Graphics tablet?

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Paul
Edit My Images
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Does anyone use a graphics tablet, such as a Wacom for photo editing?
The wife will be asking what I'd like for my birthday next month and as I've been doing more editing / touching up in Affinity Photo I find it a bit of a pain masking etc. using the mouse or trackpad and so I'm wondering whether it would be easier using a pen / tablet.

I'd be interested to know which one you have and whether you find it easier or not? :)
 
I’ve got a relatively inexpensive Wacom bamboo pen and when retouching I find it much better than using a mouse.
I hate using it for other stuff though.
 
I have a small Wacom bamboo too. Again it's great for masks and cloning things but I'm quicker with sliders and buttons using a mouse. Either beats a trackpad for me.
Delicate control and pressure sensitivity are really handy but only for a few photo editing tasks.

I got mine from the Wacom refurb shop - cheap, white box but otherwise as good as new.
Not sure where they ship from so post brexit it might be a PITA.
 
I don't use Affinity but I do use an old faithful Wacom tablet with PS. With LR I use an X-Touch Mini Midi Controller connected to Lr with Midi2Lr which I find is a great time saver, so much easier to use than trying to move sliders etc around.
 
Another with a Bamboo, the same as you - my wife wanted to buy me something so I let her get me one of these.
I do not use it much but when I want to do fine adjustments / masking it is easier and more accurate than using a mouse.
For me it is a nice to have, not a must have - the definition of a present :giggle:
 
The Bamboo has been discontinued for a while. Wacom's entry level tablets used to be differentiated by the software bundle as much as anything there was a Draw and a Photo etc.
The intuos small is the current equivalent.
I'm not sure I'd worry about the Pro for occasional use.

If I were buying again I'd consider the USB+Bluetooth one just so I could move it around more easily and not clog up a USB port.

I always fancied the screen versions but I know I wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost
 
The Bamboo has been discontinued for a while. Wacom's entry level tablets used to be differentiated by the software bundle as much as anything there was a Draw and a Photo etc.
The intuos small is the current equivalent.
I'm not sure I'd worry about the Pro for occasional use.

If I were buying again I'd consider the USB+Bluetooth one just so I could move it around more easily and not clog up a USB port.

I always fancied the screen versions but I know I wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost
Wow the Pro Small is only £9 cheaper on the refurb store, it's be better buying the new one for £169 than the rerun for £160.

Looks like the difference between the Pro and normal is the pen and the Express Keys? Am I missing anything else? :)
Looks like one of these is going to be my birthday pressie!!
 
I was replying when you edited your post - the difference between the Pro and intuos small is ... about £90 ;) There are sure to be other things you'll need to do your research.

Back in 2000 ish when I worked in a design agency I used an ArtPad II for a bit of graphics, our designers used A3 sized pro tablets.
The drivers were the same and they functioned identically - my pen drove their tablets. The designers used to dial down the active area to about A5 to avoid moving their whole arm to make a small brush stroke.
Personally I wouldn't spend more for the pro level at least until you've tried it. They often come up in classifieds because people don't get on with them - see the comment from DG Phototraining above.
Many are just desk clutter, I know I use mine very infrequently as I just don't do lots of fiddly retouching. If that's your style you may have a different experience.
 
I was replying when you edited your post - the difference between the Pro and intuos small is ... about £90 ;) There are sure to be other things you'll need to do your research.

Back in 2000 ish when I worked in a design agency I used an ArtPad II for a bit of graphics, our designers used A3 sized pro tablets.
The drivers were the same and they functioned identically - my pen drove their tablets. The designers used to dial down the active area to about A5 to avoid moving their whole arm to make a small brush stroke.
Personally I wouldn't spend more for the pro level at least until you've tried it. They often come up in classifieds because people don't get on with them - see the comment from DG Phototraining above.
Many are just desk clutter, I know I use mine very infrequently as I just don't do lots of fiddly retouching. If that's your style you may have a different experience.
I'm like that with tech, if I see something slightly better spec then I usually go for that one :ROFLMAO:
 
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium - I mean, it's a cracking bit of kit but overkill for my workflow. I guess when lockdown eases and i'm shooting more, perhaps there will be more editing to do, hopefully!
Found the Pro Small version on eBay, only used twice and managed to talk him down to £135.
I'll give it a try and see how I get on with it. :)
 
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Found the Pro Small version on eBay, only used twice and managed to talk him down to £135.
I'll give it a try and see how I get on with it. :)

I would certainly recommend getting the small version. Even then I restrict myself to how much of the tablet I actually use as it stops me moving my wrist all over the place... Good luck with your new tablet.
 
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So an update after using this for a couple of weeks now,

It was easy enough to setup but I really struggled actually using it, it felt strange compared to using the mouse / trackpad when using the crop tool or the inpainting brush tool in Affinity Photo.
Even though I was tempted to just put it down and go back to my trackpad, I persevered and I'm glad I did.

After 2 weeks and probably after only 10 uses with it, it now feels natural when using it, I've configured the side buttons for things I use the most, undo, increase and decrease brush size, crop tool, inpainting brush tool and the wheel zooms the image in and out.

I'm a left hander so I use the pencil in my left hand and with my right hand I can operate the quick access buttons or my Apple trackpad.

Cloning and removing objects with the inpainting brush are so much quicker than when I was using the mouse or trackpad.

So I think this is going to be a keeper. :)
 
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