Drawing tablet

[Dave A]

Just wondering about using a drawing tablet with pen for PP in Lightroom. Is it a worthwhile addition and improvement over a mouse? I've never used one. Also any recommendations on a good one that won't break the bank?

Dave

[Black Pearl]

Scroll down a dozen or so threads and there's one all about Wacom tablets.

[davidedric]

Hi Dave,

I do use a tablet with Lightroom. It excels when drawing masks with the adjustment brush (to imagine the difference, try signing your name with a mouse and then a pen.) I think that's agreed by everyone, but there are differing views as to how easy it is to use with sliders - probably in my case lack of perseverance.

I have a Wacom Intuous Pro, which is not the cheapest, but i expect Donald will be along shortly to say his old Bamboo does the job just fine.

Dave

[Dave A]

Thanks I found that other thread. Good info there.

Dave

[Manfred M]

Dave - I never use it with Lightroom or Camera Raw. As I only use these programs for raw conversion and basic global settings, I do all my precision edits with a Wacom tablet in Photoshop.

[IzzieK]

Editing with a mouse is such a ... brick. You will be please with the ease of a Wacom tablet...get it as big as you can afford. You will never regret it.

[jordand]

Dave, I recently bought Wacom Intuos Photo tablet (which they produce only in small size) and I’m pleased with the performance. Totally different experience, compared to editing with the mouse.
The pen is pressure sensitive, meaning the harder you press against the surface, the closer you’ll come to the opacity and flow levels you’ve set.
Touch mode can be turned on and off, which means you can use your fingers to perform some basic actions, but when you position the pen close to the tablet surface it overrides your fingers.
I personally am satisfied with that purchase.
You can find more info on the net.

[Manfred M]

Editing with a mouse is such a ... brick. You will be please with the ease of a Wacom tablet...get it as big as you can afford. You will never regret it.

I would have to disagree with you on the size Izzie. If you are an artist and are using large sweeping motions of the arm to create your work, then perhaps that is true. As photographers who are retouching, we tend to be working on small areas of an image with a great deal of finesse, so in general a smaller tablet is an advantage here.

The other issue is the learning curve. Going from mouse to tablet is not intuitive and can be quite frustrating for many people. It took me a while to get the hang of it.

[Donald]

...but i expect Donald will be along shortly to say his old Bamboo does the job just fine.

Here I am. It does. 4+ years old and still going strong. 6" x 4" pad. Never needed anything else.

If you are an artist and are using large sweeping motions of the arm to create your work, then perhaps that is true. As photographers who are retouching, we tend to be working on small areas of an image with a great deal of finesse, so in general a smaller tablet is an advantage here.

The other issue is the learning curve. Going from mouse to tablet is not intuitive and can be quite frustrating for many people. It took me a while to get the hang of it.

I would totally endorse that. If you've got an image blown up on screen to 100% or more, you're going to be making small, very fine movements. You don't need a big tablet for that.

Yes, it is really hard at first to get used to the differences in terms of moving the cursor around the screen. It's like learning to ride a bicycle - One day it just falls into place and after that, you will just not look back.

[DanK]

Yes, it is really hard at first to get used to the differences in terms of moving the cursor around the screen. It's like learning to ride a bicycle - One day it just falls into place and after that, you will just not look back.

Thanks. Very encouraging. I've had one collecting dust for years because it seemed like a steep learning curve. This will help prod me to learn to use it.

[Geoff F]

Editing with a mouse is such a ... brick. You will be please with the ease of a Wacom tablet...get it as big as you can afford. You will never regret it.

I'm with you Izzie. Tiny little movements with the fingers don't work for me; far too fiddly. Also, I do a lot of mask editing on bigger areas like skies where I want a large area but with fine control. I much preferred my old 12 x 12 ins tablet and wouldn't want to be using anything less than 8 x 5 ins.