One of the best parts about Adobe Bridge is that its interface is completely customizable to meet our specific needs. Now in order to get a feel for how you might want to customize it, Bridge ships with several different workspaces that we can see across the top here. Now, we're going to take a closer look at these in just a moment. But right now, I want us to all be sure that we're looking at the same workspace. So go ahead and click where it says Essentials, and then use the triangle here to select Reset workspace.
That way I know that we're all looking at the same thing. Now as I mentioned before, Bridge has nested some of its panels together. So for example, the Favorites and the Folders are nested together. And you just click on the name of the tab there for that panel in order to bring it to the foreground. We saw how clicking on an image would then show a preview of that image on the right hand side. And selecting more than one image shows us both of those images. Now if we select a lot of images. So say for example, I click on the first image, and then hold down the Shift key, and click on the last image in that row.
Well, I have ten items selected but you should just know that the maximum number that Bridge will display in the preview area is nine items. So it will tell you if you have more than that selected. Alright, below that we have our Metadata panel, where you can see things like the file properties, or information about the files. We can look at the IPTC information, that's metadata that we can add. So, things like our contact information and copy right information plus a lot of other information that we'll go into a little bit more in-depth in other lessons.
We also have a Key Word panel. So this is a panel dedicated to adding key words to enable us to find our images later on. So that's going to be a really handy panel that we'll use. Moving back over to the left hand side, we have some filters. So, once we're shooting lots of images, we'll want to be able to filter down to maybe just the images that have 2 star rating on them or filter by keywords. So, this becomes a very important panel. And then we have our Collections panel which we can use to create, kind of virtual collection.
So, if we went on 4 different trips to 4 different locations, we could just select our top images from each of those shoots and without rearranging them on the hard drive, we could put them in a virtual collection. So, again, we'll be talking more in-depth about these topics in later lessons. But there might be times when you don't need access to all of these panels, or maybe you want to make some of the other panels a little bit larger or smaller. Well, you can do this by positioning your cursor between any of the panels.
You'll get the double headed arrow and then you can just click and drag those splitters to re-arrange and make one panel larger and the other panels smaller. So those are the vertical splitters. But of course you can also change the horizontal splitters as well, making one area larger and another one smaller. If I wanted to nest the panels together differently, then I could click on the tab for the panel that I want to move. And you'll notice if I drag it up here it will give me a blue highlight. And when I let go, it will actually nest the keywords with that preview panel. If instead I don't want to nest the keywords with preview, but I want it to have its own space in the panel, then I'll drag down below or between these two panels where there's just a single solid blue line. Let go of my cursor, and now you can see that preview and keywords and the Metadata panel all have their own place to be on that right-hand side. So obviously we can customize this.
But let's take a look at some of the different workspaces that Adobe has created for us to try to kind of make their best guess for different layouts for different workflows. If I want to see the filmstrip, I can either use the command key plus F2 or just click where it says filmstrip. You can see that some of the panels are hidden in this workspace. So you don't always have to have all of the panels showing. For all of the different tasks that you do. Now if I just select a single image we can see in the preview area.
It's much larger so I get a much bigger view of my image. So this is really nice when you're just quickly moving through a lot of images. The Metadata workspace tells me a lot of information about each image here in the content area and it hides that Preview area, and instead I can see the Metadata as well as the Filter Panel over here. If we click on Keywords, again I get a larger visual here of my content with a lot of information about each file and I also get the Keywords panel to the left. If we click on the Drop Down Arrow, you'll notice I also have a Preview workspace.
This is probably the largest preview that I would get of my images. Or we have the Light table, which just gives me the Content panel and hides all of my other panels. And finally, we have our Folders. So, this should give you a good idea of how maybe you can hide and show the different panels in order to meet your needs. So, let's say, for example, that we go back to the Preview panel here but I also want another panel showing that's been hidden.
Then I'll go under the Window menu and you can see all the panels that are showing have the checkmark next to them. If I want to see panels that aren't showing, I can use the Window menu here and then I can select any of the unchecked panels. So the ones with the checks on them, obviously we're seeing. But if I want to see the Metadata panel, I simply select it and it will appear. Now in this case it was grouped with Preview. But, like we did a moment ago, I can go ahead and nest that in any other grouping or create my own. So once you've decided what panels you want to see and how large you want to see each one of them, you can create your own custom work space by clicking on the Arrow and then choosing New workspace.
And I'll just call this jkost. And I'm going to Save the window location as well as the Sort Order. That's something we haven't talked about, but the Sort Order right here determines the order that I see my images in the content area. So I can choose whether or not I want to Save those by just checking it on or off. Go ahead and click Save and now you'll notice up here at the top the first option is my workspace. If I wanted to change the order of these workspaces say for example, I didn't like the Filmstrip workspace and I wanted to demote it I can just click and drag that over to the right. I can also use this little grabber bar right here. To stretch this out so that I see more workspaces.
