stylus pen

monkeysnapper

Hope this is in the right place, not sure if it should be here or tech.

Anyway.. I do lot's of studio photography and I was reading a book that said a stylus pen was a must for anyone that does lot's of touching up on photos. So I went out today around my local town and went into loads of shops and none carried them in stock, tried argos and they had 2 different types but had none in stock, plus I have a thing about argos, i might be wrong but find they always seem to carry the crap end of things.

Got me thinking then, I really should prob do a little research

1. Do I really need one in the opinions of other people that use photoshop?

2. Can anyone recommend a good one.

3. Where did they get there's from

Thank you for your kind help people

meenaghans

It depends on the type of touch ups you do.

I bought the one below but havent used it a lot as most of my photos have been scenery ones.

They are good for tracing the fine details or if you want to add make up etc. most have pressure sensitive tips so depending on how hard you press the more it will draw or select.

If you really want to see what you can do with them check this guy out
http://www.facebook.com/sam.spratt

he draws using a more advanced version of the wacom tablet but the pen and touch should be fine for for you want


This is the one i bought from amazon and it works fairly well
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wacom-Bamboo-Pen-and-Touch/dp/B002Q4U4AY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346708746&sr=8-2

monkeysnapper

meenaghans wrote: »

It depends on the type of touch ups you do.

I bought the one below but havent used it a lot as most of my photos have been scenery ones.

They are good for tracing the fine details or if you want to add make up etc. most have pressure sensitive tips so depending on how hard you press the more it will draw or select.

If you really want to see what you can do with them check this guy out
http://www.facebook.com/sam.spratt

he draws using a more advanced version of the wacom tablet but the pen and touch should be fine for for you want


This is the one i bought from amazon and it works fairly well
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wacom-Bamboo-Pen-and-Touch/dp/B002Q4U4AY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346708746&sr=8-2

thats the one i saw on sale in argos, thanks for that

CabanSail

I bought an A4 Tablet from Lidl when they were on sale. It was a bit cheaply made but then it was cheap (€40). I did not want to invest a lot of money on something I would rarely use. At first I did not find it very good. Then I was told to disconnect the mouse and hide it for a week, only use the Tablet. This worked. The Lidl cheap tablet worked for about 3 years, with many repairs. When it finally died I bought a Wacom Intuos 4 (Medium) It is really really good. It feels a bit weird using a Mouse at work now. Using a Graphic Tablet is much more subtle and intuitive. Loads more control.

The current model is the Intuos 5, but you should be able to get the 4's cheap now.

OldGoat

I had a Wacom Bamboo for about 20 minutes. My daughter saw it, claimed that her art is more deserving then my art ("I DRAW pictures, you just TAKE pictures") and absconded with the tablet.
She makes it look useful. Wish I had one.

dirtyghettokid

i have a wacom bamboo also, but i only use it for graphic design work that i do. i would assume that it's only really useful for photoshopping portraits and whatnot.
still, a good tablet though!

monkeysnapper

Looks like Argos for me today so, they have one for €61, the wacom bamboo , they have a €99 euro one but to be honest the €61 is a little out of my price range so I'll buy that and have to hide it from the mrs.

In case anyone's wondering my local Argos in Tralee said they didn't have one but had one in Killarney that they have reserved me' so it's a road trip today.

I just hope it's not a gadget, im really looking for a tool for a job, I have way to many gadgets already.

I know I'm a bit naughty now but I have 2 studios to edit tomorrow so I'll try it out and if at end of studios I think it's not up to scratch I'll try sending it back.

I'll let you know how I get on if anyone els is interested in buying one of these, like a previous poster said I'll disconnect the mouse for the whole day to give it a good go.

ThOnda

I have the Lidl one and when working more on a picture, or working on more pictures, it is such an ease to use. Well worth it.

monkeysnapper

I tried using pen for over a hour' drove me mad, maybe I've been doing photoshop for to long with a mouse ?

I had so much work to do I just gave up, packed box back up and sent it back, I really should have given it more time but I just didn't take to it.

trap4

What are people's views on the graphics tablet in Lidl this week for only €29.99 - http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_ri_ie/hs.xsl/index_26634.htm

the_pictorium

I use an wacom that's slightly larger than A4 that's about 5 years old now.

There is a fairly steep learning curve; it's weirdly non-intuitive, as odd as that may sound.

I remember at the time it cost serious bucks, maybe €400/500, but on the plus side it has lasted for 5 years with day-in-day-out use without a bother, so I consider it a very good investment.

It definitely makes things a quicker within Photoshop and even more so within Illustrator. I don't use it with the hot-keys (or whatever they're called) on the actual tablet but still bounce back and forth to the keyboard, so it's possible I'm not getting everything out of it.

So while it's not a cheap product, or all that easy to get used to - in the long term I think its worthwhile. I think the A4 ones are over-kill and would not go to the additional expense of getting one of that size again.