Using Collections to Manage Search Results in Bridge CS4

Using Bridge CS4 as the linchpin in our image library development has certainly made it much easier to both find and track specific images among more than 140,000 photos. But with our robust search and keywording strategy, searching can often produce many dozens or even hundreds (even thousands) of images.

The easiest way to manage such large searches -- particularly when you find yourself performing the same search again and again, is to create a collection out of the search results. And to make things easier, you can create a "smart" collection that will automatically update your collection when new images with specific metadata are added to the library.

To create a collection after you perform your search, select all the images you wish to use in the new collection.

Go to the collections panel and click either the "New Collection" or "New Smart Collection" icon at the bottom of the panel, give it a name and voila! That's it!

If you created a smart collection, each time an image or images are added to the library with the search criteria you used that image or those images will automatically be added to your collection.

Please note two important things:

1. collections cannot be shared
2. you must be connected to the image source to view the images in your collection (you cannot work offline)

Take care and good luck!

Introducing Adobe Bridge CS4

Questions, comments or suggestions? Feel free to contact me: steve.soper@jwu.edu

Two concerns in using Bridge CS4 to maintain a central image library

Using Bridge CS 4 as a tool for creating, maintaining and accessing a large central image library has worked for our organization. After much testing in the summer of 2009 and continual testing and updating of our search and keywording strategies the library remains stronger than ever.

However, there are two ongoing concerns that one should be aware of: exactly what is the top end limit for the cache and what will happen when that limit is reached.

It is widely known that you can adjust the number of "items" in Bridge's cache preferences from 10k to 500k. But exactly what does Adobe mean by an "item"?

Elsewhere they use the word "record" but generally the word item seems to be most favored. For example, is a RAW image file and its sidecar metadata file considered two items? Is each thumbnail and each preview a separate item?

If the answer is yes to both questions, then it is safe to assume that one camera RAW image could in fact be read by Bridge as four distinct items. It wouldn't take Bridge long to reach the maximum threshold of 500k.

Second, exactly what happens when Bridge reaches its maximum number of items?

According to Adobe's user guide (May 2009) for Bridge and Version Cue, "If the cache is near the defined limit (500,000 records) or the volume that contains the cache is too full, older cached items are removed when you exit Adobe Bridge."

Here, again, we are in murky waters. Note the use of both the maximum number of records or if "the cache is too full." Exactly what does the latter mean and how does it differ from the former?

I have yet to discover the answers to either question -- perhaps none exist, at least not an answer that would cover any and all possibilities.

Any ideas, comments or questions, please feel free to contact me: steve.soper@jwu.edu