Bridge vs Aperture

I just had one of those DUH moments. After upgrading to a new MacBook Pro, I discovered a software program called Aperture which helps you organize images. It's wonderful!
However, I haven't yet figured out how to sync it with Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I asked some questions about it on a forum, and someone said "Don't bother; Bridge does the same thing."
The irony is that I have Bridge. I bought CS3 several years ago but spend so much time using Dreamweaver and Photoshop I haven't had time to learn Illustrator and Flash, and I've scarcely looked at the less familiar programs.
So now I have a trial version of Aperture 3 and CS3 Bridge, and I need to figure out which one will work best for me. In fact, I couldn't find an Adobe Bridge forum, though I did find a Lightroom forum; that's another software program I just learned about.
OK, here's what I want to do:
1) First, I simply want to create a library of images and organize it using folders, keywords or whatever. I'm especially focusing on images of plants and animals for a Life sciences website I'm working on.
2) I also want to organize the existing images on several websites.
3) I assume I would still publish images online using Dreamweaver, but it would be nice to have some interaction between my website images and Bridge/Aperture/Lightroom.
For example, imagine a website at Mac > sites > geozoo. Of course, the images folder would be at Mac > sites > geozoo > images
Now imagine coyping that entire images folder into Bridge, Aperture or Lightroom. Rather than store the images in Apple's Pictures folder, they'd stay right where they are. Now suppose I add a new image - Leopard.jpg - to the folder images > Mammals > Carnivora > Cats
It would be cool if that image would automatically display in Bridge/Aperture/Lightroom. And it would also be nice if I could modify an image in Photoshop without causing any problems in my image management program.
Of course, there would also be many images in my library that might never get published online. I don't know how people do that; I assume, I'd have two libraries - a master library, and a secondary library residing at Mac > sites > geozoo > images where copies of images cleared for publishing are stored.
Anyway, does anyone have any tips or comments? Based on the research I've done so far, it sounds like any one of these programs would probably work OK for organizing images. But do any of these programs have any real strong points or drawbacks you can point out?
And if I switch to Bridge, do I need to upgrade to CS5.5, or is CS3 OK? After upgrading to a Mac, I'm not sure if I can afford any software upgrades right now.
P.S. If I go continue organizing my images with Aperture and later decide to switch to Bridge, can I copy all my images over along with their metadata (keywords, etc.)?
Thanks!

GeoBear wrote:
I couldn't find an Adobe Bridge forum,
Try
http://forums.adobe.com/community/bridge

Similar Messages

Using Adobe Bridge as Aperture 3 External Editor

I have a problem that I can't seem to solve and I'm hopeful that a post here can get me closer to some resolution. I recently started using Bridge for noise reduction and PS for high pass sharpening. The downside is my work flow is now shot full of holes! I have Bridge as my external editor; I make the edits in Bridge then do a high pass sharpen as well as any other edits I might choose to make in PS. If I need to, I flatten the image if I have layers. It is here that my problem begins.
Aperture creates the new tiff version within it's program as soon as I choose to edit in Bridge, but I don't know the exact process to save that image while in Bridge or Photoshop to reflect the changes in Aperture. Another question I have is which version of the image in Bridge I should be editing the jpeg or tiff? any help here would be greatly appreciated!

I use Bridge as editor because once there, I go into "camera raw" to process images.
So now you're bringing a third app into the equation. Bridge, ACR and Photoshop are all individual applications. If you're not using an app like Aperture then Bridge might be the front end for the other two, but in the case you describe it has no role.
Another thing to think about: ACR ("camera Raw") is for processing Raws - which job you are currently doing with Aperture. You're not sending Raws to Bridge/ACR... You're sending tiffs.
I think you need to rethink your workflow somewhat. I'm not sure you've grasped what the various tools actually do.
Regards
TD

Transfering Info For Adobe Bridge To Aperture

i am getting pictures worked with photoshop and tagged with metadata via adobe bridge and i was wondering if i could get the metadata information imported into aperture when i am importing the pictures. thanks for your help.

