Adobe Bridge vs. Extensis Portfolio

I love to use it when I need to rename a group of photos from one of my photographers because they named the files incorrectly. My team seems happy to use it from now and then in combination with InDesign and Photoshop

Incentivized

Extensis Portfolio is perfect for organizing photos as long as everything is keyworded correctly. If it is not part of a group's workflow to add a description or keywords to your photos, then you'd be dumping your photos into a pool with no way to search for them. Extensis Portfolio is best utilized when you give it the ability to help you search (by keywords yourself).

Incentivized

• selecting files then process them in photoshop
• use as a sales tool for clients viewing
• Finding files, it is our go to directory
• easy to go to servers and acroos the companies computers.

Incentivized

• Watch folders: Extensis allows for multiple watch folders to be commissioned on a variety of network connected data shares--NAS, direct connect external HDs, etc.. We have our workflow such that each photographer can upload their job into their own folder, and Portfolio automatically injests the image assets.
• Metadata injecting: a key component of our archiving needs are met with Portfolio's fully- customizatable and automatic metadata injection. This allows us to set standard fields across all the assets, while also allowing for custom variations in categories, keywords, and tags. Absolutely key to our workflow.
• Integration with Adobe CC is seamless through the built-in connector.
• Finally, the support team is OUTSTANDING! We absolutely LOVE our support engineer. We are a small org compared to the rest of his portfolio, but he always puts in the extra effort and takes the time to allow us to feel like we are totally supported.

Incentivized

• It took me a while to figure out how to get Bridge to work faster. Apparently, you need it to cache your entire library and once that library is cached then it can refer to those files quickly.
• It takes up more space on your computer and you should consider buying a computer with plenty of space and a great graphics card to help this program work at its best.
• I wish it would recognize that firewall software and virus protection software isn't its enemy and work with them running all the time. This error doesn't always occur for me, but when it does, I am annoyed.

Incentivized

• Learning curve. It can be very intimidating and difficult to learn for people who are not experienced with similar software.
• Ease of adding new users. It's currently a long process to bring anyone new onto the platform. We have to go through our DAM manager and only they have the ability to add or remove people.
• Thumbnail previews sometimes blank. Sometimes the thumbnails for photos don't load or need to be refreshed manually, which can be frustrating when needing to search through multiple folders and photos.

Incentivized

Adobe Bridge is useful as a jumping off point for file organization within the CC environment. It is a little slow and clunky at times but is useful for preliminary photography selection development including contact sheets, file renaming, and the overall selection process.

Incentivized

Because our organization tends to run software on older equipment, finding someone to support our particular configuration was a challenge. Additionally, trying to explain to someone In tech support about our issues was difficult because a lot of the issues were quirks within the software that had to be seen to be understood.

Incentivized

Okay so I've actually tried to use Lightroom. Photoshop is its own beast and doesn't have the catalog that Bridge of Lightroom has. Lightroom is not as powerful with being able to check between images, finding files, etc. I wanted to love it, but Bridge won hands down with all the time it has saved me so I can get back to my children instead of complaining that it takes me so much time to narrow down images

Incentivized

We have been with Extensis for many years-- so the comparisons are outdated at this point. Companies like WebDAM, Adobe's Lightroom, mediavalet, and others, just don't have the robust catalogue management Portfolio does. There is a solidness and assurance of functionality we experience when using Portfolio-- nothing clunky or web-cloud shaky

Incentivized

• Convenience and ease in seeing all images at a glance and being able to select chosen images for use in Photoshop and XD
• Saved us time through the batch rename functionality

Incentivized

• Allows quick and easy image and asset searches.
• Has been an invaluable tool for our organization by freeing up database employees to tackle other tasks.

Incentivized