So I suck at PS. And I want a Cintiq or Intuos

Is my topic kind of reminiscent of a lousy photographer (me) buying better gear in hopes of getting better shots? (It worked with the 600mm II, I'll tell you that. )

I shot an aerial of a friend's house on the Long Island Sound today with my quadcopter. His wife's car was in the driveway. A simple matter for most all of you to remove. A challenge for me. I watched a great video on phlearn.com on Youtube, saw the pen tool, which I had no idea about (remember, I suck at PS), used it to select the car, made a layer (which I also know nothing about, layers that is, though I've been doing this "stuff" for years), sampled the driveway color, grabbed the brush tool, and painted the car out. Amazing. I was shocked I could do it.

So, is it that much easier with a pen tablet like the Intuos or the Cintiq where you actually see the pic? Or are they just advanced tools that a seemingly lifetime beginner such as myself would never be able to learn to use?

How many of you use them?

btw, here's the pic after cloning out a white Mercedes SUV.

MDJAK wrote in post #17004059
Is my topic kind of reminiscent of a lousy photographer (me) buying better gear in hopes of getting better shots? (It worked with the 600mm II, I'll tell you that. )

So, is it that much easier with a pen tablet like the Intuos or the Cintiq where you actually see the pic? Or are they just advanced tools that a seemingly lifetime beginner such as myself would never be able to learn to use?

How many of you use them?

I had already raised my hand before reading the final question. As any fool knows, the "right" way to do things is to buy the equipment and then decide. Well, it works for L lenses. Who said that you have to use something for it to be useful? Isn't talking about it online sufficient to warrant the cost?

I have the Intuos fancy-pants special edition tablet and I use it all the time ... to prop up my full tower whiz-bang computer ... Or, maybe it's the other way around. I dare not move it for fear of the computer toppling over.

Is it better than a mouse? They say that it is and if I would just be willing to submit to waterboarding, I would recognize that obvious fact. I got stuck on gestures when I improvised one of my own that the tablet wouldn't recognize as a valid gesture. One problem with the tablet that isn't much different than using a mouse is that I can't look at the screen and the tablet simultaneously. A lot of people have no problem doing it, so maybe a little more serious learning effort might help. One of the first thoughts I had after getting the tablet was that a touch screen with zoom capability seemed like it will be the next big breakthrough. I wouldn't want anything as big as my 27" monitor, but it needs to be larger than my iPad.

You forgot to clone out the oil slick that was under the Mercedes.

How about all those sailboats that are cluttering up the picture? If you had a graphics tablet then you could get rid of them all with one gesture.

A pen makes it a lot easer to do edits like that. If you find that your doing a lot of edits like that then yes get one. Wacom have screens where you can edit on the screen itself. That's over kill tho for a hobist.
One of the other things to keep in mind is if your touching up photos then you can use the same tool for better control over dodge and burn tools in photoshop

I haven't tried a Cintiq, but I can tell you that I love my Intuos. I simply couldn't edit the way I do without it. That said when I upgraded from the Intuos 3 to the Intuos Pro the first thing I did was turn off the touch gestures.

I love the tablets. I still use an old graphire CTE-440.

Mark, maybe look into an Etch-A-Sketch?

Scatterbrained wrote in post #17004524
... the first thing I did was turn off the touch gestures.

Maybe I ought to do that. The pen is fine except sometimes it seems too sensitive when it is writing when the pen isn't touching the tablet.

Does anybody use any of the pens other than the standard one that comes with the tablet?

I think Mark should get one of these
http://www.wacom.com …eative/cintiq-22-hd-touch

I have an intuos 5, and it really does help with photo retouching, if you use tools like clone/heal brush, or any selection tools, then pressure sensitivity is a life saver. Also the pen puts less strain on your hand.

Scatterbrained wrote in post #17004524
I haven't tried a Cintiq, but I can tell you that I love my Intuos. I simply couldn't edit the way I do without it. That said when I upgraded from the Intuos 3 to the Intuos Pro the first thing I did was turn off the touch gestures.

Touch is off on my tablet too, I don't especially find it handy to use, but YMMV.

flowrider wrote in post #17004541
I love the tablets. I still use an old graphire CTE-440.

Hey, my first tablet! It used to connect via serial port, so I couldn't even use it now if I wanted to, no new computers have one.

Bill Boehme wrote in post #17004569
Maybe I ought to do that. The pen is fine except sometimes it seems too sensitive when it is writing when the pen isn't touching the tablet.

Maybe try adjusting sensitivity in the control panel, you can set the cutoff point so that it doesn't register pressure until you press it down hard enough.

Mark0159 wrote in post #17004579
I think Mark should get one of these
http://www.wacom.com …eative/cintiq-22-hd-touch

I'd recommend getting an M size tablet for most screen sizes, the Cintiq line is definitely more for artists who need the pen-on-paper experience, if you aren't drawing/painting you'll just find your hand getting in the way of visibility, and I like using my own displays. It shouldn't take long to get used to the 1:1 screen mapping anyway.

I have a cheap Trust pad with an area of about 6"×5". I tend to mostly use the mouse with LR unless I'm painting with the local brushes. Then use it pretty much all the time in PS. I find it just great looking at the screen, took very little for me to get used to it. The fact that most of us are already used to the visual disconnect from using a normal mouse helps a lot. It's really had to discribe how it feels, just like drawing with a pen in your hand, but looking at the screen like you are using a mouse. Pressure sensitivity is great too, just like a pen/pencil.

Alan

+1 for the tablet. Never used a Cintiq, but the Intuos is great (4 and 5). Agree with medium as the large is to big IMHO.

tonylong wrote in post #17004555
Mark, maybe look into an Etch-A-Sketch?

Dude, my body is not suited for belly bustin laughs at 6:10 a.m. eastern standard time.

Bill Boehme wrote in post #17004225
You forgot to clone out the oil slick that was under the Mercedes.

How about all those sailboats that are cluttering up the picture? If you had a graphics tablet then you could get rid of them all with one gesture.

And this boat yard!

While you are are it, remove the house on the left, and replace it with some trees, it will look much better! Maybe just move their boat to your own pier?

PS is sooo cool!