wand and Tablet V mouse

[readingr]

Okay all,

Who uses what for editing their photos and what do you see as the benefit of the tool used.

I am considering moving to a tablet but can't work out what the differences would be.

Roger

[mjs1973]

I'm still using a mouse for all my editing. I have never used a tablet, but I want to give it a try. One of my coworkers is a tablet user. He said once you get use to it, you won't want a mouse again. When I start working more with images at my job, I will try the tablet, but I don't want to spend the money to try one at home. Although I think I did read an add for some tablets that had a return guarantee, so if you buy one and don't like it you can send it back.

[Medley]

I have a tablet, and I do use it - sometimes. The upside is that you can tie pen pressure and tilt to certain functions such as opacity, jitter or flow. It takes a bit of practice to learn how to control the pen, but it offers a bit more control (much more control for painting and such). The downside has to do with ergonomics- my hand/wrist get tired much faster using a tablet.

Generally speaking, here's my advice. If you're going to be doing a lot of brushwork- graphic artistry, airbrushing, and the like- then look into a tablet. But for normal photo editing, a mouse is just fine.

-Joe U.

[readingr]

Darn,

Your convincing me not to spend money. Seriously it looks as if the opportunities to use the tablet could be limited in the type of editing I do with photos.

On occasions I wonder if the tablet would be easier to make complex shape selections, not that I do those that often.

Thanks for the feedback.

Roger

[mjs1973]

I put in a request with my boss yesterday to see if he can get me a tablet to play around with. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. As far as using it for other things... my coworker who uses a tablet, uses it for EVERYTHING. He's not working much with images right now, but that tablet is still going strong. I did sit with him a while back when he was making some very complex selections and the tablet worked wonders.

[mjs1973]

My coworker was out of the office this morning, so I fired up his computer and played around with his tablet. It's deffinetly something that will take some getting use to, but I was doing ok with it. I made a few simple selections with the pen tool and some layer adjustments and it wan't too bad.

The hardest thing for me to get use to in the half hour I played with it, was using the entire tablet. I'm so use to a mouse, and instead of draging my hand all the way across my desk to get the mouse to cover the entire width or height of my monitor, I pick it up, move it, and then continue. With the tablet, you have to use the entire tablet to cover your entire monitor. I knew that going into it, but still took some getting use to.

[readingr]

Michael

Thanks for the report on the tablet - I think I will wait a while and see how things progress as I plan on spending some time learning to manipulate images better in PSE/PSP. Perhaps I'll invest in CS2 first.

So much money to spend :hand: :lol: and not a clue what to spend it on!

[Photo-John]

I make a lot of masks in Photoshop. Although I've never used a tablet, I have no doubt it would help me be more efficient and precise. This thread might have just inspired me to go out and get one!

What I really want is the Wacom Cintiq LCD tablet!

[readingr]

I make a lot of masks in Photoshop. Although I've never used a tablet, I have no doubt it would help me be more efficient and precise. This thread might have just inspired me to go out and get one!

What I really want is the Wacom Cintiq LCD tablet!

Thats what I want but there are many things to get before I spend that amount on a tablet, so don't wait for my report on it. It'll take a long time.

Roger

[Photo-John]

Perhaps I'll invest in CS2 first.

Get the full version of Photoshop first. It will help you squeeze more out of your photos than the tablet will. It's masked adjustment layers that hold the true power of Photoshop - and they're no available in Elements. They're also what will really make the tablet useful. Maybe you should buy them both at the same time!

[mjs1973]

I'm hoping my co-worker misses a couple days of work while we're slow, so I can play with his tablet some more.

[readingr]

Get the full version of Photoshop first. It will help you squeeze more out of your photos than the tablet will. It's masked adjustment layers that hold the true power of Photoshop - and they're no available in Elements. They're also what will really make the tablet useful. Maybe you should buy them both at the same time!

John

I have to disagree with "It's masked adjustment layers that hold the true power of Photoshop - and they're no available in Elements".

If you select a portion of the image and add feathering if required and then create a layer while selection is active PSE creates a mask for you automatically. Been using this feature for a long time. However you cannot modify the mask easily in PSE but it can be done with the paintbrush.

Its not as powerful as CS2 and things like curves, LAB mode and Channel Mixer are the items I really need. I am looking at getting in the new year.

Roger

[drg]

Another alternative for many is the Tablet Notebooks. Not sensitive to pressure but there's more hand to eye feedback as you are drawing 'on the screen'. Software to fully implement this can makes these notebooks rather costly!

If you draw well, a tablet is a good investment. But then there's 'the chair'. Shan, a graphic artist I use on occasion, and her S.O. have these big intense ergonomic chairs that cost more than I care to think about so they can work 10-12 hours if they need to and not get sore. They do Manga and Anime from scratch on their computers.

I have one of the little tablets that I hardly ever use. It can be pretty neat for erasing backgrounds and doing some detail mask generation but then I wind up switching back to mouse for most other tasks.

I had a Logitech trackball with a bunch of programmable buttons and functions built in but started to get water filled cysts on one wrist tendon. Similar to Carpal Tunnel problems in effect, but different cause. So I went back to wrist supports and a wireless mouse.