Photoshop® CS4 Bible

3.2. Adding Descriptive and Searchable Data to Images

One of the most powerful features of Bridge is its ability to wrangle file metadata to sort, group, filter, and organize large collections of images.

Metadata is information about an image such as author name, resolution, dimensions, image date, copyright, and descriptive keywords. In the case of digital photographs, most of this information is usually embedded at the time the image is captured, except for keywords, which you add during your processing workflow. Bridge allows you to edit and use this information in many ways. You can also save yourself some repetitive typing by creating metadata templates containing information that remains consistent for a group of images (such as your name and your copyright information) and applying that template to your photos in Bridge.

To edit metadata in Bridge, use either the Metadata panel or the File Info window.

3.2.1. Metadata panel

Figure 3.7 shows the Metadata panel, which is broken down into several subsections that may differ slightly, depending on the type of image you're working with or the capabilities of the camera you used. You can collapse and expand the different subsections by clicking on the corresponding disclosure triangles.

Figure 3.7. The Metadata panel in Bridge allows you to focus on the metadata embedded in your images.

• File Properties. This section contains ...