That way if I liked, for example, the light table, I could go ahead and move this to the third position. If I didn't like the workspace I just set up, I could scoot this down to maybe the fifth position. Then we'll go ahead and tidy that up by just making it a little bit smaller. And now I want to reset the workspace to the Essentials. So, I'll click on Essentials, but that's not actually the default because remember, we made changes by grabbing these splitter handles, and we also rearranged the panels. So if I really want to get back to the Essentials, not only do I need to select it but I also need to choose to Reset the workspace.
And now we're all back at the default Essentials workspace. One quick shortcut, if I just want to see this content area larger and I want to hide all of the panels on the left and the right. I can tap the Tab key to temporarily hide those panels and then I can tap the Tab key again whenever I need to see them again. It's kind of a quick way to go from the Essentials to the Light Table view, without having to actually change my workspaces. So as you can see the interface in Bridge is completely customizable in order for you to get the tools you need for your specific workflow and the tasks that you're trying to accomplish.
Author
Updated
10/6/2014Released
6/17/2013- Using Bridge to batch rename files and add keywords and metadata to photos
- Viewing, rating, filtering, and creating collections to isolate your best work
- Comparing raw and JPEG file formats
- Retouching and automating workflow with Camera Raw
- Navigating documents and the Photoshop interface
- Understanding file formats, resolution, canvas size, and print size
- Cropping, straightening, transforming, warping, scaling, and resizing images
- Selecting, stacking, aligning, and grouping layers
- Making precise selections using the Marquee, Lasso, and Brush tools
- Using Refine Edge, Quick Selection, and layer masks to isolate soft edge objects
- Improving tone, contrast, and color selectively
- Converting to black and white and tinting images
- Retouching blemishes, smoothing skin, whitening teeth, and brightening eyes
- Retouching with the Liquify, Content-Aware Fill, Healing Brush, and Patch tools
- Merging multiple exposures
- Making nondestructive changes with Smart Filters
- Adding texture, edge effects, and drop shadows with blend modes
- Working with type
- Creating, modifying, and combining shapes using the Shape tools
- Adding layer effects
- Saving and sharing images via contact sheets, web galleries, and Save For Web
- Editing video and audio clips
- Panning and zooming still photos
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: This course was updated on 01/16/2014. What changed?
A: When Creative Cloud applications are updated, we refresh our training to make sure it covers the latest features and interface changes from Adobe. This update covers changes to Camera Raw, including nondestructive cropping, workflow and output settings, and the ability to save multiple files automatically.
Q: This course was updated on 6/18/2014. What changed?
A: In June 2014 Adobe released new features for Photoshop CC and added enhancements to several existing features. We added movies to introduce the new Focus Mask and Blur Gallery features, and changed several movies to reflect updates to instant type preview, font search, Typekit, Liquify, Content-Aware Fill, Adobe Camera Raw, and Smart Guides.
Q: This course was updated on 10/06/2014. What changed?
A: We updated this course to reflect the October 2014 changes to Photoshop CC. There are 16 new movies, which are indicated by the "(CC 2014.1)" tag that appears next to their names.
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Adobe Photoshop
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What is Photoshop?1m 42s
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Introduction
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Welcome1m
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Installing Adobe Bridge1m 23s
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What's new1m 26s
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1. It Begins in Bridge
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What is Adobe Bridge?3m 3s
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2. Whittling Down to Keepers
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Saving images in collections3m 52s
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Rating and labeling images4m 31s
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Using smart collections3m 39s
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3. Camera Raw Essentials
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Choosing output settings3m 34s
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4. Fixing Common Problems Quickly with Camera Raw
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Fixing blown-out highlights5m 42s
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Correcting lens distortion5m 17s
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Sharpening details7m 23s
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5. Retouching and Using Creative Techniques with Camera Raw
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Adding a radial gradient6m 35s
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6. Automating Camera Raw
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7. Photoshop Interface Essentials
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Managing panels5m 1s
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8. Documents and Navigation
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Arranging documents3m 37s
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9. Digital Image Essentials
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Understanding file formats8m 26s
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10. Cropping and Transformations
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Using crop options4m 20s
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Warping images4m 48s
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11. Working with Layers
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Exploring layer basics13m 25s
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12. Selections and Layer Masks
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Combining selections6m 40s
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Selecting with Focus Mask3m 10s
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13. Tone and Color Correction with Adjustment Layers
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Starting with a preset2m 36s
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14. Additional Options for Tone and Color Correction
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15. Retouching Essentials
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Taming flyaway hair4m 53s
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16. Combining Multiple Images
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17. Essential Filters
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Overview of filters3m 3s
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18. Essential Blend Modes
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19. Type Essentials
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Exploring character (point) type11m 58s
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Adding type on a path7m 3s
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Warping type2m 36s
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20. Basic Shape Layers
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Using the shape tools13m 45s
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Custom shape layers6m 15s
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Adding a keyline to an image4m 13s
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21. Essential Layer Effects and Styles
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Adding a drop shadow effect8m 57s
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22. Sharing Images
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Creating contact sheets4m 29s
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Creating PDF presentations3m 25s
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Saving for the web3m 49s
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23. Video
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Working with video clips12m 14s
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Conclusion
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Next steps1m 4s
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Video: A tour of workspaces in Bridge