Do you use a Wacom Tablet?

[shellby]

I am interested to know how many people use Wacom tablets. My main interest is Beauty and Fashion retouching and I am contemplating buying one.

[Legacy~Art]

I use a mouse, not tablet and pen, i did buy one, i hated it, went back to using the mouse, i use the mouse in painter also.

[smiley guy]

I love my tablet! I have the Wacom 5x3 or whatever the smallest one is. I really enjoy for some of the brush work in PS. I use kb, mouse and tablet pretty equally depending on the tool. For example, I find my cropping is more accurate with the mouse. Dodging, burning, making freehand selections are easier with the tablet. And switching tools is very easy with the kb. It's just another tool to make some things easier.

[Caitlin]

I still use my mouse a fair bit, but find the tablet terrific particularly for things like fine masking.

If in doubt, you can always get an entry model - like the 4x5 Graphire3 - that's what I have and I think it's a great extra tool.

Have a search in the forum - there are a number of lengthy threads on Wacom tablets already.

[twinkissed]

Funny, I used to wish I had one but now, I dunno, I just kinda prefer my mouse. Guess I just am used to it.

[shellby]

I have seen some retouching jobs that specify experience on a Wacom tablet.

[NABO]

A Tablet Is defenetly needed when you are retouching! Alot of advantages to using a mouse. I takes a little practice to get used to it. A tablet is preassure sensitive... meaning i reads the preassure on you you use your pen creating unachiavable results that the mouse can't. When it comes to size of tablet ... size matters. I use a Wacom Intuos 6" X 8" and it works for me. The 9" X 12" its nice but at least for me is not as portable. I travel alot so I stick with the 6" X 8". Hope this helps you out...

[shellby]

Just browsing through your website now. Some great images there.

[Racc Iria]

I'm using the Wacom Cintiq 21UX. That's the one where the monitor is built into the surface of the tablet so that you use the pen right on screen.

I will never to back to using just a mouse.

[shellby]

That sounds fantastic

[grafx]

I have a Wacom and an el'cheapo Aiptek model. I recommend the Wacom.

[cricket1961]

Shelby

I use a wacom for everything. I don't even have a mouse attached to the computer anymore.
I can't even imagine retouching with a mouse now.

Chris

[twinkissed]

Originally Posted by Racc Iria

I'm using the Wacom Cintiq 21UX. That's the one where the monitor is built into the surface of the tablet so that you use the pen right on screen.

I will never to back to using just a mouse.

After seeing this topic and post though... rethinking my Christmas list

[emarts]

Working with the mouse is like drawing with a bar of soap. The tablet and pen makes it far easier and quicker for me.

[pixelfinity]

it gives a far more natural 'feel' especially when brushing.

[shellby]

yes it sounds as though it would be a good investment. Would you say it speeds up your retouching work. I mainly work on skin.

(must add to xmas list!)

[Neve]

Absolutely the best investment I ever made...!

[Gary Richardson]

As almost everyone else has already said, I wouldn't go back to using a mouse for retouch work.

The pen gives much more natural control when attending to fine detailed.

Still use my mouse for general browsing (horses for courses), but don't use it at all when working on images.

Like other's here, I'd love Racc Iria's set up, but when you look at the cost of it, it may cool your enthusiasm. But if I remember right from an earlier post, he had it provided by his employer and didn't have to buy it himself (lucky man).

[stevek]

After reading through threads like this one, and articles in "trade" (and not-so-trade) publications, I purchased a Wacom tablet (not sure what model).

Shellby - I gotta tell ya - it was probably the worst piece of hardware I ever had the displeasure of trying to get my head around...

It was an absolute nightmare to set up; the written instructions were practically non-existant, the help files read like they were written for a Wacom R&D specialist by a Wacom power-user, the configuration software was utterly horrific and the whole experience was excrutiatingly frustrating. The tablet has been languishing in the back of a rarely opened cupboard ever since.

Don't get me wong; I'm an experienced computer user and I don't shy away from opening up my PC and performing fairly advanced surgery, or delving into the depths of the OS and tweaking and tuning as I see fit. But the whole tablet thing basically pi**ed me off big-time, despite the fact that I laboured on-and-off for almost two weeks trying to get the thing to behave how I wanted it to.

Also (and this is equally relevant) I have ALWAYS used a mouse. All my techniques and working practices are based around (and have basically been formulated and developed around) the mouse. Suddenly having to make the leap (and for me it is a leap) from a mouse to a pen was almost as frustrating as the crappy tablet itself.

I know that I'm probably going to upset a lot of hardcore tablet fans - and that's not my intention. I'm just relating my own (fairly unique - I'm sure) experience. I guess if you're prepared to "unlearn" everything that makes you feel comfortable using a mouse, and "re-learn" everything you do but with a new (and very different) tool, then go right ahead and buy a tablet.

Personally, I do everything at "pixel" level, and strictly by the numbers (literally), so facilities like "pressure sensitivity" and "natural feeling brushstrokes" are not only pretty useless to me, but would most likely irritate me and get in the way of how I work.

Of course, the flipside of this coin is that I'm a reactionary old git who's too set in his ways to change / learn something new / move with the times. Maybe I just need a highly experienced tablet user to actually "show" me what I'm missing (if anything). I think that's probably the only thing that might persuade me to try again (and I'd have to be pretty blown away before I'd consider it!).

S

[shellby]

...and judging from your stunning portfolio (website) your mouse is serving you well

I see that you are also based in the UK.

