Why Should Photographers Use a Wacom Tablet?

A Wacom Tablet can be used as a useful way of touching up and editing photographs. Most people will use a mouse and keyboard to control their computer, however, this is clunky and difficult to use to edit photographs. Something that's much more intuitive and natural is to use a tablet.

Wacom Tablet Defined

A Wacom Tablet is a touch sensitive tablet that can be used as an input device. These devices are multi-touch which makes it easy to zoom in and out of photos. They also make it simple to retouch any photo.

Dodge and Burn

Many photographers like to add a dodge and burn effect to their photographs. This is included as standard with Adobe Photoshop and many other applications. Dodge and burn can be applied with a mouse but it's much easier to use a tablet. The dodge and burn tool is normally destructive but there is a way to use the tablet to make it non-destructive.

To do this, hold down the Alt key and create a new layer. Set the blending mode to Multiply. Then, tick the check box to fill the layer with white. Now select the burn and dodge tool and choose a soft edge brush. This makes it easy to use the pressure sensitive tablet. Set the opacity to around 70 percent. It's then easy to darken areas of the photo without permanently changing the layers. The effect will get darker the longer you keep the pen pressed in that spot on the tablet.

Removing Elements

Photographers will also be able to use a Wacom Tablet to touch up and remove elements from photos. This is a very simple way of touching up your photos.