Unfortunately, no. Aperture can export XMP metadata that can be read by Bridge, but it cannot currently import it.
It might be possible to use iView Media Pro to read the stuff, and then use Annoture to import from iVMP to Aperture. Annoture is a product by Adam Tow.

Bridge CC (German) doesn't display aperture values correctly

Hi everyone,
the German edition of Bridge CC still seems to have the same bug as Bridge CS6:
Bridge displays aperture values as integer values both in the filter column and in the metadata box, e.g. f1.4 is shown as 1.0, f2.8 is shown as 2.0, f5.6 is shown as 5.0 etc.
I've reported this bug last year to Adobe and they call it a "known issue" due to the decimal sign ("," instead of "."). Unfortunately, Adobe didn't care to correct it for the CC-Upgrade.
It can be corrected manually by changing the variable "Decimal" from "," to "." in the file strings.txt which can be found in the folder "Content/Resources/de.lproj" (accessible, when right-clicking on Bridge.app, => "Show content"). You will need admin rights to do so.
So far I've had to repeat these steps after each Camera Raw Upgrade which is a little annoying.
I hope this can help other's having this issue.
Cheers, Joe

Thank you for bring that up again. I too thought after you told then exactly what to do, and they acknowledged it the changes were made.
If others having this problem (probably European languages) they have a workaround.

Using Aperture with Adobe Bridge: Can It Work?

I have used all the Adobe apps for ages and love them.
Photoshop and Bridge are a mainstay of our studio operation here.
I have been using Adobe LightRoom lately to deal with my RAW shooting.
I take it to a certain point with LR then I use Bridge to do other things with my files. LR and Bridge can see eachother's metadata and XMP info so they can be opened back and forth between the apps as need be.
This is critical for our work process.
What Im wondering is can Aperture be used in a similar way?
Can Bridge see Aperture's adjustment info and visa versa?
Do they read eachother's Metadata and or XMP info?
Does Aperture even use XMP data?
Reason Im asking this is I admire Aperture's interface and functionality.
I'd like to possibly use it in place of LightRoom for dealing with my RAW files.
But without the compatibility with Bridge it wouldnt work for us.
I read lots of Mac and Adobe publications and have yet to see this issue addressed in any articles.
Surely other people are in the same boat as me on this one...
Anyone have any knowledge to share on this matter?
Thanks.

Bridge and LightRoom can see each other's image adjustments because they are using almost exactly the same engine to do RAW conversions. Aperture and Bridge won't understand each other's image adjustments, in just the same way that Bridge and Nikon Capture, Canon DPP, Bibble or Capture One etc. can't.
When it comes to metadata you won't be much better off, as any changes you made in Bridge wouldn't be seen in Aperture unless you re-imported the file and vice-versa.
Basically, if your workflow is based around Bridge you are stuck with Adobe apps as they are the only ones designed to work with it.
Ian

Aperture and Bridge interface

I cannot access photos in the Aperture library from Bridge. When I click on the Aperture cube icon (Aperture Library.aplibrary") from Bridge, Aperture opens and nothing more. Is this usual? Or do I need to do something to get Bridge to recognize all the files/albums, etc which were originally imported into Aperture? I can access all the Aperture files from Photoshop but sometimes I just want to view them in Bridge first.

zelsha
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
No, there is no way to access the files from Bridge. Bridge and Aperture don't play well together (nor does it play well with iPhoto) because Bridge attempts to do part of Apertures job.
I can access all the Aperture files from Photoshop but sometimes I just want to view them in Bridge first.
Well that's exactly where you would use Aperture and not Bridge.
Regards
TD

