Frequent visitors to this site know that I’m a big fan of Adobe Bridge CS4. However, if you’re a Nikon user who shoots raw, then you might prefer using Nikon Capture NX for your raw conversions, rather than Adobe Camera Raw. Capture NX is a great program, and, because it’s made by Nikon, does far better with some Nikon raw files than Camera Raw does. However, the workflow tools in NX and NX2 don’t compare to Bridge CS4, but fortunately, there’s an easy way to integrate the two programs.

If you’ve read this, then you already know that I’m a big fan of Adobe Bridge CS4. It has become my default workflow tool, and is now where I begin all of my post-production work. Like any piece of software, Bridge isn’t perfect, and there are some features I’d love to see in Bridge CS5, such as a histogram display within Bridge, the ability to export Collections and Smart Collections. And, like any piece of software, Bridge also has some bugs. One of the ones that bites me from time to time is Bridge’s occasional refusal to render thumbnails for some raw files. I haven’t found any official workaround for this bug (and maybe I’m the only one who’s having it, though I have experienced it on several different machines) but there is a quick and easy fix for the problem.

Photoshop CS4 packs a number of cool new features, from interface changes to the amazing new resizing tools. But unequivocally, the feature that makes this upgrade a no-brainer is Bridge CS4. While it may sounds a little strange to get excited over what has, in the past, been nothing more than a file browser, over the last few months Bridge CS4 has proven to be the workflow tool that I’ve been waiting for for years.

If you’re a photographer, then there’s a good chance that the most signficant announcement of the year is not a new camera or new lens, but the release of Photoshop CS4. While Photoshop can’t turn a crappy photo into a masterpiece – you still need decent gear and a fair amount of skill to capture a good image – it is still the best tool for realizing the final vision that you had when you shot. Photoshop serves many different disciplines from photography to design to research, and Photoshop upgrades often add features that are of little use on the photographic side of things. And while CS4 packs a few new items that most shooters will have no interest in, the new features are largely additions that all photographers will be interested in