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Rudy CH
Rudy CH
Inspiring
January 5, 2021
Answered

Bridge vs Lightroom clasic

  • January 5, 2021
  • 3 replies
  • 4642 views

I using Bridge, all time,......sometime I get to Lightroom, just figure out what is better,....can't realy find anything,...
What is advantage of Lightroom compare to Bridge,....

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Conrad_C

gary_sc is pretty much right. Although most of the raw and metadata batch editing I want to do is possible with Camera Raw and Bridge, in Lightroom Classic the same tasks are faster and more efficient once you learn the tools. There are more options, more keyboard shortcuts for those options, better support for multiple displays, etc.

 

In Lightroom Classic it’s all in one application from import to print. In contrast, the workflow with Bridge requires four separate applications to achieve the same workflow: Adobe Photo Downloader for direct import from camera/card to Bridge, Adobe Bridge for organization and metadata, Camera Raw for raw editing, and Adobe Photoshop for printing.

 

Bridge is better if you prefer to use a pure file browser rather than a catalog based on a database. Bridge is also better if the files you work with extend far beyond the scope of just photographic images, because Bridge also works with vector graphics from Adobe Illustrator, video files and motion graphics from Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects, layout files from Adobe InDesign, web graphics, fonts…

 

But in a pure photographic workflow, Bridge slows me down too much. It’s largely a personal opinion, because you’ll just as easily find people who love Bridge and can’t stand Lightroom Classic. You get to choose.

3 replies

Rudy CH
Rudy CHAuthor
Inspiring
January 6, 2021

thank you both of you,......both of you give me answers what I was suspecting,......
For my use, I will probably continuing to use Bridge, as I do for many years, as a file viewer,....where you can open or just browse files of all extension,...
In my retirement I have more time to explore all program, which I have no use for.
So that is why I open a Lightroom . Probably for organizing my family picture, as vacation and such I will try to use Lightroom.
For my artwork and photos related to it, Bridge.

If you import your pictures from HD and organize it in Lightroom,....each time you make some changes, in PS maybe, thru Bridge, you have to synchronize all , or it can be done automatically?

 

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Conrad_CCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 6, 2021

Any changes started from Lightroom Classic will be tracked and updated in Lightroom Classic. For example:

  • If you select a photo in Lightroom Classic and choose Edit in Photoshop, when you return to Lightroom Classic any changes saved in Photoshop will appear in Lightroom Classic. 
  • If you rearrange folders using the Folders tab in Lightroom Classic, those changes will also be made on the computer desktop. 

 

Going the other way…

  • If a folder is in the Lightroom Classic database but you rename/move files in and out of it on the computer desktop, Lightroom Classic won’t know about it until you do a Synchronize Folders. 
  • If you make metadata changes outside Lightroom Classic, Lightroom Classic won’t see them until you manually choose Read Metadata From Files. 

 

In the end, if you like working with Bridge, you could effectively use it to organize your family photos and not need to use Lightroom Classic. The main organization tools such as keywords, ratings, filters, collections, smart collections, etc. are available in Bridge.

    Rudy CH
    Rudy CHAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 6, 2021

    thanks,......

     

    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    January 6, 2021

    gary_sc is pretty much right. Although most of the raw and metadata batch editing I want to do is possible with Camera Raw and Bridge, in Lightroom Classic the same tasks are faster and more efficient once you learn the tools. There are more options, more keyboard shortcuts for those options, better support for multiple displays, etc.

     

    In Lightroom Classic it’s all in one application from import to print. In contrast, the workflow with Bridge requires four separate applications to achieve the same workflow: Adobe Photo Downloader for direct import from camera/card to Bridge, Adobe Bridge for organization and metadata, Camera Raw for raw editing, and Adobe Photoshop for printing.

     

    Bridge is better if you prefer to use a pure file browser rather than a catalog based on a database. Bridge is also better if the files you work with extend far beyond the scope of just photographic images, because Bridge also works with vector graphics from Adobe Illustrator, video files and motion graphics from Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects, layout files from Adobe InDesign, web graphics, fonts…

     

    But in a pure photographic workflow, Bridge slows me down too much. It’s largely a personal opinion, because you’ll just as easily find people who love Bridge and can’t stand Lightroom Classic. You get to choose.

