PSE6 for Mac

[padrejeff]

As a completely new Mac owner (3 months), as well as a new PSE6 for Mac user:

I have all of my photos now organized in iPhoto as well as Bridge (which comes with the Mac version instead or "Organizer").

1) I do not need both, so which photo organization app should I use (which is best suited for PSE6)?

2) I believe that the physical photo files are now in two places (duplicated) which means I am using HD space wastefully. After deciding which organization app to keep, should I just delete all of the photo files from the non-used app?

3) I am unable to find much Bridge "guide info" in my PSE6 book as they all were written for PC version. Where can one find user guide info on Bridge?

4) Why did Adobe put Bridge with the Mac version when Organizer is in the PC version?

Thanks,

[bnk1953]

I am no expert on this - but I'll give info as much as I can.
1. - Not sure if you need both. Some of the "pros" here (see Wendy) I believe just uses iPhoto. If you plan on using iweb and a .Mac account - you might be best off using iPhoto - as there would be direct link to those.
2. Not sure about this one - as far as how much space is being taken up.
3. When you have Bridge open - go to Bridge help (top bar) and click on the help - there are some guides there on how to use. Also you can go to here
http://www.kelbytraining.com/books/elements6/ for more info.
Barbara Brundage has a book - Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual! - that does cover this (it just came out)
4. In some ways we got the better deal with Bridge because it came right from Photoshop CS3. It is also thought that since Macs have the iPhoto (plus others) - that Macs probably didn't need the Organizer as such.
I know this probably doesn't help much - but hopefully it is a start.
~bruce.

[ljameso1]

As a completely new Mac owner (3 months), as well as a new PSE6 for Mac user:

I have all of my photos now organized in iPhoto as well as Bridge (which comes with the Mac version instead or "Organizer").

1) I do not need both, so which photo organization app should I use (which is best suited for PSE6)?

2) I believe that the physical photo files are now in two places (duplicated) which means I am using HD space wastefully. After deciding which organization app to keep, should I just delete all of the photo files from the non-used app?

3) I am unable to find much Bridge "guide info" in my PSE6 book as they all were written for PC version. Where can one find user guide info on Bridge?

4) Why did Adobe put Bridge with the Mac version when Organizer is in the PC version?

Thanks,
1) I like to use iphoto as my organizer as the library can be stored on an external drive to save space.
2) I'd only keep both if they were on separate HDs with enough space(back-up)
3) The mac version of bridge is actually the full CS3 version-try those resources.
4) I suspect organizer is on it's way out in subsequent pc versions. Also, organizer won't work with macs and we don't need it because have iphoto. One nice new feature with this version of bridge is opening multiple files in acr and adding your name as author to the metadata of multiple files.

[Barbara Brundage]

4) I suspect organizer is on it's way out in subsequent pc versions.

I'm afraid you're pretty far from the likely scenario here. Adobe has made it harder to avoid organizer with each subsequent windows version.

As for Bridge/iphoto, you need to choose. Some people love the way iphoto takes care of everything for you, some of us hate like poison to have a program in control of our photos.

Which you should use totally depends on you and how you like to do things. If you are primarily a raw shooter, I'd advise against iphoto (try aperture or lightroom if you like software organizers), but otherwise it's just a question of how you like to work.

But you really need to pick one way or the other. The path you are on will just make you crazy eventually.

[RonH]

I use iPhoto and it was a pretty short learning curve. Missing Manuals also makes a book for iPhoto (get the right version). I work back and forth into elements extensively and I like the organization of iPhoto because I am somewhat less than organized.

Do you shoot raw or jpeg?

You can avoid the duplicates with a little maintenance. Barbara makes a great Missing Manual for PSE.

For workflow I do direct import into iPhoto from my camera chip.
I do my cropping in iPhoto.
I Ctrl Click on a photo to edit then select in iPhoto or external editor (PSE).
When you complete editing in PSE merge or flatten image and then do a save (not save as).
You can duplicate the image in iPhoto before you edit if you want to keep the original for other uses.

Post questions and someone will pop in with help.

RonH

[way2close]

1 - One person's view: use Bridge - period! iPhoto doesn't like files to be moved once it knows where they are. iPhoto creates several tag-along files (like Data, Original, Thumbnail) for each file. Bridge is really just a pretty interface for a finder window, so you can move, rename, etc, without losing anything or creating a lot of unnecessary baggage.

To be fair though, there are discussions out there where people love iPhoto, or use it for certain things it can do that the Mac can't do any other way, like make slide shows. One such discussion is at http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26488
Be sure to read all three pages.

2 - Inside your "Pictures" folder on your Mac, you will find an iPhoto folder, and if you have also organized your pictures into your own folders, you will find the folders you have created. You will also notice that you can open the iPhoto folder from within Bridge. This will help you determine whether you in fact have each photo in two places. Once you are sure they exist in the organizational folders you created outside of iPhoto, you can eliminate the ones inside of iPhoto. Another way to be sure is to do your organizing in Bridge by simply dragging the photo from its iPhoto location to the organizational folder you created in the Pictures folder. You can do that right inside of the Bridge interface.

3 - As for learning there are many tutorials our there. One of the best (written before PSE6, but most of the principles will still apply I think) is from Radian Vista at http://www.radiantvista.com/tutorials/a-photoshop-reference-adobe-bridge. Also be sure to use both the Help on your menu bar at the top of the screen, as well as the Bridge Home link which has lots of info.

4 - I've only worked alongside PCs in classes, but from that observation I would just say "count your blessings"!!