[Caitlin]

Originally Posted by stevek

It was an absolute nightmare to set up; the written instructions were practically non-existant, the help files read like they were written for a Wacom R&D specialist by a Wacom power-user, the configuration software was utterly horrific and the whole experience was excrutiatingly frustrating. The tablet has been languishing in the back of a rarely opened cupboard ever since.

I'm sorry that a tablet wasn't for you Steve - but this paragraph is the bit I don't understand. My Wacom I plugged in and it just 'worked'. I haven't had any need to even read the help files. Are we talking a while ago here - maybe a very early model?

[Gary Richardson]

That was my experience also, install the driver, then just plug n play.

[hypogryphe]

There is no way I could go back to using a mouse for retouching work. With my tablet, I am able to have much more control over just about everything!

[stevek]

Thanks Shellby.

Caitlin: it wasn't that long ago - maybe a year (a year and a half at the most). If only it was just a simple case of plug'n'play... unfortunately it couldn't have been more complicated.

From the moment I plugged the tablet in nothing functioned correctly. By default the tablet represented a tiny strip of screen area along the top of my screen and nothing I could do would correct this. This was especially frustrating because the configuration screen for the tablet itself (the software that came with the thing) placed buttons OUTSIDE of the screen area that the tablet actually made available to the me... the bulk of my screen was totally inaccessible and I had to unplug the buggering tablet and plug my mouse back in just to make selections in the configuration window. This problem - despite my continued and repeated alteration of the various options available - simply perpetuated itself in slightly differing combinations of screen areas. Not once did I manage to configure the thing so that the tablet area represented my screen area (in over two weeks of screwing around).

In addition to these probelms, the pressure sensitivity issue was a nightmare. The default setting of the pen was totally over-sensitive (to the extent that even waving the pen tip over the tablet at a distance of almost a centimeter would initiate actions and functions) and no amount of adjustment could provide a consistent and usable pressure setting. Even with pressure sensitivity turned OFF the pen still behaved strangely and exhibited random pressure-based behaviour.

There were many other problems that I won't go into right now, suffice to say that my experience couldn't have been worse! The configuration software that came with the tablet was quite horrible; it conspicuously failed to explain any of its functions or parameters sufficiently and made no attempt to provide the novice user with an "easy" quick-start guide (or in fact any kind of guide at all).

I wonder if maybe I had a "dud" piece of hardware - quite possible considering how awful my experience was and how great everyone elses has been! Either way, I don't think i'll be trying a tablet again in a hurry.

S

[Racc Iria]

Originally posted by Gary Richardson
Like other's here, I'd love Racc Iria's set up, but when you look at the cost of it, it may cool your enthusiasm. But if I remember right from an earlier post, he had it provided by his employer and didn't have to buy it himself (lucky man).

You remember correctly, Gary. It is supplied by my employer. I do love this thing, though. It's a work of art in its own right and it's a real pleasure to work with it.

And yes, at $2500 it is on the pricy side. But if I had a home based business I certainly would save up and buy one. I think they can also be leased to own. Even though I've always been quite used to working with a tablet, I find that this one is even faster to work on. And, if you've never worked with a tablet before, it's great because there is no need to "learn" how to use a tablet and get used to that disconnect between when your pen is and where you're looking. If you can use a pen and paper you can use this tablet.

Plus, when you realize that it's not just a state-of-the-art tablet, but a high quality 21" LCD monitor as well, then the cost is a little easier to justify.

--Racc

[Jim Conway]

Interesting comments! I'm about to give up the business after nearly six decades and put my Cintique up for sale. Without it I would have given up long ago. Having been in the business years before computer aided retouching, I never could get the hang of working with a mouse - the LCD tablet was a life saver that let me continue to work with at least some semblance of a "natural" feel to art work.

Jim Conway
Timemark Photo Conservators

[stevek]

Racc... it didn't really register with me when you mentioned the Cintiq - I just thought it was another regular tablet, but I was at the Digital Print World Show in London yesterday and I saw the Cintiq and... WOW, what can I say!

It's not really a tablet at all - it's a completely different thing altogether and I'm seriously considering getting one.

Incidentally, the guy from Wacom who I was talking with said that my tablet (the one that gave me all the trouble) was almost definitely a dud as he had never encountered those kinds of problems before.

SK

[NancyJ]

wow, that thing's gorgeous... and at $3k worth more than my PC! I had a really cheap A5 tablet once - cant remember the brand but I wasnt impressed - it was just too small to make anything like realistic movements - I fiddled as much as I could with the settings but it was always just too small - the tinyest movement made too much of an impression on the screen. I'd much rather have had something with a closer relationship to the size of my screen. That Cintique looks perfect... maybe if I give up eating and drinking - one day I can have one lol.

[Jim Conway]

Check the class ads here in a week or two - I'll put the one I have up for sale at about half the current price. In fact, I'll even toss in an Adams Retoucher and a few graphite pencils for any of you that know what one of those might be used for! :-)

Jim Conway

[Racc Iria]

Stevek...

Yep, I reacted the same way. I didn't even need to see it work, just the description and a picture was all it took for me. But it is hard to appreciate unless you've seen it and tried it. And once you have, you don't want to go back. It really is a work of art... both technically and physically.


NancyJ...

If you're seeing it priced at $3,000 don't buy from that source. It's street priced at $2,495. You can also lease one. Don't know the details, though. Even though it is expensive, it's worth it. If I did a lot of work at home, I would absolutely save up for one.


Jim...

What model are you selling?


--Racc