Previews in Bridge look blurry . . . ??

LiveAwake

I'm having trouble with the previews in Bridge CS4 appearing blurry, when in fact the shot is crisp (as demonstrated when I either use the little zoom tool or open it in Photoshop etc.

I'm working with RAW images, have my settings for previews set to "always high quality" and have even checked the "generate 100% previews" but to no avail.

Is this an issue of scaling? I know that sometimes whatever algorithm is used to scale a picture down to "screen size" can affect sharpness, especially if you're viewing at a strange magnification (ie 27.6% or whatever would make it "full-screen.") If that's the problem, is there a way to force it to scale down to the nearest size that will look sharp? (whether that's 25% or 33% or whatever works best with Adobe's particular algorithm).

Or, is it something else completely?
Anyone else have this issue?

Richard

LiveAwake wrote:

I'm having trouble with the previews in Bridge CS4 appearing blurry, when in fact the shot is crisp (as demonstrated when I either use the little zoom tool or open it in Photoshop etc.

I'm working with RAW images, have my settings for previews set to "always high quality" and have even checked the "generate 100% previews" but to no avail.

Is this an issue of scaling? I know that sometimes whatever algorithm is used to scale a picture down to "screen size" can affect sharpness, especially if you're viewing at a strange magnification (ie 27.6% or whatever would make it "full-screen.") If that's the problem, is there a way to force it to scale down to the nearest size that will look sharp? (whether that's 25% or 33% or whatever works best with Adobe's particular algorithm).

Or, is it something else completely?
Anyone else have this issue?

Does this happen all the time with all images? I have seen this from time to time with a few images in Bridge/CS3. I have never been able to determine the cause, but clearing the cache and regenerating the previews seems to fix it. I generally do not use high quality previews. Sorry, but I don't know of a way to force a particular scale, though I doubt that is the problem since I typically see all kinds of weird magnification factors without fuzziness.

LiveAwake

Richard wrote:

Does this happen all the time with all images? I have seen this from time to time with a few images in Bridge/CS3. I have never been able to determine the cause, but clearing the cache and regenerating the previews seems to fix it. I generally do not use high quality previews. Sorry, but I don't know of a way to force a particular scale, though I doubt that is the problem since I typically see all kinds of weird magnification factors without fuzziness.

It doesn't seem to be ALL images . . . if things are large enough in the picture they look ok, but small stuff is almost completely lost. Here is a comparison of a small crop from the same picture. Hopefully it will show up, the one on the right is from Bridge, the one on the left is from Photoshop. (I tried to make them about the same size, but since bridge doesn't tell you your magnification, it might not be perfect.)

And just in case, that is right after purging the cache in Bridge. I have no idea what's going on here, and it's very annoying - it makes me think I missed the focus on perfectly good shots!

LiveAwake

Here's another sample . . . this one's a bit more subtle, but it's pictures like this where it really matters. If anyone can help me with this, I would REALLY appreciate it. It's a pain in the ass to have to look at every picture in photoshop just to know whether or not it's in focus.

pathfinder

Adobe Bridge > Preferences > Cache> Purge the Cache

Somehow, you are not getting your thumbnails updated I suspect.

If you are in Bridge, you do not need to open images in Photoshop; type ctrl-J and open them in ACR. ctrl-Z to enlarge the images as large as needed to verify focus ( 100% 200% 400% ), and then Cancel. Faster and easier than Photoshop to check focus.

You may need to use higher quality thumbnails, and the better your thumbnails you want, the longer they take to create, thus another source of delay when working.....

Try checking focus in ACR, it is almost instantaneous on my machine.

LiveAwake

Well, I have definitely purged the cache more than once, with no change. I'm sure it purged, because it then spends time re-creating the thumbnails . . . but anyway, it's not the thumbnail that is out of focus. It is the "preview." Is there a separate cache that I need to purge for that, or is it the same one?