      R
      ravik64622065
      Participant
      January 12, 2023
      quote

      In Lightroom Classic it’s all in one application from import to print. In contrast, the workflow with Bridge requires four separate applications to achieve the same workflow: Adobe Photo Downloader for direct import from camera/card to Bridge, Adobe Bridge for organization and metadata, Camera Raw for raw editing, and Adobe Photoshop for printing.


      By @Conrad_C

       

      Not entirely true.

      1. Adobe photo downloader is not necessary. You can download the pictures to your computer any which way, Bridge will still be able to show all the downloaded pictures, heck, it can show pictures that are not only downloaded to your computer, but also pictures on a thumb drive without any need for import into a certain database.

      2. Camera Raw acts like a native engine within Bridge. Actually Camera Raw engine is not different from Lightroom's editing engine. Anyway, when editing anything within Bridge, it does not have to open or launch a separate application. It can be as seamless as editing a picture within Lightroom. 

      There are differences between Bridge and Lightroom, but I would not consider "4 applications" vs "1 application" as a difference between them.

      Conrad_C
      Community Expert
      Conrad_CCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 13, 2023

      This comparison is between Lightroom Classic and Bridge, so if you choose to leave out Photo Downloader and Camera Raw, then you don’t have a complete comparison, because Bridge needs those components to be comparable to the end-to-end workflow in Lightroom Classic.

      quote

      1. Adobe photo downloader is not necessary. You can download the pictures to your computer any which way, Bridge will still be able to show all the downloaded pictures, heck, it can show pictures that are not only downloaded to your computer, but also pictures on a thumb drive without any need for import into a certain database.

      By @ravik64622065

       

      In Lightroom Classic many people (including myself) use Import to pre-process images with features such as applying a metadata template, automatic organization into date-based folders, automatic template-based file renaming, and import presets. This automated ingestion saves a lot of time and work.

       

      In Bridge those functions are available only inside Photo Downloader, so if you don’t include that, then when comparing end-to-end workflows, Bridge no longer has feature parity with the Import dialog box in Lightroom. Without Photo Downloader, Bridge cannot automate the first ingestion step in an end-to-end workflow; all Bridge can do then is show a folder of photos from a camera.

       

       

      2. Camera Raw acts like a native engine within Bridge. Actually Camera Raw engine is not different from Lightroom's editing engine. Anyway, when editing anything within Bridge, it does not have to open or launch a separate application. It can be as seamless as editing a picture within Lightroom. 

      By @ravik64622065

       

      Yes, Camera Raw can launch from Bridge so you can say it’s “within” it in a way. But it is not as well integrated as in the Develop module in Lightroom Classic, and this creates a number of problems. The big problem with Camera Raw is that it’s a modal dialog box. By requiring that Camera Raw be opened into its own modal window, this restricts what it can do, and it also restricts what you can do in Bridge while Camera Raw is open.

       

      For example, in Lightroom Classic, it is no problem to freely switch between raw edits, metadata edits, and other tasks such as printing and slide shows, because they are all integrated modules in the same application. And Lightroom Classic remembers the History for each image.

       

      But in Bridge, almost no Bridge features can be used while you are in Camera Raw, because the separate Camera Raw window blocks almost all access to the rest of Bridge. (Because it’s really a separate application. The Camera Raw plug-in code isn’t even stored in the same folder as the Bridge application.)

       

      In Bridge, if you are editing 82 images in Camera Raw and decide you’d like to add a keyword to one of them before continuing on with raw edits, you cannot do that without exiting Camera Raw (losing your undo stack because ACR has no History), adding the keyword, opening Camera Raw again, re-selecting the one image out of the 82 you were working on (because Camera Raw always opens up to the first of the selected images), and setting up whatever you were doing again. Certainly not as seamless as in Lightroom Classic, where tighter integration makes the same operation simpler and faster with fewer steps.

      gary_sc
      Community Expert
      gary_scCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 6, 2021

      Bridge is a viewer: it can let you see your images, compare your images, and let you see your images with all of your ACR adjustments and do adjustment via PS and sizing in batches. It can more easily see your metadata, etc. 

       

      Lightroom Classic is ACR with a database. It can do all that Bridge can do and much more. It can significantly do more with keywords, global changes to images, much easier organization of images, it goes on and on. What feature(s) are important to you so that I do not have to go on with things that are irrelevant to you?

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