Bridge the Gap to Lightroom 2
Photographers are often confused about the relationship between Adobe Bridge and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom? Well, I have got a useful tip for photographers which will hopefully bridge the gap between the two pieces of software. (Sorry I know bad pun) 
Adobe Bridge CS4
Now, I have been told about this tip from numerous photographers pretty much since Lightroom 2 and CS4 came out. I have also seen it written down in Martin Evening’s Lightroom 2 book. So I am going to give him credit for it. He may have got it from another photographer. Who knows? But I am guessing the other photographers who told me have also read his book. 
Here is my take on things… Yes Adobe Bridge CS4 and earlier versions can do a lot of the things Lightroom can do and I use Bridge almost as much as use Lightroom. But for different things!
Example 1:
If I want to pop a CF card into my card reader and take a glance at the images but not download them? Then Bridge can do this, where as Lightroom cannot. You need to import them for Lightroom to see them.
Example 2:
Many DSLR’s can now shoot video as well as still images. Adobe Bridge can handle various video file formats amongst many formats, where as Adobe Lightroom cannot recognise, import or view video file formats like (.avi) and (.mov). It’s just not designed to do it.
Get the idea?
Well putting the boot on the other foot for a moment. Bridge is not a dedicated image management and processing application. Yes, as discussed it has a lot of the functionality of one, but when you launch Bridge, it does not take you to all your images straight away. You have to navigate to them. It also cannot batch print in the same fashion as Lightroom.
Both have there Pro’s and Con’s and I use both pieces of software especially when it comes to album design. I much prefer to use Adobe Bridge with my Storybook Album Designer Actions when making page layouts. If I tried to do this with Lightroom it would be a nightmare. But once the layouts have been made they go back into Adobe Lightroom for printing. Best of both worlds!!
So here is the tip for you. Its simple but it really works.
Launch Bridge and navigate to your program files (PC) or applications (MAC) folder. Then highlight the actual .exe (PC) or .app (MAC) then right click on it. You will see an option to save this to your favourites panel in Adobe Bridge (See screenshot above). This will now give you a one click launch button for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom2.
Adobe Bridge CS4
Finally…
You can’t import images from Bridge directly into Lightroom. But, if you create an alias/shortcut for Adobe Lightroom and place it on your desktop. You can drag folders straight out of Bridge and launch the importer for Lightroom all in one move. Pretty Cool!
You can also setup a watched folder in Lightroom and add that as a favourite in Bridge. But that my fellow photographer is a video screencast for another day! >
neat tip, and describing the difference between the 2 programmes helps clarify their roles for me and how best to use them
I’ve set a watch folder up for my customer images to get imported direct into Lightroom but never thought about adding a fav in bridge.
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My watched folder is called “import” and can be seen below the alias/shortcut.