Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [250]
Let's first consider how metadata information is used to manage other types of files on a computer. A program like iTunes can update its music database automatically. For example, if you insert a purchased CD into your computer, iTunes will query an on-line database and download the album title, artist, track listings and genre of music. This is a good example of metadata in action, because once iTunes has done this, the music metadata information can be used to help you manage your music collections more easily. The iTunes cataloging is effortless because it all takes place in the background and is mostly done automatically. The big difference when cataloging image files is that you mostly have to input all the metadata yourself manually and that can require some additional effort on your part.
Although Bridge has the potential to be used as an image asset manager, it still lacks the sophistication of other fully dedicated asset management programs such as Expression media™ or Lightroom. To be honest, I mainly use Bridge for specific file browsing tasks (such as when working on a book project like this). Otherwise, I find that for most image asset management and workflow tasks, Lightroom is the better program to use for this kind of work. This is because Lightroom allows me to import camera files exactly the way I want and has a better and more versatile library management interface for editing and managing the metadata. If you are serious about library management and cataloging your images, you may want to try out Lightroom, or else consider some of the other popular products such as Expression Media™ or Apple's Aperture™.
Image rating and labeling
One of the main tasks you will want to carry out in Bridge is to rate your images, sorting out those that you like best from the rejects and arranging them into groups. The Bridge program provides two main ways to categorize your images. In the Label menu Rating section (Figure 11.34) you can apply ratings to an image in the form of stars, going from one to five. This image rating system lets you apply cumulative ratings to the images you like and it is therefore useful to familiarize yourself with the keyboard shortcuts that can be used to apply ratings to images. These range from to (to apply 0–5 stars) but you can also use to increase the rating by one star, or to decrease the star rating for an image. The above shortcuts can make it easier for you to focus your attention on the images as you use the arrow keys to progress from one photo to the next. In addition to this you can still use the +’ (apostrophe) keyboard shortcut as a simple binary rating system that allows you to add or remove a single star rating from an image. How you use the ratings is up to you, but generally speaking it is a good idea to be sparing with your ratings. Unrated images can be the rejects, while one and two stars can be used to mark the images you like best. And three stars upwards should be reserved for those pictures that are really special.
Figure 11.34 Image ratings and labels can be applied via the Label menu in Bridge, or by using the keyboard shortcuts described in the main text. Note there is no room for a keyboard shortcut for the Purple label. The only way to apply a Purple label is via this or the contextual menu. You can also mark an image as being a reject (see page 584). This is not the same as deleting, you are simply labeling it as a potential delete image.
Canceling and turning off labels
The labeling controls have a toggle action. For example, if you select an image and use to label it red, you can use the same keyboard shortcut to cancel the label color. You can also turn off the labeling by selecting ‘No Label’ from the Label menu.
Color labels can be used to signify other things. Author Peter Krogh suggests in his DAM book that labels be used to apply negative ratings, where