Aperture Library unavailable in Desktop Background

I've been transitioning to Aperture for quite some time and have been having recurring trouble, with both 3.0 and 3.1, in using the Aperture Library in my Desktop Backgrounds preference pane.
When loading the Desktop preference pane, the stock images and an unused iPhoto library load up, but the Aperture library waits for a few moments and then it loads nothing. No tiny arrow on the left, no images in the window, nothing. The Aperture library loads into the Screen Saver preference pane, as well as other places for the iLife Media Browser. JUST NOT the Desktop Background pane.
I took the time to look in the Console for some insight and I got that System Preferences sent the message:
** DesktopPref error: DSKApertureRootSource -loaddata TIME OUT!!! There something wrong with iLife Media Browser
Yes, that would be Apple's poor grammar. If anybody has ANY insight into this, I'd welcome it, because I'd love to get this solved.
For those who might already suggest, let me note that I have rebuilt the library twice, repaired permissions, blah blah blah.

I have exactly the same problem, but I can trace it a bit further.
I use three Aperture libraries.
I open one of them in Aperture, and then select the other ones with File > Switch library.
Two of them work fine and appear in "Change desktop background"
The third one does not appear - I only have "aperture" written in grey, but no subfolders.
THIS ONE IS THE ONE CONTAINING FACEBOOK SHARED ALBUMS !!
So I'm afraid the Facebook/flicker sharing functionality could be (once more (*)) the problem here.
Can anyone confirm based on own experience ?
+(*) once more because it seems that these functionalities already break the bridge between Aperture and FrontRow. It does on my iMac, and it has been reported in many other threads also.+
Message was edited by: Claude Cauwe

Public workflow challenge for Appleture? A Shootout: Aperture vs. CS2/ACR

How about it?
A start to finish shootout from CF cards to sorted finished files ready for proofing.
Two equal G5 powermacs
- DC 2.3 Ghz
- 4 GB RAM
- separate 7200 RPM SATA drives for library/scatch
- NVIDIA GeForce 6600 with 256MB GDDR SDRAM
- 23" Cinema display
- FW CF card reader
On each machine is a seasoned power user of both Aperture and CS2.
Each has eight 2GB CF cards full of D2X shots from a wedding, 400-600 NEFS.
Points are given for:
-SPEED (obviously)
-Quality of output
-Praise spouted by user(i.e. "Sweet!" "Yeah!" "Nice!" and "Beeaauutiful!!")
Points are deducted for:
-Number of pauses
-Spinning beach ball of death sightings
-Curse words spouted off by user
After CS2/ACR wins, we could try it with the Aperture machine as a fully loaded Quad Mac with 16 GB RAM against the above CS2/ACR machine.

