Adobe Bridge and an image library - a case study

Every so often I get pinged with an email from someone seeking answers to one of life’s greatest puzzles: “How can Adobe Bridge help me build and maintain a large image library?” (Where’s Einstein or Darwin when you really need them, eh?)

Such queries always come from individuals who are serious, determined and totally perplexed by the task facing them: creating and maintaining a large photo library on the cheap. And such was the case with H____. With her permission I post our email conversation here, as a way of sharing her rather daunting predicament with those of you quite likely facing the same set of concerns. I should say that subsequently we had a long phone conversation that explored several follow-up points in greater depth.

“I have avidly been following your blog,” she wrote last week, “in which you describe the way in which you detail arranging a shared library via Adobe Bridge. I am doing a similar thing, but on a smaller scale and am reaching out to you for some guidance. I have a pretty good idea of what I am doing, but as I read your blog I recognized that there are certain pitfalls that I want to avoid and be prepared for - specifically with the cache and ensuring that all files maintain their metadata.”

In my follow-up email I asked six questions, to which she quickly replied:

1. How many individuals will be using Bridge? Bridge is going to be used by a handful of people - but with potential to be searched by more in the future. There is also the hope that people unfamiliar with Bridge or CS software would be able to search for images through spotlight (we’re all on Macs ).
2. What version of Bridge do you have? We are using Adobe Bridge CS5.
3. How many images do you have? The images right now are less than 10,000 but growing daily - I am aware of the limitations of Bridge - and at some point I am sure that a more robust and secure DAM system will be put in place - this system is to carry them over and make the workflow more manageable until then.
4. Do you have a keywording strategy in place? We have outlined a master keyword list. I consulted with those who have to use and search for photos daily, and their preference is simplicity and less is more - it will be imported into Bridge and modified as needed - however in testing it has proven to be a bit conflicting. I am in the midst of figuring that out - also the "Bridge Search" in the upper right hand corner is letting me down as it is not invoking hierarchy and will only allow a one-word search.
5. Is there an IT dept involved? IT is not involved....
6. Do you have a metadata gatekeeping policy? The gatekeeping policy will be more solid as the system comes to fruition - but in general only the people sourcing and dealing with images daily would be able to make adjustments- right now that is only 2 or 3 people.

Use these questions and compare your answers to the ones above.

As a postscript, I should note that one of the really crucial issues in this particular exchange concerns question no. 4: I wish that Adobe would remove that little search box in the upper right corner of the UI. It looks so much like the Mac finder and is too tempting to use. Bridge’s real strength lies in its incredibly robust search features accessed from “Edit>Find” from the main menu or “Command/Control+F” from the keyboard.

Otherwise, H____ is right on track. She has a solid plan in place, a good process in motion and a firm grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of Adobe Bridge.

Do you?