Best products from r/photoshop

Others have given advice, but I might as well chime in.

The Bamboo is a great little starter pad to play with. I wouldn't reccommend it as a real graphic design tool, but it really is a functional little pad that can get the job done and has some fun extra functionality with gestures and what not. The Bamboo is NOT specifically a graphics tablet though. It can function as one, but it is also touch sensitive and most graphics tablets are not reactive to anything but a pen or a conductive mouse created for the tablet surface. But it does have the same technology as an Intuos tablet, which is amazing tech, so it's very capable.

You can get a Wacom Graphire for around the same price as a bamboo, (I owned one of these for a couple year) and it is made for this kind of thing. It is a decent little tablet, and would be alright for a hobbyist or a beginner, but i'd skip it. But it isn't as advanced as the next type of tablet...

which is an Intuos3 and Intuos4. Here is where I would start. I would actually skip the intuos3 simply because the intuos4 is basically an industry standard now. It's tech is updated often and it is simply a fantastic tablet. The intuos 4 is what most people end up with. There are small, medium, and large versions. The size you get is a personal preferance. It also comes down to desk real estate. Not a lot of desks have a huge chuck of space for a large intuos. The medium is a great compromise of space vs. functionality. And actually, a lot of people prefer the slightly smaller ones to reduce having to move your arm/hand around as much reducing fatigue. Also the price is obviously better for a medium sized one than a large one. There is also the wireless version, which is awesome since you can simply stow it away somewhere quick and easy. I would recommend a carrying case for it though to keep it safe. Even just a small laptop bag would be fine. But it's an investment you will want to keep safe.

Finally you have the amazing Cintiq line. The Cintiq 12WX and Cintiq 21UX and I just learned about the silly Cintiq 24HD.

I have a Cintiq 21UX and it has changed the way I work. It has sped up my workflow and made things so much easier and faster and accurate and simply amazing. (Note I didn't quite pay what they are asking for on Amazon but that's the same model). the cintiq's are expensive as hell, but it's an amazing investment if you are really going to take advantage of it.

Note however, that you can do everything on an intuos4 that you can do on a cintiq. The thing with the lesser tablets under the cintiq is you will have a real learning curve dealing with drawing on your desk/lap while looking at the screen. It's weird and takes time to get used to it. But there is AMAZING art done on them. As I said, they are industry standard and amazing pieces of tech.

So I recommend the Intuos4 Medium or the Intuos4 Wireless in the end.

Hope this helps a little. There are alternatives to Wacom, and some can get the job done, but I won't recommend them as in the end, you want a Wacom.

As everyone else has mentioned, you do seem to have a lot to learn. There are a ton of good books, youtube tutorials, and other communities that offer educational sorts of resources. Especially if you want to learn very specific things, it's very easy to find instruction.

As for the 30 day trial, tbh that's not enough to "learn" Photoshop. Most people who use it professionally have done so for years, decades even. The good news is: for what you want to do, you don't have to learn all of Photoshop. But it'll take longer than 30 days. I highly recommend checking out the different licensing packages and payment options available for Photoshop CC, as well as the entire CC suite of applications. It looks like the student pricing is currently $20/month which is an absolute STEAL if you plan on using anything more than Photoshop. Illustrator is going to be better for your graphic overlays (although Photoshop is more than capable there as well, just kinda feels like you're constantly in workaround mode - for me at least). After Effects and Premier are awesome for video work. Audition for audio editing. Etc. Etc. And the student pricing does not affect licensing as far as I know - everything I've read says your outputs are your own.

As for a brief list of what you'd need to learn in Photoshop, the graphic overlays and avatars you're talking about use essentially the same skill set (unless you plan on painting your avatars with a graphics tablet). You need to learn the layers window backwards and forwards: stuff like adjustment layers, blending modes, opacity/fill, layer blending styles, masking, text layers. You'll also probably want to learn the pen tool, shape/custom shape tool, and selection methods. Unless you're painting your own images, you don't need to worry about the brushes so much right away but it will help you in the long run to be well-versed in creating/editing your own brushes as well as how to get custom brush packs off the interwebs.

Creating GIFs is a slightly different animal. You still need to know the stuff above, but not as in-depth necessarily. But you should understand the animation options that Photoshop has and how to work within that portion of the application. It's not difficult really. Mostly it involves importing a video segment, making whatever edits you need, then exporting it. But the making edits part means text, layers, selections, masks, and so on, so it's nice to have a base understanding of those things. Creating your own GIFs, as in from your own drawings/graphics flipbook-style is also not particularly difficult. Just lots of layers. But you'd need to know the digital painting stuff (brushes, various editing tools, filters, and so forth) for that.

