Best way to deal with photos from the start? (Bridge CS5 and iPhoto)

Question

Hi all,
I'm just learning the ropes of the whole CS5 suite, and was starting to add keywords etc. in Bridge when I realized I couldn't access the files in my iPhoto ('09) library. I've read a few threads about this issue, but haven't really found a consensus on how to deal with it.
I figure I'm in a good position to get things right from the start since I have no tags or ratings etc. in my iPhoto setup (and have only added keywords to the few pics that weren't in my iPhoto Library), and am wondering what you think is the best way to sort photos given I plan on using them in web design etc., and all the parts of my CS5 suite.
If getting the photos out of iPhoto is best what's the best way to do that? I've read suggestions to right click on the library and click on "Show Contents"- or something like that, but that does not come up as an option when I right click my iPhoto Library in Bridge. Thanks so much for your help!
Please let me know if there is any info I could give you that would be helpful in order to figure this one out.
Best,
Mara

Answer 1

I must be far too lazy to be sure.  In iPhoto if I want to move an image all I
do is click and drag from iPhoto to the desktop.
Here comes the trouble with using iPhoto and mixing applications. You have
to be sure what you do in iPhoto because you easily grab the wrong version
instead of the original.
As Tai Lao pointed out the the difference between Bridge and iPhoto in short
is open visible structure for Bridge and hidden invisible library for
iPhoto.
There may be perfect and valid reason to use iPhoto but mixing the two
workflows without thinking or knowing what you do is bound to get you sooner
or later in trouble with wrong versions of the file.
And clicking and dragging from iPhoto is easy to mistake in those versions.
1 - I used to create incredible folder/sub-folder arrangements depending upon
operating system file management to find files.
You can create whatever structure you want including a thought through
naming convention that suites your needs, if you keep doing this in Bridge
you can easily open and close folders using the folder panel, in iPhoto you
have a lot of events and albums but none as clear as in Bridge. (at least
that is my opinion...)
Also I would prefer to use a good naming convention with less folders and
subfolders instead of bad file naming and many well named folders. Also
using the metadata options description and keywords let's you easily find
the files you want but when having the need to retrieve the original from an
external disk or DVD using less folders will be quicker to find.
Since depending upon metadata keywords or star ratings I now prefer to have
all images (originals and amended) in one single folder as Bridge (or iPhoto
for that matter) can only see the images in the folder it is looking at.
Wrong, using the find option (cmd+F) you can specify Bridge to look in main
folders or entire disk, include the option to look in subfolders and you are
in business (but the first time Bridge caches it also need to index all the
metadata, that takes some time but only the first time.
2 - potential feature request for Bridge?
To have an option where Bridge can see and display images in subfolder
arrangements from the folder it is looking at.
That is already there since a view versions
Select a folder with subfolders and then from the menu view select 'show
items for subfolders'
It is still not a perfect way of functioning but it gets better every new
version, in CS5 the speed of gathering the files is very much improved.
However here is iPhoto the winner because it keeps the files in cache (or
something like that) Bridge is not the best in this behavior but it is
possible to use.
This is a bit like a restriction of OS X "All images" to all images in the
selected folder and all subfolders of the selected folder (if that makes any
sense at all)
Many users have tons of files on there system, why would you use that option
to view all if you are perfectly capable of finding the files or file types
you want in most applications (but you can also find them in OSX, you want
psd files do a search for ".psd" and you will see all the psd files on your
system.
3 - iPhoto can't really handle large files.  With one event consisting of
4,500+ images weighing in at 884 MB it is zippy.  Were those to be originals
at a high resolution iPhoto would probably be tediously slow and require a
folder/sub-folder arrangement which, to me, seems to undermine the importance
of managing stuff using keywords.
IPhoto is not designed to be a professional application, therefore you can't
expect behavior for this
In Bridge you have no limit of files on your system only the limit for the
cache is somewhere around 500.000 I believe. But even Bridge is not really
designed for handling that amount of files in a pleasant way.
I also don't know of an application that can do so for normal retail prices,
most users of that amount of files have custom made or customized
application that costs many thousands dollars. Bridge is in fact a free gift
when buying a Suite application from Adobe.
The file size for viewing in Bridge is by default set to a max of 1 GB but
that is for building previews you can see thumbs and small previews of
bigger files. In the Bridge preferences you can set the limit for this to
whatever you want, it only grows the cache file for previews when using many
large files.
In summary: Bridge is great for CS5 partnering on metadata, original images or
large filesizes. 
I couldn't agree more!
iPhoto is great on sharing images across devices and better
still if those files are low res with small filesizes?
I couldn't disagree more...
You can do all of this using Bridge to start own created actions or with
scripts like image processor.
Do some research on Adobe TV or view other video tutorials on the web, there
are many free and good tutorials. You will learn that you can do all you
want in Bridge (and a lot more...)