Adobe Bridge has been around for a few years. I’m not sure exactly how long, simply because I haven’t paid attention to it. That lack of interest on my part ended with the release of Photoshop CS4. The Adobe decision makers moved the Contact Sheet II functionality to Bridge CS4 (see my note at the end about using Contact Sheet II in Photoshop CS4). If you haven’t used Contact Sheet II it’s a pretty simple digital version of a traditional contact sheet. One great use for this tool for me is when a client sends me a CD with 200 images on and tells me to have at it. Sometimes I even send the resulting contact sheets back to my client so they know what images are on the CD they sent me.
A little perspective… besides being the head camp counselor at CampPhotoshop.com, I’m a graphic designer working under the name of Ridpath Creative Partners. When you have thousands of files that relate to the way you make your living, you become very interested in organizing those files and backing them up. In many ways, those files are the bread and butter of my business. I like having some idea of where my client files are, and being able to access them quickly. So I’m organized.
My organization scheme is based on the great finder that Apple provides built right into OS X Leopard. Here’s how Apple describes the OS X Leopard finder, “…browsing the files on your Mac is as easy as browsing music in iTunes… You can access everything on your system by flipping through your files using Cover Flow or by clicking items in an iTunes-style sidebar.”
So someone at Adobe (someone in marketing trying to add product value?) thought “Hey, I think we can do this finder thing better than Apple.” Here’s Adobe’s own web site on the better solution, “Adobe Bridge CS4 is a powerful, easy-to-use media manager for visual people, letting you easily organize, browse, locate, and view creative assets.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The problem for me is that Adobe’s solution adds another layer on top of Apple’s solution. Yes, it adds bells and whistles, but it’s another layer or step in my work flow. Do I like that? Not really.
Being organized is hard work. Why is Adobe adding a step and suggesting I add meta data and other info to all my files? Is there a better way? Maybe… here’s my suggestion to Adobe regarding Bridge:
- Make the Bridge functionality part of each Creative Suite application, and remove unnecessary extras. With the ability to tag files when you save them in Photoshop, you skip the step of having to go to a separate application.
- Make the Bridge functionality smarter by automatically adding tags to files based on information about file location, file type and date saved. For example, if I saved 100 JPG files on the same day, there’s a chance they all relate to the same project.
- Adobe should take advantage of the functionality built into OS X and Windows versus building something different on top of it.
Based on the recent poll results here, it appears most Photoshop users agree with me regarding Bridge. So, are you a big Bridge fan? Are you reading this and ready to scream at me? Please do open my eyes and tell me what I’m missing.
NOTE: Contact Sheet II can be added to CS4. If you have a Photoshop CS3 installation on your computer, you can just move or copy the Contact Sheet II plug-in from the CS3 Automate to the same CS4 folder/directory. The new Bridge CS4 replacement for Contact Sheet II is called the Adobe Output Module. Dumb name, but it’s actually better than Contact Sheet II. Too bad it’s not right there in Photoshop.
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I find bridge rather cool -
I find bridge rather cool - having a direct photodownloader where you can add metadata immediately and so on. Other interesting functions is all the sorting possibilities and classification. I think it´s underrated due to the far to early very buggy release back with CS1. That scared away lot of people!
Try out the collections function. It's dynamic and very good for ongoing projects.
/cheers
Ironically, I have thought
Ironically, I have thought about this type of issue, but I have never spent much time organizing my thoughts into any organized fashion. MY general thought is that “playlists become more important than the media itself). After a little thought…here’s what I ended up with.
I think “bridging” media is a separate application from media creation and editing. So, personally, I don’t mind seeing another application handling this. However, I am thinking beyond 'bridging' a single user's media file(s) to that same single user's application and their digital storage devices. I do think some basic functions to “bridge” media/data to an application is worth having embedded inside an application.
We are only now seeing how important media MANAGEMENT is becoming. In the future, this will be more pervasive than media creators and editors (Photoshop, Illustrator, Soundbooth, etc..). I foresee the major functions of such software as: media discovery, media organization, and media acquisition and distribution.
