dakota8,
iPhoto and Adobe Bridge are incompatible, so you need to decide which one you want to use (for which photos). iPhoto is a database, with many flexible features for organizing your library and finding your photos. Bridge is a file browser with some organizing capabilities. You absolutely should not use Bridge or any other application (Finder included) to browse the files inside your iPhoto Library folder, as it will damage the iPhoto database. To verify, click on iPhoto's Help and read the section "About using the iPhoto Library."
If you want to keep your RAW files in iPhoto, then you'll need to open them from iPhoto. As Dave E said, this can be done by setting the iPhoto pref to export RAW files. You also need to set PE 4 as the external editor in iPhoto's preferences. With this setup, you can select photos using iPhoto, open the RAW files into PE 4, then edit. Now comes the wrinkle in the workflow. Normally, you would do a Save to cause your edited file to be saved back into the iPhoto library. This Save, not Save As, requires that the filename and extension stay the same. Works great with jpeg files. However, once you edit the RAW, the extension (and file format) must change. Save will not work, because any save at this point is treated like a Save As. So you have to Save As to a folder OUTside of your iPhoto Library, and then import it in as a new file. There will be no link between the edited version and its unedited RAW file. You could organize inside iPhoto to display the edited file beside its original RAW, or keep separate rolls for the originals and edits.
With that in mind, you might not want to save the RAW files in iPhoto at all. You could create your own filing system for them, which you would browse using Bridge. Upload using Image Capture to save your files to a folder of your choice. Once you edit the RAW files and save as another format, you could them import into iPhoto for cataloging or further editing. You'll just have to find the system that works best for you.
BTW, don't save your edited RAW files as Adobe RAW. I tried and discovered that iPhoto refuses to import them at all.
I have been able to open Bridge and view photos from Iphoto so it seems to me that everything that I have in Iphoto is automatically transfered to Elements 4.
There's no transferring involved at all. Bridge is rooting directly inside the iPhoto Library folder. Did I mention that it's best to avoid this?
However I can not find my Raw images.
When you import a file it is saved into the Originals folder. Your RAW files are there, along with any video clips you may have imported.
iPhoto automatically creates a jpeg version of your RAW files and stores it in the Modified folder. It has to do this in order to display the picture on your screen. With video clips, a jpeg of the first frame is created for display purposes.
I am using a Nikon D200 and just to be safe I have been shooting so the images are saved both in JPEG and RAW.
If you import both versions into iPhoto, then you have
Originals - RAW
Modified - jpeg
Originals - jpeg
(Modified - jpeg - if you edit the jpeg version or if they are auto-rotated to portrait orientation)
I don't shoot in RAW, so I can't really comment about which workflow would be the most efficient. I just played with it long enough to realize that there is no easy way to do it.
Regards.
