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Chapter 3

Using Automation Tools in Adobe Bridge

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting files from your camera

Batch renaming your files

Exporting your files

Importing files as layers

You have already discovered how Adobe Bridge can save you time by helping you organize and more easily find your images. In this chapter, you find out how to use automated features that cut out redundant tasks and save even more time.

Getting Files from Your Camera

With the Get Photos from Camera feature, you can connect your camera, card reader, or mobile device to the computer using a supported cable. If you want to give this feature a try, follow these steps:

1 Simply attach your phone via USB, insert a card into your card reader, or connect your camera via cable.Note: At the time of writing this feature was not working correctly with iPhones on the Mac platform.

2 Launch Bridge.

3 Click the Get Photos from Camera button. The Adobe Bridge CC – Photo Downloader dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 3-1.

4 Click open the Get Photos From drop-down menu and select your device.Note: If Bridge does not recognize your device, make sure that you have the latest version installed by launching your Creative Cloud App. Look in the Apps section to see if an update is available. You can also try connecting your device when Bridge is not open and launching it after the device is connected.In the Create Subfolders drop-down menu, you can use a standard format for naming your folders or choose Custom to create your own naming convention.

5 If you choose to have the Adobe Downloader rename your files, you can choose a standard naming convention using the date, or choose Custom name and create your own custom name.

6 The options at the bottom offer you the opportunity to see the files in Bridge, convert the files to DNG (Digital Negative Files), delete the files off the device, and save them to another location.

7 Click the triangle to the left of the Advanced Dialog button to see a more detailed preview of your files. In this more detailed view, you can individually select and deselect files to be downloaded, as shown in Figure 3-2.

8 In Save Options, select a location to which you wish the files to be transferred. And press Get Media.

FIGURE 3-1: Download your photos quickly using the Photo Downloader available in Adobe Bridge.

FIGURE 3-2: The Advanced view allows you to select your images.

Automation Tools in Adobe Bridge

Adobe Bridge provides many tools to help you automate tasks. In this section, you discover how to use a few helpful features that will save you from repeating redundant tasks.

Batch renaming your files

You might have noticed that in the Book02Bridge ⇒ Hockey folder, many files contain generic filenames. These images were downloaded from a digital camera, and instead of changing the names immediately, we opted to change them simultaneously using the batch rename feature in Adobe Bridge. To do so, follow these steps:

1 In Bridge, navigate to the Book02Bridge folder and then open the Hockey folder that is inside.

2 Choose Edit ⇒ Select All, or press Ctrl+A (Windows) or ⌘ +A (Mac).

3 Choose Tools ⇒ Batch Rename.The Batch Rename dialog box appears.In this instance, we want a simple, uncomplicated name. If you look in the Preview section at the bottom of the Batch Rename dialog box, you can see that the Current and New filenames are long strings of text and numbers. You can simplify this by eliminating some of text from the filenames.

4 In the New File names section, type Hockey in the Text field.

5 In the Sequence Number row, verify that it is set to Two Digits.

6 Confirm that the sequence number is starting at 1. You can start it anywhere if you are adding additional images to a folder later.

7 If there is any other criteria, click the Minus sign button (remove this text from the filenames) to remove them. The New filename in the Preview section becomes significantly shorter.If you look in the Preview section at the bottom of the dialog box, you can see that the new filename is a very simple Hockey01.jpg now.

8 Click the Rename button.All the selected filenames are automatically changed. See Figure 3-3.

FIGURE 3-3: You can change multiple files names simultaneously in Adobe Bridge.

Exporting your files from Bridge

If you are looking for a method in which to save batches of files in a specific size and format, you might be interested in the Export tab. Using the Export feature in Photoshop allows you to prepare assets for projects like web pages and applications. Using this feature, you can easily select all your images and drag them on top of a preset in the Export tab.

If you want to choose custom settings, you can click and drag your images on top of Custom Export. You will see the dialog box shown in Figure 3-4.

FIGURE 3-4: Resize and export files in other formats quickly using the Export feature in Bridge.

Loading files as layers

Adobe Bridge comes with a variety of Photoshop tools that you can use in Bridge as well. In this example, you select three images that you want to incorporate into one composited image. Instead of opening all three images and cutting and pasting or dragging them into one file, you use the Load Files into Photoshop Layers feature.

Make sure that you are still in the Hockey folder. Hold down your Ctrl (Windows) or ⌘ (Mac) key and click on any three images. All three images are selected.

Select Tools ⇒ Photoshop. Note that there are many tools that you can use in this menu item; for this example, select the Load Files into Photoshop Layers option. A script immediately launches Photoshop (if it is not already open) and a new layered file is created from the selected images.

You should ensure that your selected images are approximately the same pixel dimensions before running this script; otherwise, you might have to make some transformation adjustments in Photoshop. In this example, the images are approximately the same size.

Building a contact sheet

If you come from the traditional photography world, you may be familiar with contact sheets. Before digital photography, contact sheets were thumbnail images created from film negatives and were used to help identify which images should be processed. Even though a film negative environment isn’t common anymore, contact sheets can be very useful when trying to identify which images you choose to save or edit.

Fortunately there is a contact feature built right into the Adobe Bridge tools. Follow these steps to create your own using your own images, or any of our sample images:

1 Within Bridge, open a folder of images and either Ctrl/⌘ -click on the images you want to include in a contact sheet or press Ctrl+A (Windows)/⌘ +A (Mac) to select all the images. If you would like to use our sample image, navigate to the folder named Flowers in the Images folder.

2 Choose Tools ⇒ Photoshop ⇒ Contact Sheet II.Photoshop is launched and the Contact Sheet II dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 3-5.

3 Choose your paper size and resolution. The default is 8 inches x 10 inches and 300 dpi, which works fine for reliable results.Choose how many thumbnails you want across and down using the rows and columns. The fewer rows and columns, the larger the thumbnail images will be.Check Use Filename as Caption if you want to see the filename listed underneath the thumbnail.

4 Press OK to see the final Contact Sheet created, as shown in Figure 3-6.

FIGURE 3-5: The Contact Sheet II dialog box offers size and resolution options.

FIGURE 3-6: The resulting contact sheet.