HAVE MORE FUN WITH A PEN AND DRAW ON YOUR CREATIVITY!
I N T U O S • C I N T I Q • M O B I L E S T U D I O P R O
A Special Wacom/Better Photography Promotion
Photographers really should consider a Wacom pen solution – it gives you so much more control over your craft. By Peter Eastway.
And more control over your art as well!
Using a pen and tablet (or a pen and display) is vastly superior to a mouse, especially when it’s a Wacom!
While some aspects of post-production are just clicking buttons and dragging sliders, the creative side involves drawing masks, making selections and even moving curves. A pen is not only more comfortable and easier to use, it gives you the fine control you need to express yourself properly. And it’s fun to use!
The Wacom Pro Pen 2 provides 8,192 levels of pen pressure sensitivity, so the size of your brush can be adjusted simply by changing the pressure with which you press down on the tablet or display – and this is one of the keys to greater creativity.
There are three ways you can use a Wacom Pro Pen 2: with a tablet, with a screen display, or with a self-contained screen and computer combination. Let’s start with the Intuos tablets.
Intuos – Pen & Tablet
While Wacom makes Intuos tablets in three different sizes, we’re going to suggest you start with the Wacom Intuos Pro Small. It’s around the size of an A4 sheet of paper – or a page of this magazine, so it doesn’t take up much real estate.
The larger size Intuos tablets can be great, too, but we find there’s a balance between the larger size and how far you need to move your hand to operate yoursoftware. A smaller tablet means shorter, quicker movements. And, if you need to use bigger strokes for finer detail, you simply enlarge the image you’re working on. We think small is best!
Whether you’re using the Intuos Pro or one of Wacom’s pen displays, all the units offer a number of ‘shortcut’ buttons and a touch ring, which means you can operate your software without a keyboard if you wish.
You can purchase an Intuos Pro Small from the Wacom eStore for $349, less a 10% discount using the coupon code below.
Cintiq – Pen Display
Wacom has been producing pen tablets since 1983 and it also produced its first ever pen display, the original Cintiq, in 2001.
A pen display is the best of both worlds: not only are you using a pen, you’re working directly on the image itself. The Cintiq provides a high quality, colour managed display that doesn’t only look sensational, it is incredibly accurate as well.
Wacom’s introductory model is the Cintiq 16, offering a1920x1080 px full HD display with a fine layer of anti-glare film to prevent distracting reflections as you work.
With reduced parallax, your cursor appears exactly where you would expect and, built of durable, scratch resistant materials, Wacom Cintiq 16 is a creative tool you can rely on day after day.
At just $899 in Wacom’s eStore, the Wacom Cintiq 16 is a steal, especially when you take the 10% discount off using our coupon code!
However, if you’d like to take the display specifications a step further, check out the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 and Pro 32, offering up to 4K resolution with 10-bit colour as well. These amazing pen displays are designed for the home studio and again, we recommend the Cintiq Pro 24 as the 32 is just a bit larger than is really needed for photography.
The Cintiq Pro 24 with touch-screen control will set you back $3499 in the Wacom eStore, less the 10% discount, of course!
MobileStudio Pro
A confession up front: I went for the big one! I use the 16-inch Wacom MobileStudio Pro because one of the pleasures of travel photography is being able to look at your work in the evening, pick out your best shots and edit a few of the photos that really inspire you.
Unlike the Wacom Cintiq Pro displays, which are best used in a studio attached to a computer, the Wacom MobileStudio Pro is a laptop computer and pen display all in one.
It has all the portability and functionality of a top-of-the-line laptop. I’m often leading a group of photographers when I’m travelling, so having a large screen to show them a Photoshop technique, play an audio visual or give a Powerpoint presentation is really helpful.
And yes, the MobileStudio Pro runs all my applications. It’s a fully fledged Windows computer – and it does simply everything, from Capture One and Davinci Resolve to emails and web browsing.
My Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16 i7 512GB (RRR $4299) has a 512GB SSD, it offers a massive 16GB RAM and the faster Intel Core i7 processor. It really is a seamless device and can happily replace my desktop computer too.
And with USB-C connectivity, attaching an external drive for extra storage, archiving and backing up is really easy and practical.
For more information, visit www.wacom.com/en-au. And to purchase any of Wacom’s products, visit the Wacom eStore at buywacom.com.au/, or selected retailers.
10% OFF for Better Photography readers - use this coupon code in the Wacom eStore - BETTERPHOTO10
STOP PRESS!!
Wacom has placed a teaser on its website announcing new MobileStudio Pro models which should be available right now! No doubt they will be faster and more powerful!
Check out the new units in the Wacom eStore – buywacom.com.au/