# Pen Tablets?



## bdavison (May 5, 2009)

Just wondering how many of you use pen tablets when you are doing post processing.

I never gave it much though, but recently on a trip to the local electronics store, I was just browsing and stopped to check out the tablets.

I ended up picking up a Bamboo pen tablet thinking I would give it a try and see if I liked it. 

I do.

It really is a much much better way of editing photos than using a mouse, and I'm thrilled with the pressure sensitive capabilities. Its great for the dogde/burn stuff, and touchups because its so accurate, and easier to control than a mouse.

Totally worth the money, in every aspect.


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## Garbz (May 6, 2009)

Editing photos? I only ever reach for the mouse when I play first person shooters. I use tablets for everything. There's quite a few of us on the forum who think the same way.


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## Big Mike (May 6, 2009)

Yes, I do just about all of my editing with a Wacom now.  :thumbsup:


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## bdavison (May 6, 2009)

I dont know if you guys have tried it, but Ive also been using Corel Painter with the wacom to do some very interesting digital "oil painting" portraits using my photography as the base. Kinda fun.


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## pongerts (May 7, 2009)

i'm also interested in getting a wacom for my editing tasks.
What model do you guys use and would recommend?


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## bdavison (May 7, 2009)

I just bought the cheap $69 dollar one.
The $99 buck one comes with software...that I already have, so it wasnt really worth it to me.


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## McQueen278 (May 8, 2009)

I also use a $69 Bamboo.  I love that thing.  It changed photoshop for me.


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## Moon Baby (May 8, 2009)

I use a bamboo fun. Accuracy and speed were increased greatly when I switched to a tablet. Mines the 4x6 version (I think...) any bigger and expect to move your hand around a lot more. I 100% recommend it.


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## blash (May 8, 2009)

Tablet PC's FTW. Not so good in terms of color accuracy because the screen's grainy but damn if it's not even better than a normal Wacom tablet. I would NEVER try to use a mouse for ANYTHING in Photoshop that required me to use some kind of brush on the image.



bdavison said:


> I dont know if you guys have tried it, but Ive also been using Corel Painter with the wacom to do some very interesting digital "oil painting" portraits using my photography as the base. Kinda fun.



Wow - nice work! I gotta try this sometime - got any links to tutorials?


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## bdavison (May 8, 2009)

I dont have any links to any tutorials, but its really not difficult at all.
In Corel Painter, you load a photograph up into it, then select your brush, and start painting. It will automatically take the colors and stuff from the picture and load them to the paintbrush. The different brushes give it a different texture, its similar to the clone tool in PP, but it adds the brush texture to it. Its actually quite easy to do. It only takes about 1 hr to do a real nice picture. 

Its highly addictive and fun.

One warning...its easy to get "tetrisized" doing it though. After about a hour of painting photos...you will stop and start seeing everything as brush strokes.

Im using Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 - it came packaged with my PaintShopPro X2 Ultimate deal as a add-on

Here is the original photo of the cat that I worked off of.


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## Garbz (May 8, 2009)

Oh wow. Here I was thinking I don't have anywhere near the skill to select colours like you do. I will go find a trial for this program now. I'd love to make this effect.

Also I just realised your signature in the corner took the cats colour. Very neat


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## bdavison (May 9, 2009)

I have not tried it yet, but many photo-finishing places can print on canvas. I think some of these "paintings" printed on canvas, would be pretty sweet. It would really look like a oil painting. 

Im going to get one printed up and if it turns out well, Ill probably offer it as an option for prints for customers. Think about portraits or a wedding photo converted to a nice 20" oil painting on canvas along with the normal prints. Im thinking this could be a really hot item.

The corel painter program also has options for charcoal drawing, pencil, markers, pastels, etc. so there are alot of options.


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## dxqcanada (May 9, 2009)

Silvano's here in Toronto prints on canvas.
They do a lot of these for weddings/portraits.

I have seen examples, for some types of images it really adds to the image (I think a nice landscape shot would be fitting).


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## KmH (May 11, 2009)

I recently upgraded to the Intuos 4 Medium and can recommend it without reservation.


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## bdavison (May 12, 2009)

With your intuos, does it bother you that you have to move the pen farther? I mean, with the bigger pad, your hand has to move farther than it would with a smaller tablet. Or do you run it in "mouse" mode where you can pick up and regrab the cursor like a mouse.

Im running mine in proportional mode where everything is proportional to the screen. But I would think it would wear you out with a bigger tablet.


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## bhop (May 12, 2009)

Been using wacoms since around '94-'95.


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## Imaginis (May 12, 2009)

pongerts said:


> i'm also interested in getting a wacom for my editing tasks.
> What model do you guys use and would recommend?



Intuos 6x9

Anything smaller you lose accuracy, anything larger you have to move your hand too much.


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## KmH (May 15, 2009)

bdavison said:


> With your intuos, does it bother you that you have to move the pen farther? I mean, with the bigger pad, your hand has to move farther than it would with a smaller tablet. Or do you run it in "mouse" mode where you can pick up and regrab the cursor like a mouse.
> 
> Im running mine in proportional mode where everything is proportional to the screen. But I would think it would wear you out with a bigger tablet.


I find the larger hand movements more natural and the extra selection buttons invaluable. I rarely use the mouse.


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