

Most likely you already have a round brush, but if not, click on the brush presets and click one of the first few circles. This will cause the brush cursor to show you the the brush accurately, but conservatively (when set to “normal size”, a soft brush will paint well outside the circle and may result in painting in unintended areas). Before painting, go to Preferences/Cursors and select “ full size brush tip” and “ show cross hair in brush tip“.Here are the best settings to use for the brush:

Probably the biggest frustration I hear about Wacom tablets is that these non-Photoshop activities are difficult with a pen (I agree, which is why I only use the Wacom for painting and closing in Photoshop). I should also note that I still use a mouse or trackpad for everything else I do on the computer (Word processing, moving files, etc). If you don’t have a tablet, at least try a mouse – it’s vastly better than trying to paint with your finger on a trackpad. It’s so important to me that I almost never edit images when traveling if I don’t have my Wacom tablet with me. This will save you a lot of time when painting on layer masks and cloning, as well as help create more natural results. What does matter is that you can use a pen device with your fingers, which is much more precise than the upper arm movements used to control a mouse. They all have enough pressure sensitivity, and the extra buttons are not really important. The features on the pen really don’t matter for photographers.

In addition to the Photoshop settings below, I recommend picking up a Wacom tablet ( medium or small option). In the following tutorial, you’ll learn which settings will help you achieve that goal. The goal is to be able to paint with control, and without leaving obvious strokes. Thankfully, you only need to master just a few to use this tool for photography. It’s also has an intimidating number of options. The brush tool is one of the most critical tools for creating and refining layer masks.
