100 Ways Lightroom Kicks the Bridge (and Camera Raw's) A$@!

Matt Klosklowski and I put this together a while back, but it’s maybe even more relevant today then we launched it. We got the inspiration from talking with photographers on our live tours in response to hearing the question, "Why should I switch to Lightroom? I already have the Bridge & Camera Raw?" or "I thought Lightroom was just the same as the Bridge and Camera Raw."Uggh!

It's particularly frustrating because Lightroom has so many advantages over the Bridge & Camera Raw, that you can't just explain it in few sentences so we created this page where we could point folks to it to really illustrate the reasons why, as a photographer, they should be using Lightroom. The next thing you know, we decided not only to make a list, but to create 100 videos that would really showcase the advantages.

Why 100 videos?
We intentionally did 100 very short (30 to 60 seconds each) videos rather than one long 60-minute plus video, so people could go directly to the topics that interested them most (since I doubt anyone would watch all 100, or would be willing to sit through 100 when they only needed a few to change their mind). NOTE: There is a little forward button at the top right corner of each video, which you can click to take you to the next video, in case you want to watch all 100.

If you're one of those photographers still using the Bridge & Camera Raw, take a few minutes and swing over to the site and check a few of the reasons out (and at the very least, watch the short intro that Matt and I put together to get you started).

Here's the link.

I hope it helps you at least want to download the free 30-day full-working trial version from Adobe, and give it a whirl (download link for Mac & Windows).

Cheers,

-Scott and Matt

P.S. We actually came up with around 121 reasons, but 121 reasons sounded kind of weenie, so we whittled it down to just 100.

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  1. Hi Scott! I’m curious about the primary differences between Lightroom and Photo Mechanic? I’ve heard that many pros prefer Photo Mechanic. Do you use them in conjunction with each other, separately or do different situations dictate which one you use? Thanks!!

    1. Photo Mechanic is great for pro sports and journalism because it’s very fast for importing and viewing images, and for adding detailed metadata (I use it as PART of my sports photography workflow). Outside of that, it’s very limited, so everybody I know who uses it, has to use it in conjunction with something else, like LR or Bridge.

      1. I love photo mechanic. I can’t see anything bridge does it doesn’t, but lightroom is another type of software all together. In comparing photo mechanic to bridge Camera Bits wins hands down.
        I am correct in saying to buy lightroom we don’t have to succumb to the cloud, it’s still a honest deal where we own the software isn’t it? I have it on my list of things to get as long as that’s the case.

  2. I sense a bit of advocacy to not use the bridge. Well…… I shoot weddings. A lot of them. I only sell wedding with a high end album. Now, I do all my editing, picks, and publishing to a hosting service from lightroom. All of which you have highlighted. The bridge is used once I have the selects back from the client for the album. The lightroom can’t touch the bridge for a book preflight. I have a set of keywords that represent up to 40 spreads. I set my bridge up so that the kewords are on the left. I have the thumbs in the middle, sized to suit me. I have the filter that shows keywords or any attribute on the right. I preflight the book by making my selections for a particular spread, clicking the keword, and watch the filter display the keyword name and how many images it is associated with.
    Lightroom can keyword, sort of, it will only display a 12 word set. It will not summarize the keywords as cleanly as bridge.
    So Bridge is not in competition with lightroom, it enhances the whole experience. My process has cut the preflight process from 4-6 hours to 30 minutes for a 40 page album. Since you can not drag and drop out of lightroom, the bridge is once again the hero when used with my photoshop enabled album assistant.
    Another perspective on an awesome tool set. (PS, BR, LR) One of which can be purchased. ;)
    Chris J

  3. Just as a note Scott, you may want to update the bottom of the Lightroom page. Everything at the bottom refers to Lightroom 3 including the Ads.

  4. Instead doing Lr vs Br, why not just do a plain comparison. Also since we now have Creative Cloud it’s now easier than ever to educate why photographers should be using the full suite such as InDesign for full wedding/coffee table books, Illustrator for graphics, After Effects/Premiere for video etc.

    Bridge beats Lr in certain key areas if you use the above tools, such as integrated colour management (Lr still has colour profile issues when using dual monitors), Dual Monitor support, wider media support, and so on.

    Bridge and Lr both have their place in a workflow, Lr is great for event type photography but absolute disaster when it comes to working in teams or over a LAN. Whereas Bridge is decent for event work but excels in multi-disciplinary workflows, studio sessions and working in groups. The other downside to Lr is that it’s an additional cost to the photographer if they have Ps already. Again Creative Cloud makes this point relatively moot these days.

    It’s time people was educated in the tools that they have rather than setting up a confrontational environment which posts like this serve to create.

  5. OK so weenie or not now I am totally curious what the other 21 are not that is matters a ton I am a LR mad man but just my nature to be curious, So with a Russian cold war accent ….. SO MR KELBY WHAT ARENT YOU TELLING US :-), thnaks for sharing love all you folks are doing at the Kelby Ranch

  6. This looks like a great series, but I can’t get the videos to work. I’ve tried opening the page in both Chrome and Firefox, and on both, I see no video, and hear the audio from ALL of the videos at once.

  7. Bwahahaha! I opened the link, and I quote your paragraph, “Since I doubt anyone would watch all 100..”, I IN FACT heard all 100 videos ALL at once. This was the most comical thing to happen, while everyone was sound asleep choking my laughter.Thank you server malfunction for making my evening! :)

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