Discovery
Discovery will go beyond one’s local computers or personal server space. It will intelligently help me find media similar to mine or based on preferences and filters I choose. For example, your audio and video playlists become my download lists. Your top TiVO programs become my online video playlist on Facebook. Your web photo gallery become a folder of images on my hard drive and displayed on my digital picture frame. My PPT presentation become your PDF document. Beyond playlists, 'heard/viewed lists' (lists of what we have actually DONE) will be created, indexed, AND shared. Yes, discovery goes beyond finding new media and right on to finding compatibility with PEOPLE based again on preferences and filters who have media to share.
Honestly, I imagine you could increase compatibility scores derived from Q&A profiles and psychology questionnaires (ala match.com and eHarmony) by comparing the types of and frequency of what media is viewed or heard.
Organization
Whether you download copies of discovered media and want them cataloged in an orderly fashion, or simply maintain a dynamic catalog of their location: Susie's mp3 playlists (on her computer), Hector the photographer's online photo gallery, Tawei's video playlist, etc., somewhere an application to do this will have to evolve.
The advent of a universal media "heard/viewed" list is critical. It is a single list that shows when I watched Cheers on NBC.com, Dexter from my TiVo, a Morning Jacket video on youtube, a web gallery of Thomas Mangelsen's photos, tracks 1-3, 7, and 10 on my friend Jenn's playlist which is hosted on playlist.com, tracks 1-7 on my playlist entitled "happy" on my computer and then tracks 8-16 on mp3 player, read an article on cancer research on msnbc.com, an article involving a man, a cat, and a banana on the onion.com, and so on.
Metadata will get better and more insightful and become the catalyst of information exchange (and perhaps commerce). Programs that compare waveforms of audio files and then compare that to a database to get an accurate mp3 tagging, programs that extract the GPS info from photographs and then create then advertise that this user has a photo available from the corner of 6th Street and Congress, in Austin Texas, dated Feb 1, 2009, a log of my GPS waypoints, or the route I took from Austin to New Orleans, along with timeframes will be advertised as available if someone wants a copy of it, and so on.
Acquisition and Distribution
So once media is discovered and all copyright issues resolved, the actual media file(s) or a POINTER to it (like a playlist) will be downloaded or assembled. This “bridging” application will be able to transact commerce -- tie into eBay as well as iTunes, it will be able to download YOUR GPS route insert it into a Google Map for me. It will also allow me to set up my own catalog of media for others to acquire for free or for a fee. Microtransactions (sub $1…maybe even sub $.01 become important, but a way to produce revenue).
All copyright issues resolved in some manner, of course. I believe programs like Bridge will not just bridge MY media to MY applications, but it will "bridge" EVERYONES media to EVERYONES applications. It will be able to download, convert (and output into a new format, if necessary), and organize from a variety of sources. However, the acquisition of LISTS of media will become more important than the acquisition of media itself as the market becomes flooded with more media than we can actually use in a lifetime.
Distribution of Your Media and Rights: And not to be morbid, now that you own all of this media, you need to consider who will own it when you die. You can easily give a digital copy of your poems to your family, but if they were published, who would you want to OWN the copyright? You might want your spouse to own your hard drive, but your sister to own the MEDIA on it.
Will this type of “bridging” software evolve from Apple, Micrsoft, *nix OS developers, Adobe, or some other company (perhaps my yet to be created company, LoL)? I believe all of these are likely scenarios. Who knows if Adobe Bridge proper is the start of this evolution for Adobe...but I think the point is that there will have to be evolution, and right now separating some of this functionality from content editors/creators is part of Adobe's evolutionary process.
- Dwayne Smurdon
- smurdon@mediaworth.com
I feel so sad :( I'm a
I feel so sad :( I'm a photographer & I need the cs3 suite but I can't afford to pay $1800. hmmm maybe I could start up a website to take donations.
designer jeans
I am a photographer and
I am a photographer and couldn't believe Adobe left out Contact Sheet II.
I always add the contacts from a shoot to the front of a DVD for a client and I cant think of one of them that wants to have to open another program just to see them. I wonder about Adobe sometimes, I really do.