Following some testing and reference to Martin Evening's excellent Lightroom book, I can confirm that the statement is, to a large extent, correct. This came as something of a surprise as it would seem to be in Adobe's interests to allow users a seamless integration between the two applications.
There are two forms of data which are associated with images. Some of this is captured when the shot is taken and includes information such as the camera and lens used, shutter speed, aperture etc. It is commonly referred to as EXIF data and is embedded in the image file. It is always retained when images are imported into Lightroom, so out of scope for this discussion. The other form of data is created during post processing. It can consist of star ratings, colour labels, IPTC data, Adobe Camera Raw settings amongst other things and is commonly known as metadata. The important aspect is that for Raw files Bridge holds this data separately, either in its Camera Raw Database or an associated "sidecar" file. The method is set in in Camera Raw Preferences, with sidecar files being the default. Note that this only applies to Raw files and the data is embedded for other file types such as PSD or JPEG.
The method chosen is crucial. Sidecar files are included when images are imported into Lightroom and the data retained but, crucially, the Camera Raw Database is not interrogated and no metadata held there is brought across. Even with sidecar files, the situation is not perfect when it comes to colour labels. These can be configured to various values and by default in Bridge these are set to meaningful terms such as "Select", "Second", "Approved" etc. In Lightroom, they merely have numerical values of 6 through 9 with purple unassigned, which is not particularly imaginative. There are no problems if the images have been processed in the version of Bridge supplied with CS2, but given the age of the application this will not apply to most people. For later versions of Bridge the disconnect between the values means that the colour label settings are not brought across. The only solution appears to be to set the values in Lightroom to match those in Bridge.
Where does this leave those with a lot of work invested in processing their images in Bridge? It seems to me that there are a number of options.
- Not use Lightroom, which means that it will not be possible to take advantage of the many features that the application offers, which are far in advance of Bridge.
- Leave existing images where they are and import new images into Lightroom. This means mixed working across two applications, which is unlikely to be ideal.
- Import only selected images into Lightroom.
- Bite the bullet and rework images after importing into Lightroom. For anything other than the smallest of catalogues, this is unlikely to be a realistic option for most.
It is worth noting that Lightroom does not actually hold any images, which remain in whatever location they were originally placed when copied to the computer from the memory card. What Lightroom does have is a database which records where the images are stored and some other associated data. For those who do decide to go ahead with an import of images previously processed in Bridge, ensure that that the "Add" option is used, rather than "Copy", otherwise every image will be duplicated.
