Anybody here use a tablet?

divamum

Just picked up a Bamboo capture in a flash sale (for $65 it seemed worth trying). It's a really neat tool that I know WILL speed up (and improve) my retouching in due course, but still in the learning curve stage. There are some things it does soooooooo much better than I ever could with a mouse (although the mouse has its place too for me, I think).

Anybody here use one and have any tips and tricks? I'm getting it, but some things still don't work the way I expect them to (eg if I sample a healing brush or clone area place, it sometimes seems to grab it from somewhere else entirely :scratch)

Foques

I'm using a Cintiq 21ux.
It is hard to tune, but processing images is much easier

Dreadnote

I use a Intuos 5 touch. The thing is awesome. Took maybe a week to get used to it, but with all of the customizable options it save loads of time. Now I find I'm using it all the time even apart from photoshop.

Since I goof things up a lot, I set the button by your finger on the pen to "undo" / "redo" and the buttons on the pad to switch brush types. Still learning myself, but so far I think its great.

Once you get used to it I seriously doubt that you'll ever use your mouse again when retouching.

Blurmore

I use one...and there are more settings and customizations for the thing in PS and in the Wacom software than the law allows. The cloning/healling thing is something simple like a checkbox in the tool options, can't remember it right now, but yeah they are great for when you need them but I only use it for serious retouching, and even then mostly for masking.

Hackbone

I've got a Wacom. Put the potato away and just use the pen. You will get quicker if you hide the potato.

puzzledpaul

Bought first tablet when using PS3 ...and been first / preferred choice of device ever since ... 17 / 18yrs or so.
Current (and only second) unit is an oversized A4 Wacom on a ball-raced sliding plinth that docks under the comp desk.

pp

divamum

Yeah, I'm liking it a lot, it's just getting used to it. And, as I say, for some reason even when I alt+click to select a sample for cloning/healing, sometimes it's grabbing it from somewhere else on the image - not sure what that's about

I find I'm mostly grabbing the mouse for moving around the image; the Bamboo has touch mode, but I find I'm rather clumsy with it - easier to grab the mouse+spacebar and motor around lol I'll get it. I absolutely LOVE how easy it is to avoid splotchy cloning - huge improvement over mouse for that, for SURE

Dreadnote

divamum wrote: »

I find I'm mostly grabbing the mouse for moving around the image

Try the space bar and pen for moving the image around, much much faster, alternatively two fingers on the touch pad does the same thing depending on the mode you are in.

anonymouscuban

Have a Wacom. Bought it years ago and it just sit on my desk. Sometime I sit my coffee mug on it.

Dreadnote

anonymouscuban wrote: »

Have a Wacom. Bought it years ago and it just sit on my desk. Sometime I sit my coffee mug on it.

Have any boxes of cash, gold, or diamonds your using as doorstops or coffee holders you'd like to offload? I can provide an address.

anonymouscuban

Dreadnote wrote: »

Have any boxes of cash, gold, or diamonds your using as doorstops or coffee holders you'd like to offload? I can provide an address.

. I bought it, tried it for day and decided I hated it. I know I need to give it more time but each time I've tried, I get frustrated and go back to my mouse. I go through mouse batteries like crazy. And sometimes when I'm editing, all you hear is 'click-click...click-click-clickity-click...click". HAHAHHA

Hackbone

Seriously, put the potato away for two days and you'll never go back.

Dreadnote

anonymouscuban wrote: »

. I bought it, tried it for day and decided I hated it. I know I need to give it more time but each time I've tried, I get frustrated and go back to my mouse. I go through mouse batteries like crazy. And sometimes when I'm editing, all you hear is 'click-click...click-click-clickity-click...click". HAHAHHA

BTW Diva, you too Alex - if you arrange your desk so that the tablet is directly in front of the monitor all lined up and square it feels more intuitive in the beginning. Later on you can reposition it once it feels natural. Least wise that helped me.

