Help - Adobe Bridge CS5

Please help, my workflow does not seem to be quite right.

I have Adobe Photoshop CS5 which I love, it comes with Adobe Bridge which I also like but seem to have a problem with. When I look at my images through Bridge (Preview or Review) they are always VERY soft and hard to tell if they are in focus or not. I do a lot of motorsport photography which results in lots of OOF shots, I need to be able to fly through the 1000 or so images quickly to remove all the OOF shots. I then go through the images again to rate the keepers and decide which to PP.

Because I cannot see well enough the quality of the images in Bridge, I am using DPP to pass through the images to bin the OOF and then rate the keepers. I then move to Bridge to find the rated images and then PP in ACR and PS CS5.

The workflow works but does not feel right. Is there something not right with my Bridge, am I doing something wrong, or is the image quality just not 100%?

Any help and advice is greatly received.

Thanks,

Ian.

Does this also happen if you press the Space Bar to preview the image in full screen mode? Or use CTRL + L to view them as a slideshow?

Use Filmstrip view (Window -> Workspace -> Filmstrip)

Make the thumbs at the bottom fairly small, and reduce the size of the info pane at left, then as you scroll through them in the thumbnail bar at the bottom (the filmstrip) you will see a decent size preview in the middle of the screen.

For all folders, I point bridge to the folder, then wait until the progress of generating previews, shown lower left, is complete, before I start doing work.

PixelMagic wrote in post #12493922
Does this also happen if you press the Space Bar to preview the image in full screen mode? Or use CTRL + L to view them as a slideshow?

Yes

S.Horton wrote in post #12493982
Use Filmstrip view (Window -> Workspace -> Filmstrip)

Make the thumbs at the bottom fairly small, and reduce the size of the info pane at left, then as you scroll through them in the thumbnail bar at the bottom (the filmstrip) you will see a decent size preview in the middle of the screen.

For all folders, I point bridge to the folder, then wait until the progress of generating previews, shown lower left, is complete, before I start doing work.

Still no good.

I will try to attach some screen grabs so you can see the difference. Attached are two screen shots from Bridge, one is SPACE preview, the other is FILMSTRIP.

Ian.

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Screen grab from DPP Quick Check.

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IanW wrote in post #12493753
Please help, my workflow does not seem to be quite right.

I have Adobe Photoshop CS5 which I love, it comes with Adobe Bridge which I also like but seem to have a problem with. When I look at my images through Bridge (Preview or Review) they are always VERY soft and hard to tell if they are in focus or not. I do a lot of motorsport photography which results in lots of OOF shots, I need to be able to fly through the 1000 or so images quickly to remove all the OOF shots. I then go through the images again to rate the keepers and decide which to PP.

Because I cannot see well enough the quality of the images in Bridge, I am using DPP to pass through the images to bin the OOF and then rate the keepers. I then move to Bridge to find the rated images and then PP in ACR and PS CS5.

The workflow works but does not feel right. Is there something not right with my Bridge, am I doing something wrong, or is the image quality just not 100%?

Any help and advice is greatly received.

Thanks,

Ian.

Hmm. I have the same issue. The images in DPP always look so great. I just check the OOF images with #1, then I call them up, select the first and last and delete them all. Like you I go through it a second time. A little cumbersome but I just love how they look in DPP.

S.Horton wrote in post #12493982
Use Filmstrip view (Window -> Workspace -> Filmstrip)

Make the thumbs at the bottom fairly small, and reduce the size of the info pane at left, then as you scroll through them in the thumbnail bar at the bottom (the filmstrip) you will see a decent size preview in the middle of the screen.

For all folders, I point bridge to the folder, then wait until the progress of generating previews, shown lower left, is complete, before I start doing work.

I'll give that a try.

I forgot to mention Ian. After deletion I go through them again and tag any images that need a little extra work besides a global recipe. I call up the extra adjustment tags, fix them and when done I delete those tags. I open and close any file which sends them back in order. Since there are missing files I then use the rename tool which you probably already know about.

How do you have the Options for thumbnail quality and preview generation set?

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Yes, check your preview settings, and whether or not you are applying sharpening to previews.

According to Kelby - http://www.photoshopus​er.com/lightroom - their #1 reason to use lightroom over bridge is that Bridge will not generate a sharp full screen preview.

So it might be something inherent to Bridge. YMMV.

Photo Mechanic is the best for what your trying to do.

tkerr wrote in post #12494755
How do you have the Options for thumbnail quality and preview generation set?

I have "Always High Quality" and "Generate 100% Previews" ticked.

S.Horton wrote in post #12495530
Yes, check your preview settings, and whether or not you are applying sharpening to previews.

What other settings are there for Preview?

So just to confirm are there people out there who ARE happy with the sharpness and quality of Bridge Preview?

Ian.

cmchavis wrote in post #12497362
According to Kelby - http://www.photoshopus​er.com/lightroom - their #1 reason to use lightroom over bridge is that Bridge will not generate a sharp full screen preview.

So it might be something inherent to Bridge. YMMV.

I did wonder if this was the case, great, more money!!

I think I will stick with DPP for review and rating then move to Bridge, ACR and CS5.

Ian.

Bridge applies no automatic Development to the images. What you are seeing is the Raw image, no sharpening, NR, etc. However you can select all the images you want to review, and than apply Camera Raw Defaults or any preset you like.
Edit / Develop Settings.