Welcome to the boards.
This is what I do: drop tobacco in the bowl, use the tamper thinking you are just trying to knock the air out of the tobacco, throw some more tobacco in, use the tamper again a little harder, as if you were applying just the bare minimum amount of pressure to knock the air out of risen dough.
You'll probably be fine after that, depending on the bowl you might add a little more and tamp it again, but it should always be light.
The three step tamping isn't soft, medium, hard but lightest, lighter, light.