One of the frequent questions asked by beginner retouchers, and both photographers and retouchers looking to improve their workflow is ‘do I need a graphics tablet for retouching?’
First let’s look at the mouse. The computer mouse was invented over fifty years ago by inventor Douglas C Engelbart, and whilst ubiquitous at the modern workstation, it does have its limitations for fast and precise artistic work. Think how quickly and naturally you can sign your name on paper with a pen and imagine doing the same with a mouse in a paint application. Click, drag, click drag, and in the end I’d be willing to bet in most cases the result won’t be a flowing script, no matter how beautiful your handwriting may be.
The development of a computer input device with a stylus that mimics a pen was a breakthrough development for digital artists, and today I believe by far the best of those devices are produced by Wacom.
Working with a Wacom Tablet
At first using a tablet will naturally feel a little unfamiliar for the long-time mouse user, and though some users will find the transition easy and others more difficult, practice is key. Try ignoring your mouse for a week and treating your tablet as your primary input device along with your keyboard, unplug your mouse if you need the extra motivation. Even using your stylus to browse through web pages will help to develop the familiarity, or ‘muscle memory’ needed to become proficient.
The rocker switch on the side of the stylus comprises two buttons, a forward button towards the nib, and a rearmost button I tend to think of as ‘right-click.’ The functions of these buttons are customizable in your system preferences and below you can see my personal preferred settings that I switch to at every workstation I find myself using.