Suggestions for Bridge ratings/labels

cmason

Just getting used to Adobe Bridge, and want to explore using the ratings/labels to speed up choosing and sorting photos to take into "post production". So far I have just gone right into Photoshop when a photo caught my eye, but I need something a bit more organized.

So, how do you use the rating and labels? I have been trying to use them, but have gotten myself confused with what "green" means, vs "5 stars".

My new plan is to use the colors for a culling exercise:

1. Examine shots for those that are out of focus, over/under exposed, and those used for configuration (custom WB shots,etc): tag red and ignore
2. tag usable shots as green, regardless of subject , quality etc
3. Then sort all green shots, using stars for "quality" ratings.
4. Start post production with 5 stars..working backwards.

Not sure when to put titles, subject and other data, at this pt, only high starred photos will get that treatment.

Thoughts, suggestions? Since there are 5 colors, and 5 star ratings, I think there may be more efficient ratings, or systems out there. Care to share?

jfriend

Ratings and labels in Bridge - one idea

cmason wrote:

Just getting used to Adobe Bridge, and want to explore using the ratings/labels to speed up choosing and sorting photos to take into "post production". So far I have just gone right into Photoshop when a photo caught my eye, but I need something a bit more organized.

So, how do you use the rating and labels? I have been trying to use them, but have gotten myself confused with what "green" means, vs "5 stars".

My new plan is to use the colors for a culling exercise:

1. Examine shots for those that are out of focus, over/under exposed, and those used for configuration (custom WB shots,etc): tag red and ignore
2. tag usable shots as green, regardless of subject , quality etc
3. Then sort all green shots, using stars for "quality" ratings.
4. Start post production with 5 stars..working backwards.

Not sure when to put titles, subject and other data, at this pt, only high starred photos will get that treatment.

Thoughts, suggestions? Since there are 5 colors, and 5 star ratings, I think there may be more efficient ratings, or systems out there. Care to share?

There are a zillion ways to do this. Here's basically how I do it:

Go through each image and take one of three possible actions: Delete it, Give it a rating of 1-3 stars or leave it alone. The intention is to only spend any more time on images that have a star rating and I only delete images that are ruined (out of focus, completely blown exposure). I don't use colored labels at all at this step.

Then change Bridge's view to only view images with a rating and finish my post processing. In some cases, I'll process every image with a rating. In other cases, I'll further refine and only end up process a select few - it depends upon the type of shoot.

I use labels for other types of sorting or collections. For example, if I need to go through a particular shoot and find the 5 images that I'm going to print for my mom, I'll pick a particular color, tag all the candidate images with that color (often only reviewing the rated images), view only the ones tagged with that color and then cull it down to the five that I want for that purpose.

Shay Stephens

I keep it very simple. I go through the photos and the good ones get a green label. I filter the view to only show the green labels and then look for duplicate/redundant photos and get rid of those (removing the green label). What's left is the photos I work on.

dandill

cmason wrote:

Just getting used to Adobe Bridge, and want to explore using the ratings/labels to speed up choosing and sorting photos to take into "post production"...

I found the discussion on ratings and labels described in The DAM Book, reviewed on dgrin here, very helpful.

mercphoto

First thing I do is make sure no directory has more than 500 photos in it. One, too many to work with at one time. Two, Bridge seems to have extreme difficulty when working with too many images at one time.

Next I select all, batch rename, and then rate everything as a 5-star. I do this because I have become very good at chimping away bad ones in the field, and I've learned to be careful about when to click the shutter in the first place. Do that step only if your percent of keepers is going to be high as it will save you time.

Now I view them all one at a time. I can quickly re-rate any image. 0 stars for out of foucs. 4-stars are possible keepers that may need a touch bit of work. 3-stars for images I can't decide one way or other. Green label for an exceptional image that I might want to add to my portfolio.

Filter the 5 stars and process. If I need to, filter my 4-stars and do whatever work is necessary to make them keepers. Filter the 3-stars as a last resort.