Thanks for the movie link. I don't know where you found the index page for that on the Adobe website (I couldn't), but I just flat out guessed the URL for the second one, which is here.
I took my time getting back to this, but I now have a fully informed opinion on Bridge versus Aperture. I guess I'm an oddball going from Aperture to Bridge, since almost everyone else will be doing the opposite.
I did find Bridge to be way stronger than the previous CS browser, but two silly little features (or lack thereof) really got to me, as did one potential trap.
First, note how in that second movie Brown points out that you can use the cursor key to go between images in the RAW dialog. I consider that very important for workflow. I hate having to mouse between. What he didn't point out is that once you mouse into the adjustments are of the RAW dialog, your cursor no longer works for navigation; rather, it will just move the insertion point around inside the adjustments box. I found that very annoying. If anyone knows a quick key for getting back to navigation, please let me know. The quickest way I found was to click in a gray area below the preview image to get the focus back out of the adjustments panel, at which point navigation on the cursor keys resumed... While you may not consider this as important as I do, this is a big advantage to Aperture, which definitely can go shot-to-shot faster than Bridge for this one simple reason.
Secondly, the Bridge demos focus on studio shoots that are arbitrarily uniform. When you're dealing with more live non-uniform material, there's more of a need to quickly grab the "last shot" settings as fast as possible.... In Aperture, I would say that the lift/stamp way of doing this is way faster (because of keyboard shortcuts) than using the Syncrhonize button in Bridge. In fact, I would say that the CS way of doing this was faster (though less versatile/configurable), because you could just select "previous conversion" faster than you can Option-click the Synchronize button in the new one (the Previous Conversion method does not work when multiple images are open in the new/improved RAW dialog, apparently because a "conversion" has not actually taken place until you click, at minimum, the Done button; therefore the "previous conversion" you get might be from a prior shoot; thus what ACR should to is have a "previous image" choice added).
Now to the big trap that I fell into.... In an attempt to work in the "all files always open" mode that Aperture pulls off, I opened my entire wedding of approx 600 files in the RAW dialog all at once, and I worked them all that way for over 4 hours. Then right at the end when I was ready to save, I had the bright idea to use the Finder to verify the existence of my XMP files... at this point I learned that the XMP are not created until you click Done, and thus that my entire effort had been highly at risk during 4 hours of editing. I did a Select All with intention of saving them all out at once, then accidentally bumped something (I still don't know what), resulting in a global adjustment to all the 600 hundred which blew away all the other adjustments I'd spent 4 hours making... Mind you that this is ultimately user error, and I consider such par for the course on the first day of new software, so I had no anger (my girlfriend witnessed this moment and said it was "very Zen" of me, but I figure it's just experience in the digital photo world). Three hours later (having gotten faster at it) I had it all redone again... The lesson here is to click Done more often to write out your XMPs, which in the new RAW is equivalent to doing a save of your work. That way if you accidentally bump your whole shoot out of adjustment, you can Cancel back to your last "save." In this respect Aperture is safer for going Shot-to-Shot, since the lift-stamp design makes it more difficult to whack your entire shoot than the more free-wheeling design of ACR does (I realize this is a tradeoff and that there are appropriate moments for free wheeling, too). The secondary lesson is to open your photos in smaller groups. I ended up settling on groups ranging from 25 to 100 as appropriate based on lighting environments. However, if you break into smaller groups, it's no longer quite as slick as Aperture in terms of shot to shot... BTW, with the massive support that Photoshop usually has for Undo and History, I was surprised that ACR did not support an Undo of my accidental mass edit (that that yourself).
Obviously Bridge is a more mature program overall (which other threads have covered, so I won't bother repeating any of that), but I think Aperture shows some clear advantage for fast shot-to-shot editing. I'm not convinced that the new Bridge/ACR combo is faster for this (temporarily discounting the white balance thing, of course). I could not figure how the new Synchronize dialog in ACR (which I much enjoyed) could do anything in excess of what the lift/stamp engine in Aperture can do in that it also allows you to select just what you want to transfer (ignoring the known cropping issue for now on this point).
In the end, I'm definitely glad I upgraded to CS2/Bridge, because I was having a hard time relating to how much love there is for it here, and I do like it a lot (especially that I can easily change the RAW Defaults for my camera to make them "pop" more by default like in Aperture). It's safe to say that I will do some things in Aperture and other things in Bridge/ACR as appropriate. Though I've already delivered jobs converted in Aperture, I think I've settled into a workflow that uses Aperture's superior sort and compare features to make my "cut," then export the selects to Finder for use in ACR, then optionally imported back into Aperture later as finished JPEGs. This is a very simple workflow, so I don't get all the bitterness expressed over it by some here in other threads... I will certainly do this until the shadow noise and parquet things get worked out.
G5 dual 2.0

Organizer vs Bridge

i have PSE 7 for my pc but am thinking of getting a mac. i really like the organizer in pse for windows but the pse8 for mac does not have the organizer. i believe Bridge replaces the organizer but i am not sure. Does anyone know? If bridge is the mac replacement for organizer for pc, does anyone know how they compare and if the catalog that i created in organizer is transferable to bridge. Thanks

