Customize pressure on Wacom pen, essential brush settings in Photoshop
There are a number of pressure sensitive tool in Photoshop that can only be used with a pressure sensitive pen and tablet. This tutorials looks at how to set up and use the pressure settings in Photoshop.
We begin by setting up the Wacom tablets to work exactly the way you want them to in Photoshop. We set up the drivers and Interactive Pressure Profiles in this video. The following text has additional information to help you understand pen pressure in Adobe  Photoshop.
Pen pressure strokes in Photoshop
If you open the bushes panel and look at the brush profiles, you can see the types of dynamics that are on or off by the shape of the preview. I’ll explain here.
Normal brush, no pressure and a hard edge
Normal brush, no pressure, soft edge
Tapering shows that dynamics are on for pen pressure for size, this is under the shape Dynamics tab.
Pen pressure set to opacity, you can find this under the Transfer dynamics tab in the Brushes Panel
Interactive Pressure Profile
This panel under the Wacom driver preferences allows you to full customize the way the brush pressure works. Bottom is the light end, and the top is the heavy end. You can choose how hard you need to push to begin pressure and also how hard you need to push to reach full pressure.  The sensitivity square allows you to make the pressure more or less sensitive at various pressures.
Thanks for checking this out, more new tutorials here at PhotoshopCAFE every week!
Colin
Keep growing with Premium Courses
Photoshop 2026 for Digital Photographers
Learn Photoshop properly, from the basics to pro retouching, step by step.
$129.00 · one-time purchase · instant download
Free for you
The Photoshop Vault
Get my free Layer Blending Modes ebook along with dozens of exclusive Photoshop goodies: actions, brushes, presets and cheat sheets.
You're on the list, so your free goodies are waiting for you in the Vault.
Get Free Photoshop Goodies Open the Vault
How to edit a photo in Photoshop using Pen Pressure & Wacom Tablet
How to use Pen Pressure to Edit photos in Photoshop with a Wacom Tablet. Read tutorial
How to turn any photo into a watercolor painting in Photoshop
How to turn any photo into a watercolor painting with Photoshop. This Photoshop tutorial goes beyond a typical watercolor effect and shows... Read tutorial
Body sculpting and changing a pose in Photoshop
In this Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to sculpt a body to reduce the appearance of baggy clothes, tone the body... Read tutorial
How to make an oil painting from a photo in Photoshop tutorial
Learn how to turn a photo into a painting in this Photoshop tutorial. A little trick to get a more realistic looking... Read tutorial
Create a magical flying ship with Photoshop and the ParticleShop plugin
One of the most exciting Photoshop plugins to come out in years is the Painter ParticleShop plugin that makes it easy to... Read tutorial
Thanks Colin. Your videos are always informative and easy to understand.I am using your dodge & burn technique in my work flow. I set my Wacom tablet up using your video on my second monitor as a guide. Have you created a video on actions in PS? Thanks Randy