Wacom for Lightroom

[trippingthelight]

Hi,

I am considering buying a Wacom Intuos Pro tablet to use with LR5.
Does anyone have any comments on this tablet? I was told that it is the best tablet to use for Lightroom and Photoshop.
Thanks

 

[kandinsky]

Wacoms are pretty much the industry standard. Hard to go wrong with them Of course, like any other tool, what it can do depends largely on the user. The learning curve can be steep if you're new to tablets. But if you're willing to take the time to develop your skills and learn what you can do with it, it'll be a worthwhile investment.

 

[catchlights]

IMO, tablet is less useful on lightroom alone.
Lightroom uses less free hand than Photoshop, you will be faster using short cut keys on keyboard plus mouse, unless you also do a lot of retouching work with photoshop,

 

[kandinsky]

IMO, tablet is less useful on lightroom alone.
Lightroom uses less free hand than Photoshop, you will be faster using short cut keys on keyboard plus mouse, unless you also do a lot of retouching work with photoshop,

Yeah, you're right. In LR I'm usually on keyboard + mouse. The tablet will be most useful with brush-related tools. For LR it will be mainly the Adjustment brush I think. That said, think the newer series have additional features like customizable buttons that can be mapped to frequently used shortcuts, and a touch sensitive scroll wheel, that may make them a more useful tool in LR compared to the older simpler ones, like my graphire2, which only has a drawing zone.

 

[sammy888]

Hi,

I am considering buying a Wacom Intuos Pro tablet to use with LR5.
Does anyone have any comments on this tablet? I was told that it is the best tablet to use for Lightroom and Photoshop.
Thanks

I use the Wacom Intuos Pro Medium with my Lightroom 5.5 for the past 1 year and unless you do a wide range of freehand touch-up and rendering in Photoshop or similar software apart from Lightroom, a tablet is not going to be the first thing you reach for once the excitement of using a tablet is over. I am not sure where you got your motivation to buy one but here are something you should take note from someone who uses one. I paid $538 for one and you could spend that on a very good carbon fiber tripod or lens or something else. heheh

In Lightroom 5 almost 90% of the tweaking are done using SLIDERS. The only one that need precise freehand touch-up would be the adjustment brush.For others, the mouse would suffice. The adjustment brush is a feature you don't use that much compared to the others. Sliders adjustments are a lot faster and precise by using the middle roller button on my mouse. roll it up or down and the adjustment are done incrementally. How easy is that? For other functions I can use the keyboard to activate.

But if you really still feel you should get one to work with Lightroom. I would say get the small size. The medium is a little too big (even for me something I feel) to have around for just using it with Lightroom. The kind of adjustment you will be making with Lightroom does not require a wide big tablet. Your adjustment are going to be so small compared to someone using it to draw something in Photoshop. Some of the artist and photographer giving lesson on youtube does make the tablet seem useful but really they use it in other programs like Photoshop more then then would in Lightroom. And also they might be paid by Wacom to promote it. The Wacom Intuos Pro is a great tablet but it is not cheap. And if you don;t get much use for it, it is a waste of $$$$.

For me as an over grown gamer, the Wacom mediums takes a lot of room on my desk when next to my gaming keyboard G19s. My solution around it was to replace it with a small footprint wireless Microsoft Arc keyboard so that I can have both keyboard and tablet close together infront of me. Tablet might be good but you do need to have a keyboard to make some of the faster keystroke shortcuts to get things done in Lightroom. If all that seem more trouble then it is worth, don't get a tablet. But if you have to.. get a cheaper model then the pro. For minor tweaking and all that.. the lower cheap line from Wacom or other brands will do just fine.

 

[trippingthelight]

Hi,

Thanks for all the valuable information.
So, if I use LR5 then it is pretty much useless; but if I use Photoshop or software that allows the use of masks then it makes sense?

 

[catchlights]

As long you use a lot of tools that require free hands, like brushes, pen tools, stamp tools etc.

 

[sammy888]

Hi,

Thanks for all the valuable information.
So, if I use LR5 then it is pretty much useless; but if I use Photoshop or software that allows the use of masks then it makes sense?

I have been using Photoshop since the early 1990s till today and I can tell you that for most of the time as a graphic designer and AD I have done advertisement layout,rendering,vector drawing and yes tons of masking with just the use of a mouse and keyboard.

If you don't draw or have very little skill at freehand drawing, touching up freehand with a pen tablet will be no more effective then you using a mouse.

 

[catchlights]

just imagine if you want to write your name with a mouse, not easy right? pen and tablet come in handy in such situation.
but if you don't need to write or draw, just click here and there most of the time, so what is the need of a tablet?

want to look more very stylo mylo??
forget able tablet, get this;
http://www.wacom.com/en/us/creative/cintiq-13-hd

 

[soeypixels]

LR need this midi controller

https://fstoppers.com/diy/diy-win-how-connect-midi-controller-desk-lightroom-5-8651

 

[pinholecam]

I recently was looking for a new pc, and since I was at it, I decided to look for stylus capability as well.
One option was the wacom with my existing pc to tide myself over this year.

In the end I decided on a Acer R7 which has active stylus capability.
I don't need the pressure sensitivity so it's 256 levels is plenty for me.

The active stylus with screen isn't the same as the wacom, but I would just chip in on my experience of this 'like' option.
The good :
- can be very precise, since it's like drawing on the photo.
- rather new way to work with brushes in both LR And PS, which in the past was the reserve of more expensive Cintiq tablets.
- ability to paint in adjustments more like real brush compared to a mouse.

The so-so
- only very precise touch up with brushses will make this option bettter than the mouse option.
- the laptop is 15.6", so its good to see, it can be a bit more to move around the hand/arm to get something done. In the past, its just small movements of the mouse within the mouse pad area.
The same will apply for larger tablet vs smaller ones.
As mentioned by others, a larger area will benefit those who do drawing, less so for photo editing.


My few cents.
How it will be useful for your decision.

 

[trippingthelight]

Hi all,

thanks for all the suggestions.

Has someone tried using an iPad of Android pad as the substitute for Wacom?
I am sure it can be done if someone would write an app for it. And since most people already have a tablet it would be a great gagdget.

 

[trippingthelight]

Hi all,

I came across this app for the iPad. http://www.lrpad.com/
I think I will give it a try.