Opening a file in ACR forces photoshop to open, and even if it didn't, I'm feeling a little frustrated that Bridge's preview function doesn't do its job. The whole point of bridge is to preview your pictures, go through and select which ones need to be edited or deleted. It adds a lot of extra mumbo to my workflow if I have to open each file in ACR/Photoshop/Whatever just to see if it's infocus. :cry

Has anyone else run into this issue, or am I the only one who gets blurry previews in Bridge? This is really strange . . . .HELP!

pathfinder

CTRL-R opens a file in Adobe Camera Raw IN BRIDGE.

Ctrl-O opens a file in Adobe Camera Raw IN PHOTOSHOP.

There is a difference and reason you should care. If you ONLY want to see an image and process it as RAW, but not go on into Photoshop, ctrl-R is what you want. When you are finished, just hit done. You can open a dozen files at once with ctrl-R, after selecting all of them in Bridge, and then process all of them at the same time.

If you want to open a single file, do the Raw processing, and then take the file into Photoshop for further editing, ctrl-O is what you need to key.


Googling "blurry thumbnails in Bridge" led to this link http://forums.adobe.com/thread/463667 which might be of help

LiveAwake

pathfinder wrote:

CTRL-R opens a file in Adobe Camera Raw IN BRIDGE.

Ctrl-O opens a file in Adobe Camera Raw IN PHOTOSHOP.

There is a difference and reason you should care. If you ONLY want to see and image and process it is RAW, but not go on into Photoshop, ctrl-R is what you want. When you are finished, just hit done. You can open a dozen files at once with ctrl-R, after selecting all of them in Bridge, and then process all of them at the same time.

If you want to open a single file, do the Raw processing, and then take the file into Photoshop for further editing, ctrl-O is what you need to key.


Googling "blurry thumbnails in Bridge" led to this link http://forums.adobe.com/thread/463667 which might be of help

Thank you for that information. I have been perusing the adobe forums as well, and found that several people have been having this problem. A handful of them have been able to solve it, but so far none of their solutions have worked for me.

I'm a little confused about the solution mentioned in the link you sent me. It sounds like he is saying there is a separate cache attached to the file, other than whatever is stored in the actual "cache" folder? How do I find and/or delete that?

LiveAwake

LiveAwake wrote:

Thank you for that information. I have been perusing the adobe forums as well, and found that several people have been having this problem. A handful of them have been able to solve it, but so far none of their solutions have worked for me.

I'm a little confused about the solution mentioned in the link you sent me. It sounds like he is saying there is a separate cache attached to the file, other than whatever is stored in the actual "cache" folder? How do I find and/or delete that?

I think I solved it. Under Preferences > Advanced there is a box that says "generate monitor-size previews." Bingo.

I can't imagine why anyone would want previews that remained blurry instead of fully rendering . . . I guess it's a speed thing, but that seems to have done it. I'm currently waiting for it to finish generating lots of previews. I'll report back if there are further issues.

pathfinder

Intereresting - my box for monitor sized previews is NOT checked

I'm glad you have sorted out your problem!

LiveAwake

pathfinder wrote:

Intereresting - my box for monitor sized previews is NOT checked

I'm glad you have sorted out your problem!

Yeah, it's really strange. From what I've found on the Adobe forums, several people have run into this problem, but each one has a different solution. None of their solutions helped me, but this random little box in that particular sub-menu did.

Seems Adobe needs to step back a second and assess whatever they've done with their latest generation of software and see if they couldn't make those updates without messing up the basic functionality. Strange.

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions. I learned something about ACR anyway.

MilanS

Blurry images in Bridge CS4 - SOLVED!
acked

I had the same problem of having blur images in preview panel, and in full screen mode. After Googleing I have found numerous suggestions involving cashe setting, but none of the managed to resolve the problem, out least not for very long. Than I remembered that the new Bridge CS4 is using OpenGL through GPU (Graphic Card). An in there lies the solution:

- Download and install the latest drivers for you graphic card:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
Note: I have tried only with nVidia graphic card!

- Go to nVidia Control Panel
And under 3D settings---Manage 3D settings. go to "program settings"
And ad bridge to the programs settings list. You can do this by clicking the "add" button and locate bridge.exe. Usually find in you program files!