Dreadnote

Oh and one more thing now that I think about it...use the 2 finger, or finger and thumb pinch/rotate gesture, the same way you do on a phone or tablet to reorient your image in PS just like you would with a piece of paper. Makes "coloring" with your tablet super comfortable and allows your hand to always be in its best orientation no matter what part of the image you are working on.

Dreadnote

Oh and here is one more...

if your tablet came with an assortment (usually hidden in the pen holder which twists apart) of "nibs" then switch to the "Flex Nibs", the ones that look like this. They are tons better than the hard plastic one that comes preloaded.

divamum

Tablet will only fit in front of monitor (desk is small), and that's the only way I could imagine using it! Mouse I can do off-center; pen, not so much.

I may well check out the nibs - excellent idea. My Bamboo came with extras, but they seem to be the same as the original hard nib that was installed. (Hey, it's the "budget" version, but at that price I'm not arguing....)

Foques

Alex, I hated most of the tablets, too. I just don't have the good eye-hand coordination, I think

I needed to have a screen to use a stylus on.

anonymouscuban

Foques wrote: »

Alex, I hated most of the tablets, too. I just don't have the good eye-hand coordination, I think

I needed to have a screen to use a stylus on.

Honestly, I think I need a larger one. I have a little tiny one that I bought at Baby Toys R Us on clearance sale. The stylus has a rattle on the end of it.

TonyCooper

divamum wrote: »

Yeah, I'm liking it a lot, it's just getting used to it. And, as I say, for some reason even when I alt+click to select a sample for cloning/healing, sometimes it's grabbing it from somewhere else on the image - not sure what that's about

I find I'm mostly grabbing the mouse for moving around the image; the Bamboo has touch mode, but I find I'm rather clumsy with it - easier to grab the mouse+spacebar and motor around lol I'll get it. I absolutely LOVE how easy it is to avoid splotchy cloning - huge improvement over mouse for that, for SURE

I'm left-handed, and keep my Wacom tablet on the left and my Logitech trackball
on my right and use both at once. As long as the tablet stylus isn't touching the pad,
the trackball is operational.

I honestly can't tell you if I navigate around the image with the tablet or the trackball.
After a while, the movement becomes so instinctive that you don't think about which
you're using.

I also have a regular mouse plugged in, but rarely use it. With the trackball, my right
hand doesn't have to move. Just the thumb.

divamum

Took about a week and some settings-tweaking, but I absolutely love it now. There *are* still a few things that I find more mouse-friendly (eg large areas of single-colour cloning, like cleaning up where I've "fallen off" a white background), but there are some things the tablet pen can do that there is NO WAY I could achieve as cleanly or easily with a mouse (eg fine cloning like stray hairs). I'm converted!

ChrisJ

Dual Monitors
Do the newer tablets work well with two monitors? I tried one several years ago, and that was the main stumbling block for me; the software just didn't have a configuration that I found workable for me.

Hackbone

There's an article somewhere on the web that when the nub runs out you can use a particular diameter of lawn string trimmer to get new replacements.

Dreadnote

ChrisJ wrote: »

Do the newer tablets work well with two monitors? I tried one several years ago, and that was the main stumbling block for me; the software just didn't have a configuration that I found workable for me.

You can set up an Intuos 5 to map to just one screen and use your mouse/trackpad for the other one, or you can set it up to split the tablet in half with one half corresponding to each of the monitors. Perhaps that works on other models as well though I can only speak to the tablet that I have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ClDSx_wE-sE#at=87

WaskitheSquirrel

I've used one for several years. The funny thing is I originally bought it for a totally different purpose: writing notes on a projector as a high school science teacher. I now use a Wacom Intuos 4 to retouch pictures.

SLRdude

I've been using a Wacom tablet for at least ten years and I honestly can't imagine being without one.

The one I have now was purchased in 2005 and the dang thing still works like a champ!

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