For pre-Lightroom culling editing and review I have been using Bridge.

Are there significant differences between Bridge and BB; is the price justified?

Thanks.

What is your workflow? Specifically, what does the Bridge add to your culling/review that LR doesn't?

Breeze Browser allows quick access to EXIF data and a histogram I find this feature very important when sorting multiple exposures
Marc

BreezeBrowser's main advantage is speed. I now use LR for everything, but before LR I used BB for importing and primary edit. If your workflow typically involves trashing most of your images, then BB makes a lot of sense. I'm being specific here about trashing. Most of us don't use a big percentage of our images. ome people throw away a large percentage in the edit step, others leave the images around but don't rate, flag or develop them. If you actually trash them, then it makes some sense not to ever import them into LR until you've done the first edit. I think BB is great for that approach.

Dave

I use PhotoMechanic to import because both Capture One and LR are a bit slow; besides, I already own the program. I never "trash" an image until I cull through a shoot using LR. BTW, you can easily delete images from a LR's catalog and the HD. Usually, I never delete rejected images for a few days, because I sometimes make a mistake and dump a good or necessary image.

So, basically, BB's advantage over LR is import speed?

Thanks everybody!

The jpegs that are created in BB, I assume after Downloader "downloads", are the BB jpegs created from the RAW file high res or are do they fit either the "minimum" or "standard" res that you obtain from LR.

The reason I am belaboring this point is that I am going to South America for six months and I will be shooting literally thousands of images.

Arthur Morris in his latest BLOG entry highly touted DLP/BB: http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/.

I wanted another opinion before spending almost $100 on the two programs.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

If you like his workflow, then commit to it. You don't want to suffer from paralysis by analysis. BTW, how do you plan to handle the raw files on the road?

From everything I have read and has been recommended I will download using DLP and then cull/review in BB. I do not know if I will use BB for anything else until I play with the program.

I am not an image saver; hopefully I will delete 85-90% daily.

I am guessing that only 10-15% of the images will come out of BB and then they go to Lightroom and perhaps to CS4 if justified. I am not sure where Bridge fits in; perhaps the 15% first go to Bridge for ????.

I will be backing up the 15% to a LaCie 500gb and a Sanho 500gb. I am also carrying a Western Digital 250gb since I have it.

My travel computer is a Dell XPS 1330 - good enough for LR/CS4 processing for the net. Any serious keeper/printers will be reprocessed after I return home on a Dell Studio 17.

Does this answer you question?

I find Downloader Pro and BreezeBrowser Pro an unbeatable combination. DLP lets me put each day's work into a date-named folder, with the a filename that includes date and time and a keyword that I specify for each day (usually the location). Then BBP is superfast and easy to use to browse images anywhere on my computer. I often use it to select the best from a given day and put copies into a subfolder for later attention. I also use BBP to build nice web galleries of finished work. Sorting and rearranging is quick and easy. BBP also has a raw converter, but I have never used it, as I do all my raw conversion either in Lightroom or DxO.

So I think the DLP+BBP combo will suit your needs very well.

I am sold on BB, now what about Downloader Pro.

What is the benefit of using DLP instead of simply using a card reader and transferring the raw images onto your hard drive and opening them in BB.

What do you gain from DLP?

BTW, does anyone use Bridge between BB and Lightroom?

Thanks for all of your assistance.

Downloader Pro will automatically generate folders by year/month so I have a storage drive with all my digital images sorted by year/month back to 2001. BB/DL are the best I have used too bad BB doesn't work well for my Phase One files (.tif)
Marc

Last time I tried BB was a couple of years ago. It screamed on a MAC but was verrrry slow comparatively on a PC. I use both. At the time I queried the company and they confirmed this was an issue. Is this still true?

It is pretty fast on my PC
Marc

Marc, after BB, do you go direct to Lightroom/CS4 or do you use another program first, for example, Bridge, and if Bridge, what steps do you do in Bridge?

For my 5D2 files: 1) Downloader pro and copy to DVD to archive 2) Breezebrowser to sort with a copy to folder (right click) to send a copy to my working folder. 3) DxO for raw conversion 4) CS4 to sharpen/post process and print

For my Phase One files: 1) Downloader pro and copy to DVD to archive 2) Bridge to sort and copy to working folder 3) Capture One for raw conversion 4) CS4 to sharpen/post process and print

Marc

I've used BreezeBrowser for prelim editing for years. It's far faster than using Bridge, which is dog slow at times, especially when viewing/editing over a network. Bridge has it's pluses, but for speedy view, culling, renaming, etc., you can't beat BreezeBrowser.

I'm a fan of BB and DL Pro, too. I gave up on the first version of Bridge (life is too short), and I get all the updates to BreezeBrowser and DownLoader. I never do processing in BB (except to generate web pages), but it is very fast for reviewing, selecting, copying, morving, and otherwise organizing any images anywhere on my something like 11 hard drives. I couldn't work without it.


After selecting images to work on, I copy them to a working directory, and then use DxO or LightRoom and CS4 from there on.

Eric

P.S. This is on a PC (Vista 32 at the moment).

BreezeBrowser Pro and DownLoader Pro user here. Both are fast, intuitive, and essential for effective photo file management. I update regularly. [i do not use BB for RAW convert.. but it works.]

I'm sure Bridge has its advantages. But I never used it long enough to learn what they are. I remove it from my hard drive.

Canon shooter
PC: Win7x64