(Photo) Is Wacom or some other tablet essential for detailed work?

[Amy Choue]

I began studying and practicing Photo again from the very basics. I have 2 courses by Ally (Photo for Basics, Photo beyond the Basics), and had watched almost the whole of both during the summer this year, without learning much. I began having difficulties from about the middle point of the Basics course, the way Math class in high school can become suddenly forbidding. Surprisingly, much of this now makes much sense so readily, so the time I spent struggling with this wasn't really wasted after all. 

In the Basics course, Ally mentions Wacom tablet. I guess all the work she does in the course, like when she lays out her plan on an empty pixel layer, is done on the Wacom tablet. (At first I assumed she works with a mouse, and wondered how she writes so well with it). She doesn't say Wacom is essential to have, but says it will be great to have, it will help you a lot. 

Will I eventually need to have one? I am planning on learning Photo (and other related apps and skills) as much as I can. I guess I'll have to have one eventually. How essential is it? 

 

[PaulEC]

As you mention "Ally" I assume the courses you are referring to are from Affinity Revolution. These are not connected to Serif and are independently produced, so any questions about their tutorials should really be directed to them.

As far as needing a tablet goes, (IMHO) it depends on what work you are doing. A tablet is not essential, but they can certainly help with some jobs, especially if you are doing a lot of painting/artwork.

[thomaso]

11 hours ago, Amy Choue said:

Will I eventually need to have one? (…) How essential is it? 

Concerning "eventually": Yes. – Concerning "essential": it depends … on your training -> skills / as with any input device.

Considering its historical development a digital pen device may appear more essential than the computer: the first seems to be invented in 1888 ('Wacom' came hundred years later). Concerning the market it appears far less essential: the number of brands & models for e.g. mouse devices is a lot larger … and touch screens exist and may get used entirely without mouse or pen.

For pen devices there are several technologies and aspects to consider: You can have a 'pen mouse' and also graphic tablets of quite different sizes and thus for different handling/usage. Also it may make a difference whether the tablet is just the input device or a monitor, too.

However, you can find users, experiences and opinions in a wide range: from "never ever" up to "always & exclusively", each with conviction for their individual situation. (Compare the range of keyboard usage: Some use hardware devices with 1 or 2 fingers, others successfully use 10, while nowadays typing with 2 thumbs has become established where hardware has disappeared).

Personally, I switched from mouse to tablet a few months after my first computer purchase (1988) because using the mouse inexperienced and kind of mishandling has caused tendonitis. It was a Wacom A3 format because I had the (wrong) idea that the tablet size had to match the drawing size and/or the monitor area. This worked quite well for decades and the tablet was used exclusively for around 90% of the time. These days I use a laptop with a trackpad + a vertical mouse + a small tablet (A5) and only use the tablet selectively for certain tasks. Nowadays I value the mouse wheel with zoom function more than the advantage of precision of the pen device, while switching between mouse and pen feels still too cumbersome. [ Years ago I had got a Wacom pen with wheel but it still felt limited. I never experienced a "pen mouse". ]

[Granddaddy]

16 hours ago, Amy Choue said:

Will I eventually need to have one? I am planning on learning Photo (and other related apps and skills) as much as I can. I guess I'll have to have one eventually. How essential is it? 

You will find a variety of opinions so you'll have to decide for yourself as your experience grows.

After 20 years as an amateur editing photos with a mouse, I read a few years ago that a tablet could replace a mouse completely. Since I sometimes experienced hand stiffness and fatigue with a mouse, I decided to buy a Wacom Intuos tablet as a Christmas present to myself. I put my mouse away in a drawer to force myself to use the tablet for everything. After a week of frustration, I gave up and returned to the mouse, which I can use with either my left or right hand so I can switch hands if I get tired. 

I do use the Wacom for some selection tasks. Right now I am extracting a half dozen people from a busy, complex background of shrubbery, lawn, house, and sky. This requires a lot of manual editing when the selection tools have difficulty discerning edges when contrast is low. It becomes necessary to create a mask and to manually paint on that mask to get precise edges and to eliminate the usual spillover in both directions across the edges. This involves a lot of click-drag maneuvers that can be hard on the finger holding down the mouse button.

I do not like the Wacom stylus. It is far too thin and the small buttons are hard to use. But it is often more relaxing than exerting constant tension on a mouse button.

I find a mouse far more stable to use than a stylus on a tablet. This may in part be due to my aging hands and my deteriorating handwriting skills. 

I think the choice between mouse and tablet will depend on many variables. The issue can be resolved for each person only through trial and error.

Thus, I think it is best not to anticipate every possibility for future needs. Solutions will become apparent as you progress.