I have check some options, and leave the rest as they were by the default. Insted of writing, I'm posting screenshots.
Note: I'm not sure withc option exactly sovled the problem, but here is my configuration that did it for me.


P.S.

BTW, my graphic card is: GeForce 8800 GS!
Hope this helps!
Cheers!

MotorYogurt

LiveAwake wrote: »

I think I solved it. Under Preferences > Advanced there is a box that says "generate monitor-size previews." Bingo.

I can't imagine why anyone would want previews that remained blurry instead of fully rendering . . . I guess it's a speed thing, but that seems to have done it. I'm currently waiting for it to finish generating lots of previews. I'll report back if there are further issues.

I just registered on this site simply to say thank you. I had put up with that problem for a long time in bridge, and this fixed it for me.

Now I guess I might as well look around this joint.

LiveAwake

MotorYogurt wrote: »

I just registered on this site simply to say thank you. I had put up with that problem for a long time in bridge, and this fixed it for me.

Now I guess I might as well look around this joint.

Wahoo! Glad to hear you were able to benefit from all the trouble I went through way back when to figure that out. And welcome to the forums - there's some good stuff here.:cheeburga

Horton

LiveAwake wrote: »

I think I solved it. Under Preferences > Advanced there is a box that says "generate monitor-size previews." Bingo.

I can't imagine why anyone would want previews that remained blurry instead of fully rendering . . . I guess it's a speed thing, but that seems to have done it. I'm currently waiting for it to finish generating lots of previews. I'll report back if there are further issues.

This solved it for me as well. Reviewing a recent shoot fullscreen in Bridge, I thought I had a taken a ton of soft pictures, until I zoomed in and saw that the detail was actually there. I get the performance reasons for operating off the cache, but it would be nice if Bridge gave some kind of warning when it interpolates an image. I'm very happy to have this resolved for now… just have to keep an eye on the size of that Bridge cache.

kidjedi

LiveAwake wrote: »

I think I solved it. Under Preferences > Advanced there is a box that says "generate monitor-size previews." Bingo.

This. Was. Killing. Me.

I've got a copy of CS6 sitting here that I haven't installed yet (deadlines are keeping me from rendering the machine inoperable for a couple of hours while I upgrade), so I'm still running CS4. I've been selecting photos in Bridge and making initial edits in PhotoNinja.

I was TERRIFIED when I started sifting through literally hundreds and hundreds of photos from a recent shoot and EVERYTHING looked out of focus! At first I thought there was something wrong with the lens I was using.

Then as I started importing things into Photo Ninja (accepting that I'd just have to do my best with what I had), I noticed the images looked FINE (sharp) in Photo Ninja. What the what?!

Anyway, long story short, I started poking around the web and found this solution to the fuzzy preview problem.

THANK YOU. A thousand thank you's.

LiveAwake

kidjedi wrote: »

This. Was. Killing. Me.

I've got a copy of CS6 sitting here that I haven't installed yet (deadlines are keeping me from rendering the machine inoperable for a couple of hours while I upgrade), so I'm still running CS4. I've been selecting photos in Bridge and making initial edits in PhotoNinja.

I was TERRIFIED when I started sifting through literally hundreds and hundreds of photos from a recent shoot and EVERYTHING looked out of focus! At first I thought there was something wrong with the lens I was using.

Then as I started importing things into Photo Ninja (accepting that I'd just have to do my best with what I had), I noticed the images looked FINE (sharp) in Photo Ninja. What the what?!

Anyway, long story short, I started poking around the web and found this solution to the fuzzy preview problem.

THANK YOU. A thousand thank you's.

Glad this answer is still helping people! Still boggles my mind that this is not the default.

shinamite

Also registered just to thank you. THANK YOU!

I'm post-processing a huge shoot at the moment and the blurryness was driving me mad. So, thanks for preventing me to punch a hole in my Eizo

LiveAwake

Until Adobe gets their $h*! together, at least there are forums to help us share the work-around.