Sometimes I use Bridge to look at images, and from there I decide which ones to import into Lightroom. It is then easy to simply drag the images over into Lightroom.
- Size your Bridge and Lightroom windows so that you can see both.
- In Lightroom, go to Library Grid view (shortcut G). It does not matter what folder or collection of images are showing.
- In Bridge, select the images you want to import.
- Click and drag from Bridge over onto the Lightroom grid (thumbnail area). Let go.
- The Lightroom import dialog will open. Specify import options as usual.
When dragging the photos from bridge (Photos > Masters file) to Lightroom CC, am i duplicating it and using double space?
Hi Farnaz,
Dragging photos from Bridge to Lightroom just opens up the Import dialog with those selected. Whether you are creating another copy depends on what selection you make in the top center in the Import dialog (Copy, Move, or Add). If you don’t plan to use Photos any more, you could choose Copy and then delete the Photos library, or just choose Move. I wouldn’t recommend Add in this scenario.
So when I drag pics. from bridge to lightroom, shows just a few are checked, should I click check all, “don’t import suspected duplicates” is checked.
I’m sorry for overlooking this, Farnaz. You can check all if you want them all imported. Don’t import suspected duplicates is optional, so that you don’t end up with two versions of the same photo (with the same filename) in Lightroom. For much more on importing, watch the two videos on importing on this page.
Thanks Laura, appreciate the tip on moving files from bridge to lightroom. Very simple and worked out great….
You’re welcome, Bill. For clarity’s sake, you’re actually not moving them from Bridge to Lightroom, you’re just letting Lightroom know that you want to add these photos to its catalog.
I am trying to do technique for the new updates Bridge 2018 cc to lightroom CC and it wont let me drag in. Has anyone else had this issue?
If you’re referring to the cloud-based Lightroom CC, Priyanca, it doesn’t work to drag to the grid. Instead, click on the + to add photos, and then drag into that dialog. (I have tried this with Finder. I assume it will also work with Bridge.)
i cannot get this method to work, when i try to drag it deselects all the photos
It’s been a long time since I’ve used Bridge, Katie, but assuming it works like Lightroom, if you drag from inside one of the photo thumbnails it will work, but if you drag from the border around a thumbnail it will just break apart the selection.
When I import from BR to LR do my metadata (stars, color labels) also import into LR?
Thank you
Yes, Niki – for camera-proprietary raw files, Bridge stores this work (and your Camera Raw editing) in XMP sidecar files, and for DNG raw files and JPEGs, in an XMP section within the files, and Lightroom reads this information as you import.
HI
I just found this site. Thanks very much for all the assistance you are providing us.
I am trying to import edited images from Elements back to LR 5.
When I have finished editing the image in Elements it gets saved to Bridge.
I can open Bridge, see the edited image and resize the Bridge window, then open the LR5 window but I cannot make the window smaller so I can see both BR and LR5 – hence cannot drag them from BR to LR5
Can you help?
Hi Steve, rather than dragging and dropping then, in LR 5 click on Import, and in the Source panel on the left navigate to the folder your image is in.
Hello… I am writing in 2022 because I have a similar issue now. I im migrating from lightroom catalog to bridge. As I see above and when using both programs, all the files show edited and with metadata when importing from bridge to LR. But how is it the other way around.. I have all my edited photos in LR and want to see them edited in bridge. is it something possible?
Thanks in advance.
Probably too late for you Igor, but you have to save the metadata to the files, since otherwise it only resides in the Lightroom catalog and Bridge can’t see that. Select all your files in Lightroom, and go to Metadata>Save Metadata to files. Note that pick/reject flags, virtual copies and collections will not be saved to metadata and will not carry over.
Hello,
I also am writing in 2022. I scanned thousands of photos to Bridge, added meta data and file organization and now want to import to my Master LR classic catalog. When I tested the import I lost the file organization and date. The photos were scanned by year, do I have to import file by file to keep the year organization?
That’s because you chose in the Import dialog to copy the images into a new set of folders, Pam, by choosing Copy in the top center. (What folders the copied images went into was determined by settings in the Destination panel.) Instead choose Add in the top center to leave them in the folders you had created in Bridge.