Graphics Tablet for Photoshop

cfitz94

I was thinking about getting a graphics tablet, probably a Wacom because I heard they are good. I am going to be getting Adobe Photoshop CS3 (im pretty sure im getting CS3 ) on my laptop(Dell Studio 17) . I am currently 15 and was mainly thinking about using it for fun and some art ect. and im not 100% sure but was thinking about a career later on it as i found it fun and great to work with in work experience.
Basically, what advice would you guys give me in choosing a suitable graphics tablet, not too expensive, but of decent quality and other tips in general for the likes of Photoshop
Thanks in advance.

banquo

This question gets asked a lot around here.

I've never used any form of graphics tablet (more of a page layout guy) but the brand Wacom keeps coming up again and again. From what I hear around these parts, Wacom is the rule.

There are a few different sizes, with the largest being 2k (eep!). But I'm sure someone who knows more about it will be on soon

goldeneyes

wacom is by far the best to be fair, that's not just an opinion its pretty much a fact.

the thing is though that they do an intuos range which is really expensive and then they do a bamboo range which is much cheaper.

a couple of things though, if you're starting out and only want to see if you'd like it i wouldnt go and buy a brand new A3 intuos. i'd start with an A4 sized one and maybe a second-hand intuos from ebay or something as long as it was from a trusted seller and in good nick.

also, photoshop is great for photographic and brush drawings but the vector art you get from it isn't brilliant. illustrator is a lot better for that but again, i'd start out with photoshop.

you can always build year on year but start out cheap just to make sure you dont throw away a pile of money if you end up not liking it.

cfitz94

thanks for the info. i just got photoshop cs3 and illustrator(cs4 i think) just need to get my laptop charger fixed now and i can use them. i was looking at the bamboo range on their website and was thinking about the Bamboo Pen. I dont mind spending 60 euro on it because i plan on using it

was also wondering what the differance is like between photoshop and illustrator, and if you know any good tutorials would be nice to link them
thanks

goldeneyes

the difference between tehm really is how you use them and what the result turns out to be.

ilustrator focuses on making lines and shapes, so you're talking about line-art drawings / graphic novel styles / and all forms of vector art.

photoshop focuses on manipulating photographs and brush strokes, so watercolor styles / photo collages and stuff like that.

it runs a lot deeper than that and there is a bit of crossover but try good-tutorials.com to get you started, you'll see the difference between the two after a while and you'll know which to use for each new piece you want to make. look at the star ratings of the tutorials on that site though first because some of them are terrible.

best of luck with it.

cfitz94

thanks dude

Sound Computers

good description goldeneyes.

one thing to mention is that photoshop images are pixel based, so in under high magnification images will look "boxy" or pixelated.

cheers.