Testimonials

Stephen Burns is a Adobe ACP (Adobe Community Professional) and a corporate instructor and lecturer in the application of digital art and design for the past 15 years (See Resume). He has been exhibiting digital fine art internationally at galleries such as Durban Art Museum in South Africa, Citizens Gallery in Yokahama, Japan, CECUT Museum Of Mexico to name a few. Part of his exhibiting won him 1st placande in the prestigious Seybold International digital arts contest.

Digital Involvement

He teaches Digital Manipulation Workshops in the San Diego and is an instructor on www.xtrain.com . You can access his training at www.xtrain.com/stephen .

Stan Mandell, Bellevue

Dear Steve,

Thank you again for an excellent and most helpful workshop/presentation yesterday. Your information and approach has already affected how I see, think about, and process my images. And your clarity and humor made the learning quite enjoyable.

David Brenner

Thank you! Quality before quantity. If you build it, they will come. 

I am off to teach a 4 hour class on Photoshop 3D this afternoon and your 3D presentation for the group really expanded my understanding of PS 3D. Thanks for that!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Carol Carlaw

Thank you so much Stephen, I believe in the power of communication especially when it comes from the heart. This is why your words meant so much I could tell they were spoken from a place of truth. I too am a painter who has accidently slipped into photography at the urging of a special teacher and now facinated by what the possibilities lie ahead if I pursue the use of the digital medium. If you had asked me 2yrs ago that I would be learning what I am now I would have not even entertained the thought.

I believe there is one thing every human being has and it's the ability to create and each in a different way. It just gives us joy and the other thing is to give. We all have to earn a living but I too have the utmost respect for anyone who is living a life of creativity and also keeping deep in mind a humbleness that they are able to share their gift with this very needy world. I am only in my infancy of learning and have watched fellow students assume they are ready to go out for the soul purpose of making money and well before they are ready with the often spoken comment...their customers won't notice.

I get embarrassed for them and though I could perhaps do this as I am financially struggling however I will not until I have mastered and fully understood techniques...this will take a long time for me but I will plod along and post occassional images in groups I have joined to keep me spurred on. I can see you are a teacher who is teaching from the place of our maker before we came to our earth...sorry for long post but I tend to write as I would like to speak and the medium of the typed word is hard to convey as it too is short and can be mis-understood easily.

I have learnt the only way to go is slow, that is why your words meant so much as I have watched everyone go at a million miles an hour and they miss things and they miss the grit...the passion...Thankyou again.

I'm in my own kind of heaven and one day I will be able to stay at home and produce creative work and then I can share like those who are doing so now .......cheers and Bless you and keep teaching those students and be a hard task Master your reward will be their respect...no amount of money is as valuable...

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Marty Sixkiller, Dreamworks

Stephen Burns is a brilliant artist and an expert Photoshop user. We've had Stephen in the studio once before, thanks to Wacom sponsoring the visit. We'd like to open it up this time in the screening room for other groups outside of the storyboard artists (e.g. matte painting, surfacing, art, etc.)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bosha Struve

I personally wanted to thank you for the excellent presentation on CS6 Photoshop 3D (creating planets) today.

I’ve watched a lot of webinars and your presentation was extremely well done (thoughtful, accomplished and targeted).

Thank you for the email notification that it was happening…I would have missed it.

I’m extremely glad that you are going to be creating future webinars.

Sharing information on a much broader scale is very beneficial to a much larger audience.

Thank you again…

Bosha Struve

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

David Whitwer

Now that things are back to normal, both my brother and I had a good time in Death Valley. Your were in your element teaching good photography. A lot of humor was going on, in spite of some bad weather and sand storm. We had a good group with those two surgeons. That increased the IQ of the group. Fortunately, in the first critique session someone came up with a photo you praised for its artistic merit. So that second critique session contained a lot of learning points. I think Janice being there was a good thing. I also think you mellow Janice out when you are there. You are a good teacher.

We can talk some more later,

David Whitwer

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nyla James

Hi Stephen,

Just writing to thank you for the effort you put into the workshop on Friday.  I haven't heard an introduction ever, as good as the one you presented.  I appreciated your insight into creativity and the development of composite images that you shared with us.  I was late arriving and didn't get a chance to unwind soon enough to talk about my own thoughts, desires and expectations of the workshop.

I get many of my ideas and inspiration from watching free speech TV.  I see what is happening around the world and try to create images that make people think......many times I only make people uncomfortable and they really don't want to even look at what I have done.  The reason I took your workshop was to learn the technique of putting everything together the right way.  I am mostly self taught and don't know the most efficient way to do it although I can, it just takes me a long time. I get many ideas and see what I want in my minds eye but it is difficult for me to work through the steps.

Thank you again.

Nyla James

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mick Daniel

Hi Stephen,

I've listed your fantastic book in Photoshop section of BestPhotographyBooks.com. You do a really great job, very inspiring.

P.S. If you like our collection as much as we do, please spread the word / link to us.

All the best,
Mick Daniel

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ed Hamlin

Stephen Burns many people don't realize how important it is to learn and keep darkroom skills honed to the best of your abilities. When I started in photography it wasn't looking through the viewfinder, but in the dark in a darkroom with my father. It was about a year before I was allowed to shoot my first roll. I learned about 75% of what I needed to about the control of light ....My point, photographers of all skill levels should take advantage of mastering digital skills and how to control light digitally. It is vastly different once the shutter has opened and closed recording the light for frame. Your classes offer what I learned with the analog medium of the craft digitally. I wish I had the time and always afford the training opportunities presented.

Thanks so Much

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bonnie Erdrich

Hi Stephen,

Thank you so much for our presentation. We got some great comments of appreciation from our group. One of the comments was: 

"Stephen Burns is not only a great artist and author, he is a fascinating presenter. It was inspiring. Excellent meeting all the way around."
That pretty much sums up my thoughts as well.


Thank you for your generosity of spirit and time in your efforts to make a difference for the rest of us. 
We would love to have you back in the future.


Best Wishes,
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Marie E. Wagner 

Your class was awesome and I look forward to reviewing the presentation again.  You had indicated that you would email it to us.  Hopefully I did whatever was required, properly.

Thanks again,

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jacques Marleau

Thank you very much for your solution.  It worked perfectly well both for exporting from Poser and importing into Photoshop Extended with all the materials and textures applied.
I’m so glad and very thankful.

I’ve watched your tutorial again on Poser and Photoshop Integration and apprecialted every minute of it.  I see how thorough you are when you don’t spare any effort to make the rocky environment look like real. The same applies when you posed “the call to action” in Poser 8 series of tutorials.  Keep up the good work. I could watch you teach hours on end. You make the demo interesting when others show only the mechanics of things without much application to real contexts.  Now I have to read and study your books.

Thanks again.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Zoe Samborsky

Finally, thanks to Stephen’s easy to follow instructions, my thick 60 year old head has been able to mask out a grey wintery sky and replace it with a nice blue summer sky,,,through the trees!! Good foliage definition after adjusting levels.

Reminds me of the old days in the darkroom using chromium/cyanide baths to make high contrast negatives ,,, OUT WITH THE GREY!!! Thanks Stephen

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________