Develop module Do you use a drawing tablet? Which one?

[studio_2]

Lightroom Version Number

Lightroom classic

Operating System

1. macOS 12 Monterey

Hi guys, I am now considering buying a drawing tablet to speed up my editing, but I was wondering if many of you do or it’s not really that necessary for a Lightroom? I also use Photoshop but I mainly use Lightroom.

Looking into this I’ve found out the most popular brands are Xencelabs and Wacom (specifically the Intuos Pro model).

Anyone here using them?
Which size?
I think Xencelabs is newer but it doesn’t support the touch function (using fingers instead of the pen) which for some is a deal breaker.

Thanks!

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Intuos Pro L - couldn't do without it. Had it a few years now, but I find it invaluable for both Photoshop and Lightroom. I don't use a separate trackpad, so the touch function is essential for me.

 

[studio_2]

Intuos Pro L - couldn't do without it. Had it a few years now, but I find it invaluable for both Photoshop and Lightroom. I don't use a separate trackpad, so the touch function is essential for me.

thanks Paul - I am still debating if to get the small instead as my desk isn't huge.
I also don't have a separate trackpad

 

[Conrad Chavez]

I use the Intuos Pro small because it’s good enough for photo retouching; the tablet resolution is much higher than the screen. However, a small tablet area combined with a 27" display can make it challenging to precisely click or drag tiny controls in applications such as Lightroom Classic, unless you think to slow down your hand as you approach the control. Because I have the small Intuos Pro, when I want to work fast in high precision in Lightroom Classic, I often click in a value field with the stylus, and then nudge the values using the up/down arrow or Shift+arrow keys.

If you also do a lot of digital freehand painting and drawing, it might not be comfortable on the small size because you wouldn’t be able to move your hand very far for natural pen/brush strokes. In that case a medium or large would be better, but they do take up a lot of desk space. The small size is about the size of a mouse pad, and fits to the right of my keyboard.

It has the touch function, but I ended up turning it off because it isn’t as good as the Apple trackpad, and I got tired of random things happening when my stylus hand grazed the tablet. Might just be me, because touch works well for others. Also, I made the weird choice to get an entirely separate desktop Magic Trackpad that’s to the left of my keyboard, but for me it works well to have it there to use its gestures with the left hand in combination with the stylus in the right hand. I got used to doing that when using my MacBook Pro trackpad together with the Intuos Pro stylus.

 

[johnbeardy]

Hi guys, I am now considering buying a drawing tablet to speed up my editing, but I was wondering if many of you do or it’s not really that necessary for a Lightroom? I also use Photoshop but I mainly use Lightroom.

I have an Intuos and have had others over the years. However, I don't really think it speeds up editing in LR or is at all necessary for LR, unlike a good trackball mouse or trackpad.

But I do like it for "painting" in Photoshop with brush tools which emulate real brushes and media.

 

[studio_2]

I use the Intuos Pro small because it’s good enough for photo retouching; the tablet resolution is much higher than the screen. However, a small tablet area combined with a 27" display can make it challenging to precisely click or drag tiny controls in applications such as Lightroom Classic, unless you think to slow down your hand as you approach the control. Because I have the small Intuos Pro, when I want to work fast in high precision in Lightroom Classic, I often click in a value field with the stylus, and then nudge the values using the up/down arrow or Shift+arrow keys.

If you also do a lot of digital freehand painting and drawing, it might not be comfortable on the small size because you wouldn’t be able to move your hand very far for natural pen/brush strokes. In that case a medium or large would be better, but they do take up a lot of desk space. The small size is about the size of a mouse pad, and fits to the right of my keyboard.

It has the touch function, but I ended up turning it off because it isn’t as good as the Apple trackpad, and I got tired random things happening when my stylus hand grazed the tablet. Might just be me, because it works well for others. Also, I made the weird choice to get an entirely separate desktop Magic Trackpad that’s to the left of my keyboard, but for me it works well to have it there to use its gestures in combination with the keyboard and stylus. I got used to doing that when using my MacBook Pro trackpad together with the Intuos Pro stylus.

Thanks. Very interesting. So you say it’s good enough for photo editing but the small size makes it less than ideal anyway?

 

[Conrad Chavez]

Thanks. Very interesting. So you say it’s good enough for photo editing but the small size makes it less than ideal anyway?

The small tablet is quite good for the times when I want the control of a brush in Photoshop or Lightroom Classic. The small size does work well for painting brush masks over portions of an image. For that, if I need more precision I just zoom in. To clarify, where the small tablet area can be a problem is using the stylus to select tiny controls on a large display.

I agree with John that a pro tablet is much more relevant to Photoshop, because Photoshop Brush Settings can take full advantage of the complete feature set of a Wacom Intuos Pro: Very precise control over stylus pressure, barrel rotation angle, and tilt angle. Photoshop uses those variables to simulate all kinds of round and flat brush tips. A Lightroom Classic brush is always round, and uses only stylus pressure.

Now that I think about it a little more, the new AI masking in Lightroom Classic probably makes a stylus less likely to be useful in the future. In the past, I would often manually brush a mask to fit the shape of an object in the picture. But now I actually prefer to use an AI or parametric way (select person/sky, range mask…) to isolate mask objects over manually brushing, because those masks adapt to the content in other images when synced. In the future, I expect that in Lightroom Classic, using a stylus for a brush will mostly be just for subtracting mask areas that AI didn’t quite get right.

If Lightroom Classic is the main application you use, because it takes advantage of only a small portion of a pro tablet’s feature set (basically just pressure), then you don’t even have to consider a Wacom pro tablet. A much less expensive alternate brand will be just fine, or maybe no tablet at all.

The people who truly need to require a Wacom Intuos Pro or a comparable alternative are those who spend much more time in Photoshop to do digital hand illustration, sketching, painting, or calligraphy. For them, it’s worth paying extra for a pro tablet’s fine sensitivity to stylus pressure, barrel rotation, and tilt angle, for the expressive brush tip control they really need.

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Just to explain the use of the large Wacom I use, I have two screens (27" and 24") - to operate these on a small Wacom would be more of a challenge (for me)

 

[davidedric]

I have the Wacom Intuos Pro medium. The size works well for me, though I have no experience of other sizes.
As a Lightroom Classic user (and not Photoshop) I agree that the new masking capabilities mean less "painting" and so the tablet is less important to me than it used to be.
I also have the pen in my right hand and mouse in my left - there are some actions that just seem much easier with a mouse.

 

[Stig]

I use the Wacom Intuos Small (not pro) for right hand and a mouse in the left hand, primary for scrolling (wheel). This is a good combination for me using LrC and having no demand for precise drawing/painting.

 

[edrudolph]

Have used a Wacom Intuos Medium for many years. Recently switched to a Xencelabs Medium. I never used the touch functions on the Wacom and the Xencelabs has fewer touch functions to take up space. FWIW, from time to time, my Wacom driver would disappear and need to be reinstalled. This has yet to happen with Xencelabs. BTW, I am working on a desktop machine.