Folders In Bridge Questions???

[crashbowman]

Today I was wanting to look at images in Bridge. I had a Folder that had two sub folders. One Sub folder was DNG with 133 images and one was JPG with 133 images.  I wanted to flatten the folder so I could look at all 266 at the same time.  I could not find a way so I did a search of the main folder and selected show all files.  Only 262 files were found.  Could someone help me with two questions.

#1 Is there a way to look at all the images in a folder that has sub folders without doing a search on the folder?

#2 Why would that search be missing 4 images.  They were there if going into the folders.

Thanks for any help,
John

[peterkrogh]

In Bridge you need to use the "find" command to show folders within folders. That's a limitation of Bridge.

I bet the 4 images that were not found were actually the Bridge Cache documents (.bc and .bct files)

Peter

[crashbowman]

Peter,

I guess I was hoping there was something besides find.  Also the images were actually not the cache documents.  They were four JPGs that I could look at in other applications and in Bridge if I went directly to the folder, however when I did the find and sected all images in that folder, those four would not show.

John

[peterkrogh]

John,
Hmm, that's strange. 
Do you have the latest version of Bridge (1.0.3)?
Have you tried purging the cache for that folder?

The basic point, however, is that Bridge is not the best application for this kind of work. Its inability to see subfolders easily is only one of many limitations that iView or idImager do not have.

I suggest that Bridge is best used as a tool to bring RAW images through on their way to a cataloging application.
Peter

[crashbowman]

Peter,

Thanks for the ideas.  I am using the latest version and I tried purging the cache.  I may try that again though.  I also agree about using my cataloging application for most of this work.  I believe I am at the point where I am even going to start doing my ratings there too.  It seems ratings show up much more reliably in other apps if I rate in IDI, than in Bridge.  I guess Bridge may wind up being just for large groups of RAW/DNG Editing for myself. 

Thanks,
John

[peterkrogh]

John,
Do you use distributed cache and XMP sidecar files?  If so, you might want to purge entire cache. You should not lose any work, unless you have done metadata work to images on locked media like CD.

You might also want to trash the Bridge preferences.  Sometimes this helps.

As to the utility of Bridge, I would say that it is indispensable for RAW file workflow, since it is the front-end for Camera Raw.  As I write in the book, it's a good place to rate since in many instances you want to do this before CR adjustments.

That said, for shoots in controlled light (where one CR setting can be applied to many images), or shoots that lend themselves to fast correction with RapidFixer, it may be better to go ahead and make DNGs and Rate in iView/idImager, since they can show the image at 100% so much more quickly.

Peter