These are very small slices of what Photoshop can do, but they do dip into the skill sets of other tasks like 3D art and photo editing. I recommend getting a really good Photoshop book. There are so many and I haven't read most of them. I see a lot of people toting this while learning Photoshop. I used this series' book for a different application but it was REALLY good so I imagine their Ps book would be no different. Personally, I think when I was learning game art the book we had to get was this one, and it was decent. I didn't get as much use out of it because I knew the photo editing side of things already from previous experience, but my own personal experience shouldn't detract from what appeared to be a very knowledgeable and well-laid-out book.

I used Photoshop CS3 Extended several years ago on an okay $500 laptop from either walmart or sams. It was some type of Acer Aspire from around 2011. As I continued messing around with Photoshop, I ended up buying a Wacom graphics tablet (one of these). Elements is okay for use (I still use it because I was borrowing a copy of CS3 back on my laptop and can no longer get that copy back).

Not sure about the newest ones that wacom puts out, but that one I linked (probably not made anymore) comes with a version of Photoshop that can run on almost anything.

If you want to get a desktop just for photoshop, the used PC parts route is a pretty good way to go. I built a decent PC back in the beginning of 2013. Back then, it cost me around $700, though you have to realize that it was for gaming and that I had wanted it for several years, so I was fine with spending a bit more than what I originally planned (the old budget would have given me a terrible PC (for gaming)). Right now, you could probably buy the same parts for half the price. While many people don't really recommend older parts like I used (my processor was getting "old" (outdated) back then), I still use all but the cooling fan and graphics card. Also, to make the price seem a bit more reasonable, I had to buy a monitor, keyboard, and mouse in that price, too, which is something that can be bought for very cheap or old ones reused for free.

If you want to go a cheaper route that just works, get a ThinkPad off eBay. They're used, but getting something like a T410 works just fine.
I've heard people have even ran somewhat modern 3D games on that. They're tough, though have a "meh" monitor in them. The great thing about them, though, is that they're around $150 and from my experience, only require a $20 replacement battery to work well on the go (they come with their old batteries). I'd also recommend a new hard drive, which is an easy thing to install as long as you've set up a computer before (and if you aren't comfortable with doing so, a local computer store can probably do so cheaply (you should buy a hard drive on your own, though as they'll charge you for a higher price otherwise)). I'd also recommend buying a 1080p monitor from somewhere else after buying the laptop. Here's a list. You can sort by price. I'd say don't worry about IPS, just worry about it looking good. Mine is a 21.5" Acer-not sure what model.

I have this AOC 23-inch which is a lot cheaper and I love it. It has great color. 1080p. Good refresh rate for gaming.

The Dell monitor looks better, physically, I think. And the Dell probably is superior, but if you just want to get up and running, you can get the AOC.

Or, for the same price as the 24-inch dell you can get a 27-inch AOC monitor.

There's this one for $150

• Faster refresh rate response time (2ms vs 5ms)
  
• Cheaper
  
  And this one for $200
  
  
• IPS = much better viewing angle and better contrast but more expensive
  
• refresh rate Response Time: 5ms will still be plenty fast for gaming unless you do really fast paced multiplayer shooters.
  
  And this one for $238
  
  
• Pretty much the same as the $200 one from what I can see, but has a prettier border / stand.
  
  
  EDIT: It looks like from the specs, all of the AOC monitors offer more contrast than the Dell. I wouldn't be surprised, as I am a lot happier with my AOC monitor at home than I am with my Dell monitor at work.

I got an Asus ROG and it's been awesome. It's a gaming laptop and I saw you were looking at a razor, so I know you're not opposed to giving them a shot. It has a 1tb HDD and a 128 SSD, 16GB ram and a 1060 graphics card. It does run a little warm, but it's been great and super fast in the year I've owned it. My only issue is I didn't manage storage well from the start so the 128 ssd filled up quick. Another downside is I got it last year for a little over $1300 and now it's $1700. I was looking at macs at the time, but for the same price I was barely getting into a new mac and being in the IT career field, I could bring myself to spend that when I could get a much more capable laptop. I'm not anti mac at all though, so if that's in your budget, you really can't go wrong. Below is the link to the laptop I'm currently using.

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MS14CQH/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I just got the Intuos art yesterday (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B010LHRFYU/ref=psdc_16034531_t1_B010LHRFWW) , i Picked it at best buy around 11am, it was installed and ready to use by noon, I worked on some photoshop stuff until 5pm, it was very quick to get used to, super fun. I don't know why I've waited so long to get one, since I've been on graphic design for a while now, but no regrets so far. I tested on Photoshop and it worked smoothly, I want to test it on Illustrator soon and see if my workflow will improve too. Anyways, its a great tool, I totally recommend it.