For one example of painting on the mask when making difficult selections, see the latest tutorial from InAffinity at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saCIvqBwNMo

 

[Amy Choue]

One big frustration I had struggling to learn Photo was my poor mouse skills. I just could not replicate what I saw in the course, if it involved painting, even the easiest one. I had no notion that the instructor was actually using a tablet and not a mouse (though she later tells about it, I didn't know about tablets for graphic design so didn't really pick upon that, and just sort of continued to be amazed at her painting and writing). I woud also be extremely clumsy with pen and tablet and will have to spend a lot of time to get used to them, but I am expecting I can at least not bungle the way I've done with a mouse. Much of graphic design (including gadgets involved) can be so intimidating to a beginner. I've never heard of Wacom before, though I've known about iPad or iPad Pro, and there is much talk about which of the two is better for a graphic designer at Youtube. And I'm puzzled and think: hah.... how long will it take to experience both and know the pros and cons of both? What do they do, same thing differently? different thing differently? 

[Amy Choue]

9 hours ago, thomaso said:

Concerning "eventually": Yes.

So my purchase is endorsed! I ordered a Wacom yesterday and am expecting it to be delivered today. I don't know how much I will use it but I have at least one task in mind right now that I will be able to do with it but not with a mouse. If this goes well, by this alone, this purchase will be a good investment. It's surprising much of what I didn't understand about Photo now begins to make sense and seem doable to me. It really is true that in learning anything breakthrough comes after frustration. I am expecting my own very small breakthroughs. 

[Ralph]

19 hours ago, thomaso said:

because using the mouse inexperienced and kind of mishandling has caused tendonitis.

I can reinforce @thomaso's problem with tendonitis! I had my first "microcomputer" in the 1970's and didn't switch to a tablet when they became available. I am now suffering.

Irrespective of the technical arguments, I would encourage using a mouse as little as possible for fine work. Having said that, I still use a mouse most of the time - because the damage done to my nerve-endings over the years has resulted in a tremble which is more difficult to compensate for with a tablet than with a mouse.

[thomaso]

@Ralph, some years ago I switched to a vertical mouse + different angles of my bike handlebars. Both help for a more 'natural', ergonomic hand position.

[lphilpot]

17 hours ago, Amy Choue said:

I've never heard of Wacom before, though I've known about iPad or iPad Pro, and there is much talk about which of the two is better for a graphic designer at Youtube.

Wacom is a manufacturer that makes digital input devices such as tablets, pens, etc. iPads can be used as such but that's only a fraction of their design purpose. I'm not an Apple guy so I don't use iPads / iPhones / Macs, etc. but I don't think I'd like using a smart tablet as an input device. Something like a Cintiq 22 (where I could look directly where I'm working, instead of at a monitor) might be great but I'm not ready to drop that kind of cash.

As far as conventional tablets are concerned, I have an inexpensive Wacom Intuos S tablet / pen. I use it for some tasks, but for most it's the mouse. However, when I do use it, it's good enough that I'm happy with keeping and using both devices. Maybe if I locked away my mouse for a year I'd get more proficient with the pen, but photo editing is far from the only thing I do on a computer and a mouse excels elsewhere.

That said, IME how well you have your tablet set up (button assignments, sensitivity, response, etc.) and even more importantly, how much you practice and become fluent with it, will make a huge difference. I'm not phenomenally fluent, but I can get around ...OK-ish. Still, it's worthwhile for me even at that level.

[lphilpot]

On 11/24/2023 at 7:37 AM, thomaso said:

Personally, I switched from mouse to tablet a few months after my first computer purchase (1988) because using the mouse inexperienced and kind of mishandling has caused tendonitis.

Maybe I've been lucky but I've been using a mouse since the very early '90s and have made a point of having a mouse-level surface on which to rest my mouse arm -- From elbow to wrist. 30+ years so far and no RSI yet. I worked in IT for 24 years and saw soooo many people using those horrible under-desk pull-out keyboard platforms with the mouse extension that pulled out from one side. When I worked on their computers, after just a few minutes of my arm hanging in midair, it would start hurting. Keeping it supported in the neutral position (on an L-shaped desk 'wing' to my right) has worked for me. But everyone is different.

[KarinC]

I used to illustrate the old-fashioned way using Rapidograph pens, hand stippling for hours on end. That and 20 years of milking goats and building things using an impact driver have ruined my right hand resulting in bad thumb arthritis and knobby knuckles. I'm very good at using a mouse for very detailed work. I thought of getting a tablet but I can't even hold a pen to write let alone holding a stylus for hours on end. My mouse is a very simple Amazon Basics one that fits my hand well. It feels like an extension of my hand. I don't think about it as being any kind of hindrance.