So, Photoshop CS2 has been announced and with it we get a host of new
features such as: Vanishing Point, Smart Object, Smart Sharpen, Image
Warping, 32-bit support Merge to HDR, Lens Correction, Noise Reduction
plus a host of others. Along with these new features we also find a
significantly enhanced version of Camera Raw and a completely new
companion application called Adobe Bridge.
From the very first day I began beta testing Photoshop CS2 it was
Bridge along with Camera Raw 3 that became my favourites. Why Bridge and
Camera Raw? Well I'm primarily a photographer and whilst the new features
will play an important roll in the image making process it is the initial
phase of this process where photographers will benefit the most. As a
photographer I can easily find myself processing many hundreds of images
after a day's shooting, so anything that makes that task easier and more
efficient is to be welcomed. Since Bridge is a standalone application it
is far more flexible and less of a resource hog than File Browser ever
was. In fact during beta some testers referred to Bridge as being like
"the File Browser on steroids".
The default view of Bridge will be familiar to those already using
File Browser but the range of tools and commands make it much easier to
carry out tasks such as sorting, labelling and ranking large numbers of
images.
Adobe Bridge ñ Thumbnails View
The digital light box concept first seen in File Browser has been
enhanced by the inclusion workspace layout presets that include the very
useful Filmstrip view and another called Versions and Alternates. For me
the Slideshow feature is also a real winner in that a show can be viewed
full-screen or in its own window.
Adobe Bridge ñ Filmstrip View
The improvements to workflow made possible by enabling
Camera Raw to function outside of Photoshop will make life a lot easier
for photographers. Likewise incorporating features such as Auto
Adjustments, Crop, Straighten, and of course the very welcome Curves
tool. (See Bruce Fraser's article on
The Power of
the Curve at PhotoshopNews.com)
Camera Raw 3 ñ Filmstrip Mode
Obviously, being standalone, Bridge has it's own menu options and
keyboard shortcuts, many of which have been borrowed from its
predecessor. This brings me to the one area of Photoshop that Iíve always
been hopeless atÖ keyboard shortcuts and modifiers.
I'm not a keyboard junkie and my ability to memorise shortcuts isn't
as good as it should be, so if I can use the mouse or a menu option to
access a feature or tool I will. However, as the beta programme
progressed it became clear that many of the workflow enhancements built
into Bridge and Camera Raw 3 could best be exploited via the keyboard.
Unfortunately, a lot of these shortcuts were not documented, that is
until Thomas Knoll posted the list for Camera Raw.
As I found myself using these shortcuts on a more regular basis, I
realised that the wider Photoshop community might find them as beneficial
as I did, and so began the task of documenting all of the Bridge & Camera
Raw shortcuts that I could find. Hopefully the two Adobe Acrobat PDF
files that Iíve included here will help you get the best from Bridge and
Camera Raw.
Download -
Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw Shortcuts for Macintosh (1MB PDF)
Download -
Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw Shortcuts for Windows (1 MB PDF)
Note: These pdf's will be updated as new shortcuts
become known to me or when I discover an error (Revision 4 was uploaded
11 November 2005)
ñ July
2005
In late July 2005 Adobe released the Adobe Bridge 1.02 update. Whilst
this update was primarily a "bug fix" it includes some additional
keyboard shortcuts and modified the functionality of others, so I've
updated the PDF's listed above to reflect these changes. So as to wet your appetite
I've included the following screenshot, which shows the new shortcut to
Show/Hide the Bridge side panels thus maximising the area available for
viewing thumbnail. The shortcut is: Ctl+Alt+T (Windows) or
Cmd+Option+T (Mac).
Tip: remember that you can assign your own keyboard shortcut
for up to 7 custom workspaces (i.e. Ctrl/Cmd+F6 through F12)
Show/Hide the Bridge Side Panels