While they do some of the same things they are quite different: organizer is an asset management program while bridge is a deluxe browser. Bridge keeps no database; it just shows you the current state of the folder to which you point it, so it doesn't care what you do with your photos outside of bridge. Bridge can't create stacks, and in PSE 8 lacks several of the things you can do with organizer: no direct connection to photoshop.com, no online print ordering, no slideshow editor, etc. However, you do get the full PS version of the raw converter there. Bridge can create stacks; it can't create versions. Bridge uses metadata keywords instead of the proprietary tag system used by organizer, so bridge-assigned keywords can be read by many programs on either platform.
Most mac folks who would use organizer already use iphoto or something, so if PSE/mac had organizer they would wind up double managing their photos and trouble would probably result.
EDIT To transfer your tags, write them to the files before exporting the photos to the mac. You will need to make tags for albums and categories, too, if you want to keep them. In bridge you can create subkeywords and reestablish your hierarchies, if you decide to use bridge. iphoto, aperture, spotlight, etc, can all read metadata. Note that writing tags to files has some limitations (doesn't work with raw, for instance), so try it first to be sure it works for you.

Using FINDER - Organise photos in ascending chronological order

In windows you can put your photos in filename order, date created, modified etc the same as Finder, however I cannot find how to choose to put photos in ascending chronological date order. When you choose Date created it organises them backwards from the most recent photo. I would never show holiday snaps backwards nor read a book backwards. I have multiple cameras and would like to collate all the photos together in the order they were taken.
When you go into Adobe Bridge CS4 you can put into ascending or descending order and I tried to save this order into my Finder folder but it does not keep it.
I was trying to avoid renaming my originals at this stage. I did a test and renamed a batch of photos in Adobe Bridge and it renumbers the photos etc but when you go into finder under list view the numbers are like 1,3,4....19,2,20,21 Bizarre.
As I have too many photos and always change and add folders, I prefer not to organise albums etc through programs like iPhoto. I'd rather store the originals in FINDER (which is the equivalent to Windows). This way I can draw upon my photos via a photo organiser program if I want to for a specific project but can always find ALL of my photos at any time even if I've changed around the folders.
Why can't APPLE allow something so simple as date created ascending and keep their numbering systems in order??? I just want my photos in date order for storage in FINDER. Can anyone help?

...but only for date modified not created.
Not true. If you elect to have the Date Created field shown by checking the box for it in the Finder's View menu > View Options, it works exactly the same way for that field as for any other: just click the arrow to toggle the direction of sorting.
There is no "thumbnail view" in the Finder (again, see the View menu for the four view options: icons, list, columns, and cover flow. I presume icon view is what you mean. You can sort the icons in icon view by creation date, but you can't reverse the sort order in that view. If that's what you're complaining about, then you're simply discovering belatedly that the Finder isn't a photo management application and doesn't meet your need for one. You'll need to use one to do what you want to do, and when you choose the right one, you'll realize how much better it is for that purpose than the Finder — not just in that one way, but in lots of others as well.
Note that I'm not putting in a plug here for iPhoto, Bridge, GraphicConverter, Aperture, or any other app in particular: there are so many of them available that you should try a bunch and see which you like best.

Any tips for organizational best practices?

Hello Community,
I'm an amateur CC user, digital art dllettante and Adobe fangirl, who is trying to delve deeper into the software and learn to work at a more professional level ( or at least some facsimile thereof).
Like lots (I hope) of amateurs, I have a scattered collection of digital image files haphazardly organized, and have grown tired of scrolling through Aperture when I want to find some inadequately-labeled image added at some forgotten date.
The vast usefulness of Bridge is obvious. There is so much that can be done -- when one knows how -- that I'm overwhelmed and intimidated by it.
There are likely some optimal ways of using it that are obvious to the pros, but that an amateur might not realize the value of. I knos this myriad of options is here because professionals find them useful for specific reasons, but I'm too ignorant to realize the why's and wherefore's.
I'd like to find some resources that address the optimal ways of organizing with Bridge, so I don't spend hours assigning keywords and creating galleries and collections that will turn out to be completely bassackwards.
Does anyone know of any books, tutorials, etc that cover How to (Effectively) use Bridge? Not as in, "here's how to find the menu that will allow you to do x,y,z" but as in, "Here's why it's a good idea to do x,y,z rather than a, b, c"?
Thanks for any advice!

