshop an have had Elements in the Past. I use Photoshop for final adjustments in printing as well as for some other things in which pixels must be addressed, photomerge and HDR. I find LightRoom just wonderful for ingestion and cataloging.

It seems that there is a slight disparagement about Student/Faculty versions of this software. I purchase mine through the University of Pittsburgh and always get full versions. My wife, as faculty, obtains other major software. Neither of us are aware of the slightest loss of functionality - at any level. No box, no paperwork - just a disk and a license. Fully supported by Adobe.

I only bring it up because it was mentioned in this blog. Does anyone know if there is a difference that comes with a lower price - or is there an urban myth here.

Thanks, I am not questioning anyone - would like to know if anyone knows for sure.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I believe that you are correct and I can't argue with what you've said. Please let me quote Martin Evening from his book Adobe Photoshop for the Photographer as to why he uses Lightroom more than Bridge. I've read the book twice and he says that he actually uses both, but LR more than Bridge. For the making of his book, he used Bridge. I think they are both good but LR is a little more streamlined. Here's what ME says from his book:

"Adobe Photoshop Lightroom:
A lot of people have been asking: if I have Photoshop and Bridge, why do I need Lightroom? I usually point out that Lightroom is a workflow program that allows you to manage your images efficiently all the way from import through to the Web or print output. For some people, the combination of Bridge and Camera Raw provides them with all the tools that they need to manage their pictures and work in Photoshop. For amateurs and professionals who are looking for a faster and more streamlined approach for their image processing and image management, Lightroom will be the answer. I do still use Bridge for a lot of file browsing tasks, but I find that I now mostly prefer to use Lightroom since it integrates smoothly with Photoshop and offers some rather nice and unique approaches to image processing that you won't find in any other program. Overall, I find I can work much faster and more efficiently using Lightroom."