Ben Birk » Interests

“Was Here” Flow Snowboarding Movie

Ben Birk — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:50:48 +0000

I love watching my friends ride. These guys kill it. Give it a watch.

Flow Snowboards – “Was Here” Trailer

Ben Birk — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:12:31 +0000

Great group of funny guys. Hammers in this movie. Can’t wait to watch it.

G.N.A.R. The Movie

Ben Birk — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:37:05 +0000

Maybe the best thing to happen in Tahoe last year.
Coming to unofficialnetworks.com January 14th 2011.

Seasonal Siblings

Ben Birk — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 16:03:06 +0000

Three of my buddies have started a site and are producing videos of their winter experience. Sam Hulbert, Ian Thorley, and Brandon Reis all originate from the East Coast and are very involved in the contest and Tahoe scenes. Being the funny guys that they are I am sure the videos will be very entertaining and I am excited to see what else they release.

You can follow them on their sites below:
Web Site- seasonalsiblings.com
Twitter- twitter.com/SeasonalSibling
Facebook- facebook.com/pages/Seasonal-Siblings/132760106782057

Web Edits

Ben Birk — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 05:07:48 +0000

My buddies are all hard at work producing videos and this week three different edits dropped. Each were killer so I thought I would share.

GKC Fall Edit 2010.

Ross Baker. Best first run of the 2011 season. Arguably yes.

Shreddy Time guys have way to much fun in Tahoe.

Stuff No One Told Me

Ben Birk — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:21:41 +0000

(But I learned on my own) is the name of the site of artist Alex Noriega. He has some very funny work. Take a minuate to check it out. You can even buy some of Alex’s work. I know I will once the t-shirt section of the store is up.

Here is the site www.stuffnoonetoldme.blogspot.com

” THE ARENA ” Official Teaser For FODT & MFM.

Ben Birk — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:50:45 +0000

I was lucky enough to go out with this crew a few times this year. Something I never though I would do. So much fun though. Check the teaser it’s good.

Snow Leopard

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:42:19 +0000

Hello? Can you hear me out there? I’m reporting in to you from Mac OS X 10.6.

Installation went perfectly and I’m trying out the new features.

Stoked.

Burning Bridges

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:15:39 +0000

I was really excited when I found this movie still available on the Holden Outerwear website. I am not an impulse buyer by a long shot, but when I saw this I didn’t even think twice about ordering it. I have had a bootleg copy of the movie for years now but it has completely gone to shit and I am more then willing to purchase it. Hands down Burning Bridges is in my top 3 favorite movies along with Kingpin’s last release Back In Black, and Robot Food’s last release After Lame both of which I also own.

Buy the movie here

Watch the teaser here

LR Vs. PS

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:22:04 +0000

I have never been a big fan of Photoshop. Never used the program for more then raw editing or putting together a few sequences. Needless to say I was really stoked once I learned about Lightroom, and just about totally abandoned Photoshop and Bridge from my workflow. With the arrival of lightroom 2 the need for Photoshop in my workflow has become even less important.

This was mainly because of the Localized Adjustment Tools that were added in the new release. What took multiple masks, layers, and editing in PS now takes 5-10 minutes in LR.

Here is a great example.

This is the raw photo straight out of camera.

Camera Raw

As you can see it needs a good amount of work. His body is on the verge of being blown out, and the wall, tree, and grass is quite flat. This photo should have been a throw away, but we will use it for this example.

Now here is the Photoshop edited version that took about 30-40 minutes to finish.

With masks for his shirt, pants, and face, along with the wall, grass, and tree, it can start to take up a bit of time. Then there had to be levels, curves, and a few other tricks done before the image could be called complete. Even after the work is done, it still looks a little odd and over worked.

Now here is the LR edited version that took about 5 minutes of work with the Localized Adjustment Tools (that I barely know how to use.)

This version has a much more natural feel, and is overall a much better edit in my option, it took less then 1/4th the time as the Photoshop version, was non-deconstructive to the photo, and was all done and saved in RAW.

When time is money, why take 30-40 min with PS when you can do about the same thing in LR for much less?

What looks better to you?