Bridge references acting oddly on my PC

I'm using Bridge CS5.1 (part of CS5.5), on a Windows 7 HP. Some weeks back I first began to notice that I had to reset my preferences every time I launched Bridge.

So, I tried tossing the Preferences file (using a google recommendation) but that didn't work.

Next, I had our IT department completely reinstall CS5.5, including Bridge, but that didn't see to work either. 

One other thing, perhaps unrelated, but my cache remained untouched. I thought that odd only because when we've reinstalled in the past, I had to completely reindex the library. That does not seem to be the issue with this latest reinstall.

Any thoughts?

Corrupted Preferences in Bridge? Try this and let me know if it works!

If you find your cache has become corrupted or otherwise unresponsive or damaged, Adobe's fix is pretty straightforward: go to Preferences and simply purge the cache.  (Of course, you'll have to reindex all your folders/filers.)

But if you find your Preferences themselves have become corrupted, it's a bit more challenging to find a solution to "reset" your preferences to the factory defaults. Here's what you do:

1. Quite Bridge 
2. Relaunch the program
3. Immediately hold down Control-Alt-Shift (PC) or
4. Command-Option-Shift (note if this doesn't work and for older versions of the Mac OS

I have to say, though, this did NOT work for me -- I suspect I would have to reinstall Bridge at some point. But that would mean a total reindex of our image library. I think not.

I'd be curious to know if this works for anyone else.

Fuji X100s

Two weeks ago I took delivery of my brand-new X100s and I was well-prepared. I had already purchased the Kaza combo, half-case, strap and full case cover ($129), a thumb rest from Lensmate ($50), Tom Abrahamsson soft release ($21) and Giottos monitor cover ($25), and they were waiting patiently boxed until the camera arrived.

So, now they're on the camera, how do they stack up and are they worth the additional cost?

Thumb rest from Lensmate: Love it; works like a charm and definitely makes my grip on the camera feel more stable and solid. Note it will take up the hot shoe slot, though.

Soft release from Abrahamsson: Loved it and really like the sense of control over the shutter; but it came unscrewed shortly after I started using it and, unbeknownst to me, fell three stories (I was shooting from an old wrought iron fire escape at the time).  I'll  probably go with a less expensive model (and buy two or three just in case).

Kaza combo case system: Looks very nice, stitching looks even and well done, and feels good in the hand. One of the attractions of this case was ease of access to the battery/card slot cover, although it's a bit tight and I have to fiddle to get it to open.

There is good access to the Focus Mode Selector:

Although a bit finicky to get into place, the tripod screw works fine.

There are a few caveats to this case, however. The full case cover will not close with the thumb rest on and certainly not with both thumb rest and soft release. As a result, I tend not to use it and just leave the half-case on all the time.

Another thing, there is no way to access the connection ports since the half case covers it entirely (pictured immediately below).

The long and short of it is that I believe all these are worth the money; it's not a perfect world and when it comes to cameras one has to take a little finickiness in stride. (Hey how many of us bought the X100, right?)

Finally, I should add the two Fuji accessories: an extra battery (don't even think about using this camera without one) and the lens hood/adapter ring. I like the lens hood but you can't use the stock lens cap with it. It would also be nice if it didn't require a special ring to attach it.

Update your Camera Raw and DNG Converter

I'm a big believer of Adobe's DNG Converter to bring all the various proprietary camera raw file formas under one roof so to speak, so here's the link to the download of the latest and greatest, ver. 7.3. This should cover pretty much all new camera raw files.

If you prefer to cut-and-paste:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/thankyou.jsp?ftpID=5518&fileID=5529

Speed up your indexing in Bridge

If you find yourself having to reindex/recache an extremely large image library (like ours), here's a handy tip to get you back in search mode fast.

1. Launch Bridge
2. Make sure Path Bar is visible (if not, go to Window>Path Bar).
3. On the right side of the Path Bar, just to the left of the Star rating drop-down menu are two square icons. These allow you to modify the thumbnail quality and preview generation in Bridge. 
4. Select "Prefer Embedded (Faster)".
5. Voila!

It might take a few moments when you select an image to generate a preview and if you find this too annoying you can change it back to "Always High Quality" or even  add "Generate 100% Previews" although this will consume lots more disk space and of course take more time in caching/indexing)

Handy introduction to using Adobe Bridge to organize your photos

I found this handy little video tutorial for using Bridge (CS6) as way to organize your photos. If you're looking for a tool to organize your image library it's worth the 13 or so minutes running time -- and it's free with Creative Suite, too, which is nice.

Bridge CS6 New Feature: showing InDesign Linked Files

A second tres cool feature of Bridge CS6 is its ability to show those often hard-to-locate linked InDesign files.

Just navigate to the folder where the IDD document is located and select the document. (You should see a little "link" icon in the upper right corner.) Now make sure you have checked to show "Linked Files" in Preferences and voila1 there's the file list.

OK, now right- or control-click on the IDD doc, and you should see the following dropdown:

Select "Show linked files":

Bingo! No matter which folder they're in, there they all are:

Finally, if you have checked the "Color Swatches" and "Font" panels in Metadata Preferences, and then select any IDD doc, you'll be able to see at a glance which fonts and what colors are use din the document itself -- another very nice feature:

Bridge CS6 New Feature: IPTC Extension Panel

While little has changed between Bridge CS5 and 6, there are a couple of features in the latest iteration that will appeal to the serious archivist. The first is the new IPTC Extension Metadata Panel. Available as a download in CS5, this panel has now been fully integrated with the panel hierarchy in CS6. This new feature's importance is immediately obvious as soon as you open the panel (make sure it's checked in the Preferences): it adds a significant amount of data fields that will certainly appeal to professional photographers and image librarians.

Some of the fields can be expanded and even multiplied.

For example, in the image below I clicked the little "new page" icon on the far right side of the panel on the line "Location" and it added a set of subfields. The cool thing is I can click again and again and it will add additional fields. To delete one of the fields you added, simply click the trash icon. Voila!

Another interesting aspect of this new panel is the built-in dropdown menus for several data fields that have been increasingly important in the era of digital photography; fields such as

model age disclosure information:

model release status:

type of source:

and property release information (my favorite here):

Next: my second favorite new feature, a metadata panel for linking to InDesign files and a bonus!