I consider that the size of a tablet pen is not too rilevant like the quality and your abilities.
You should buy a tablet pen that it's not too pricey,but with a Good quality. I advise you to buy one of this models:

https://www.amazon.it/gp/aw/d/B079MQZM4X/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?__mk_it_IT=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1521026826&sr=8-2-spons&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=tavoletta+grafica+wacom&psc=1



https://www.amazon.it/gp/aw/d/B079QKRWPF/ref=mp_s_a_1_15?__mk_it_IT=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1521026875&sr=8-15&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=tavoletta+grafica+wacom


https://www.amazon.it/gp/aw/d/B072M76LNZ/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?__mk_it_IT=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1521026931&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=tavoletta+grafica+ugee&dpPl=1&dpID=41iUO2G0l3L&ref=plSrch



You can start using one of this devices; and when you can using the tablet oen quote well you will upgrades you device buyng one of this tablets:


https://www.amazon.it/gp/aw/d/B075WVL9RT/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?__mk_it_IT=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1521027094&sr=8-9&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=tavoletta+grafica+ugee&dpPl=1&dpID=51IPnLvNlML&ref=plSrch

https://www.amazon.it/gp/aw/d/B075WVL9RT/ref=mp_s_a_1_17?__mk_it_IT=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1521027131&sr=8-17-spons&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=tavoletta+grafica+wacom&psc=1



Good luck Buddy :)

I have a 27" monitor and I use an older version of this small tablet and I love it. I use it for the same things you do: retouching/brushing/pen tool in Ps and comping in Ae. I actually prefer the small size as it fits next to my mouse on my desk and doesn't take up too much space. I don't need a lot of travel since I'm not doing any long brush strokes so the small is a perfect size. If I need to be more precise then I just zoom in and go from there. I've had it for years and haven't wished that I had a larger one.

Ninja edit: I agree with some of the other commenters that you don't need the pro version. It just gives you more sensitivity and since you're not a digital artist that needs that level of control the base mode will be just fine.

or...i dont know...maybe get a current gen entry level tablet that would be good for lon_oh's level for about the price he/she is looking for ($80, close enough).

Wacom Intuos Small
That would be a good place to start. It has enough functionality to do most things you will probably want to do with it and you can always upgrade to the pro version down line when you are ready. Currently $80 and is often at that price and sometimes lower if you find at a good time. Watch the video included on amazon to see what the different versions offer.

Its funny because I was just thinking about buying one a couple of minutes ago. I have fallen in love with the Wacom Bamboo Splash. It's 60$ from amazon and I think if you go into Best Buy they will price match it.

Buy this book, she has excellent lessons, the exercise pictures are all online, and she covers an amazing variety of ways to fix pictures.

You might be out of luck then. I've tried using apps like Duet which will allow you to connect an iPad as a display but I've had poor luck with getting Photoshop to display correctly on the iPad and you have to buy into their premium plan in order to use force/angle input.

Most of the time I either do the work I need to in a different app and then export to pull into PS, or I just use my trusty old Wacom Bamboo, which you can get for less than $60 these days.

Sorry, yes. You can't run Photoshop on a tablet, (i.e. an iPad), but if you get a Wacom tablet, then she can draw & paint directly into Photoshop on top of her photo. Hope that makes sense!

Unless you're getting something specifically designed for that purpose (these are a ton of fun to play with but will leave a dent in your pocket) Any computer out now that has a touchscreen is going to have subpar specs for its price. If this changes when Windows 8 comes out, then by all means, go ahead. But in my experience a $100 wacom tablet usually does the job quite well if you're set on using a pen, but unless you're going to be focusing on drawing (in which case there are alternatives to photoshop that are more catered towards illustrating) most people will tell you that you don't really need to use a pen, especially when just starting out.

Get a Scott Kelby book http://www.amazon.ca/Adobe-Photoshop-Book-Digital-Photographers/dp/0321703561/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335101518&sr=8-1

By far the best reference/tutorials I've ever found!

What are you going to use Photoshop for? Photography, design...?

If you're going to use it for photography check out books by Scott Kelby, like Photoshop CS5 for Photographers. He also has online training videos that cover Photoshop for photography really well.

If you're using it more for design, I don't have any good suggestions.

This one is great. You can also find Wacoms for as low as $50
http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Bamboo-Splash-Tablet-CTL471/dp/B0089VGPII