To Bridge, or not to Bridge?

[ted939]

Hi Damien - great site! I love the way you teach/articulate concepts.

You mention in several places that Bridge is superior to LR, but then at your https://www.damiensymonds.net/color-space-settings-for-the-lightroom-user/, you say, "Personally, I use LR to manage my entire workflow".

I wonder if that comment is in a post newer than all of your Bridge greater than LR pages/comments, because maybe LR finally got good enough for you to adopt it for your entire workflow. Is that the explanation?

I can't deduce this for myself, because your articles are not date stamped anywhere.

I've been using LR for many years now, and I briefly looked into Bridge a few months ago, and found it to be lacking several important functions that I use in LR.  But, if you still stand by your pro-Bridge articles/comments, then I'd like to maybe check out Bridge further.

I wonder if Bridge is a D.A.M. (digital asset mgt) program that would help a newspaper that I photograph for.  Or maybe there is a way for people to remotely share a LR catalog.  Whenever I finish a shoot and begin postproduction on it, I tag my images with various labels, and it would be great if my writers/editors could view the catalog and the images' tags, make their own contact sheets after filtering based on whatever characteristics they want, select photos to assign me for editing, view my various editing stages on any given image, etc.

So, first, my question, above, about your latest thoughts on modern LR vs modern Bridge?

2nd, any thoughts on a good D.A.M. for newspaper workflow among various staff?

Thanks much!   Ted

[Damien Symonds]

17 minutes ago, ted939 said:

Hi Damien - great site! I love the way you teach/articulate concepts.

Hi @ted939, thank you.

18 minutes ago, ted939 said:

You mention in several places that Bridge is superior to LR, but then at your https://www.damiensymonds.net/color-space-settings-for-the-lightroom-user/, you say, "Personally, I use LR to manage my entire workflow".

If you take another look, you'll see that that isn't my article.  My friend Christina wrote it.  I love her, but she's wrong about this.  Lightroom is a steaming pile of shit.

[Damien Symonds]

20 minutes ago, ted939 said:

I wonder if Bridge is a D.A.M. (digital asset mgt) program that would help a newspaper that I photograph for.  Or maybe there is a way for people to remotely share a LR catalog.  Whenever I finish a shoot and begin postproduction on it, I tag my images with various labels, and it would be great if my writers/editors could view the catalog and the images' tags, make their own contact sheets after filtering based on whatever characteristics they want, select photos to assign me for editing, view my various editing stages on any given image, etc.

Of course they can, as long as the images are all hosted on a common shared drive that everyone can access.

[Al B]

Hi Damien, I have been using LR for a while and although I am open to doing the 30 day Bridge challenge, please can you tell me what are the worst aspects of Lightroom that make Bridge better please (apart from workflow) . Also what is the benefit of using soft proofing in LR. if that's not a silly question! Cheers.

[Damien Symonds]

2 hours ago, Al B said:

Hi Damien, I have been using LR for a while and although I am open to doing the 30 day Bridge challenge, please can you tell me what are the worst aspects of Lightroom that make Bridge better please (apart from workflow) . Also what is the benefit of using soft proofing in LR. if that's not a silly question! Cheers.

First, have you read this? https://www.damiensymonds.net/examining-the-complexities-of-an-acr-workflow/

[Al Barnes]

Many thanks for this Damien. But aside from workflow and file management, which I can understand, I am also interested in the differences between ACR and LR in terms of camera profile and colour management etc. Or is it just an easier/quicker way to utilise PS colour management tools once a RAW conversion and basic corrections have been done. In other words is your disapproval of LR mainly around file management or is LR also not as good as ACR in terms of end results? Thanks. 

[Damien Symonds]

Next, have you read this? https://www.damiensymonds.net/2014/06/the-wide-gamut-myth.html

[Al Barnes]

Thanks very interesting article. I would like to investigate further re the pros and cons of ACR/Bridge vs LR. Thanks again.

[Damien Symonds]

Lightroom has an inaccurate histogram and clipping warnings.

The histogram can be fixed with soft-proofing, but the clipping warnings are STILL wrong.

Once you actually understand colour spaces and histograms, you'll understand that Lightroom is completely unusable for this reason.

Anybody you meet who says that Lightroom is ok DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO EDIT.

[Al B]

Thank Damien, you have answered my original question and will now make time to increase my understanding of colour space etc.

Edited September 24, 2022 by Al B