You might want to look into the books and videos by Peter Krogh, a recognized expert in organizing digital photos (DAM or Digital Asset Management for photographers). Most of the materials out there have to do with Lightroom, but you should be able to recognize enough of the features that also appear in Bridge and Aperture. The basic principles of photo tagging and organization are the same no matter what software you use to do it. Since you mentioned Aperture, you should also look into its organizational features because chances are it can do a lot of it as well or better than Bridge.
Link to: Peter Krogh's recent videos and books

Apps for showing off high res photos

I often do talks about my photos and previously being a Windows user just used windows photo viewer if I wanted to flip though them one by one and Photos to exe if I wanted to make a high quality movie.
Two months ago I got a retina Mac Book Pro and now will use this, but if I just double click on an image in a folder I just get Preview and can't click next/next to show the subsequent ones.
So my question is what app is the best for just showing my photos one by one (so I can zoom in 100% if necessary) and what would be best for making a short movie to music (with simple transitions in time to music)
Can you do all this Adobe Bridge or Aperture?
Thanks
Mike
www.mikecurryphotography.com

iPhoto is usually not the best solution for a quick flip through because you can't use iPhoto without going through an Import step.
You don't need any apps to do a quick flip through on the desktop. Just use the QuickLook feature (File/QuickLook, or just press the space bar). When in QuickLook, click the double arrow in the top right corner to go full screen. If you had selected multiple images and go into QuickLook, click the multiple square icon near the top left corner to go into slide show mode. Now you have an instant slide show without opening any apps at all.
The only problem with QuickLook for your stated needs is it does not let you zoom into 1:1 as far as I know.
The only application you've mentioned that will successfull fulfill all your needs for a quick flip through is Adobe Bridge. Unlike QuickLook, iPhoto, or Aperture, Bridge can do all of these:
View images instantly without need for time-consuming import step
Go into slide show with keyboard shortcut
Examine image at 100% or more either by loupe (on preview) or zooming (in full screen or slideshow mode, clicking image toggles between 100% and fit screen size).
This tip will save you time: When you have a folder open in Finder and want to see it in Bridge, just drag that folder to the Bridge icon in the Dock, to skip tedious navigation in Bridge. The folder will load immediately in Bridge. You can then go immediately to slide show if you want.
You still need another app to turn the slide show into a movie. For that you can use iPhoto, iMovie, or Aperture. But since you mentioned Bridge, if that means you also have Photoshop (the video capable version) or Premiere or After Effects those will work too.

Lightroom as external editor

Is there a way to teach iPhoto (09) to use Lightroom (2) as an external editor?
Regards,
Börries

No
Lightroom is not an editor - it is a photo manager just like iPhoto and each must control its own photos - editors are programs like Photo Shop
Managers like Lightroom, bridge and Aperture import and manage photos just like iPhoto does
You must choose one photo manager (except iPhoto and Aperture do have some limited cross application capability)
LN

How can I transfer my Adobe Photoshop Elements catalog from my pc to my mac?

What is the best way to move a Adobe Photoshop Elements catalog from a pc to a mac?

You do know the mac version of PSE has no Organizer?
You can use file>Write Tags and Properties to File(s) on your files in the organizer before sending them to your mac to write the tags into the file's metadata, which can be read by Bridge, iphoto, aperture, etc. on the mac. (It doesn't work for raw files and it doesn't always work, so do a couple of test files first.) You'll need to make tags for categories and albums, too, in order to be able to sort by those criteria again.

IPhoto importing RAW images

Can anyone help please I have just tried to import from the card reader on my iMac some RAW images and it comes up with an error message saying it cannot read the format or the files are corrupt how can that be I thought iPhoto could deal with RAW images. I am using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ72 bridge camera.

Aperture and iPhoto get their RAW support from the OS. Here is the list of RAW formats supported by OS X:
http://www.apple.com/aperture/specs/raw.html
I don't see your camera on that list at this time, so it probably won't work. Apple adds RAW format support all the time, but never gives a heads up on whether any particular camera will be supported, or when.

Bridge vs Aperture

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