
The edits you make here are nondestructive, which means you can play with photos all you want and then return to the original by choosing Camera Raw Defaults in Bridge (select Edit: Develop Settings: Camera Raw Defaults). Select an image in Bridge and press command-R to open it in Camera Raw.

This feature solves the age-old problem of balancing bright skies and dark foregrounds in your landscape scenes. Now that you’ve collected all your best shots, it’s time to learn about one of the most useful new tools in Adobe Camera Raw 5-the Graduated Filter. Hit the spacebar again to return it to thumbnail size. Tip: Need a closer look at an image in a Collection? Click on the image once and then press the spacebar to make the photo fill your screen. (If you don’t see them, click on the Collections tab to reveal them, or select Window: Collections Panel.) Icons for editing Collections, creating new ones, or trashing existing ones are located at the bottom of the Collections panel. Manually created Collections are represented by brown folders Smart Collections are blue. You’ll find the Collections panel on the left side of the Bridge interface. To do so, click on the New Smart Collection button at the bottom of the Collections panel, specify your criteria, and then click on Save. Want a folder of your best shots? Make a Smart Collection that gathers images you’ve given a rating of 4 stars or higher.

Bridge’s collections (shown in the Collections panel) let you pull together virtual gatherings of images without changing the organization of your folders.Įven better, Smart Collections automatically assemble photos for you based on a variety of criteria.

When you’re done with the project, you can trash the Collection (click on its name and then click on the trash icon), leaving the original shots untouched and organized according to your folder hierarchy and naming conventions. For example, if you need a folder of cat portraits for a project, create a Collection by clicking on the New Collection button at the bottom of the Collections panel, and then drag in virtual copies of the images from the Content panel or the Finder. Why is this important? Because you want the flexibility to play with your photographs without compromising the organizational structure you use to keep track of them.
