Today’s Question: I have Lightroom Classic and have limped along with it fine for some time. But I have a lot to learn about organizing my images into folders and collections, and learning how to find them. My question for you is am I better off learning Bridge and Camera Raw, or sticking with Lightroom Classic for file management? I hate to switch to Bridge/Camera Raw, as it is yet something new to learn, but maybe it is superior to Lightroom Classic?
Tim’s Quick Answer: I wouldn’t say that Bridge or Lightroom Classic are necessarily better than one another, but rather that they are different. Bridge is a little easier and more forgiving, while Lightroom Classic offers some unique benefits but requires that you have a pretty good understanding of how it works to avoid problems.
More Detail: In many respects, Adobe Bridge is the safer choice compared to Lightroom Classic, in that Bridge is a browser that doesn’t rely on the catalog. Therefore, if you’re struggling with Lightroom Classic it might make more sense to consider Bridge, if for no other reason than to avoid the potential problems that can be created if you forget that all updates should be applied within Lightroom Classic, not through other software or the operating system.
While Bridge is overall a little simpler and more forgiving, there are some advantages to the catalog that is a core feature of Lightroom Classic. That includes being able to browse all photos even when the source files aren’t available (such as when an external hard drive is disconnected), the ability to search across your entire catalog of photos quickly and easily, and more.
I personally use Lightroom Classic to manage my catalog of almost 400,000 photos, and very much appreciate the benefits the catalog provides. But I also appreciate the potential problems that can occur when photographers use Lightroom Classic without fully understanding it. There’s a reason, after all, that my “Cleaning Up Your Mess in Lightroom Classic” course (https://www.greylearning.com/courses/lightroom-mess) is one of my best sellers.
Put simply: I personally prefer Lightroom Classic compared to Bridge (or the cloud-focused version of Lightroom). However, I will caveat that by saying if you’re going to use Lightroom Classic it is very important to make sure to understand it well before getting too deep into using it in your workflow.
For more information on choosing between Adobe Bridge, Lightroom, and Lightroom Classic, check out my webinar presentation from early this year on my “Tim Grey TV” channel on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/BwpneG4y0nQ?si=hE1txjZ3HWxCH-TH
