The blog of Nathan Hunstad » Minneapolis

HDR photos

doctorgonzo — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:50:33 +0000

I’ve been playing around with Qtpfsgui, the freeware HDR generator. I’ve tried Photomatix but didn’t care for it, plus it costs money. I’m all about free and open source. Through my experimentation, I’ve discovered an important revelation: 16-bit TIFF files are far, far better source images than 8-bit JPG. I was using 8-bit JPG files for my source at first, and was extremely disappointed in the results. Now that I’ve moved to TIFF, I find things to be a whole lot better. Images after the jump.

Here is an HDR image of downtown Minneapolis, using Mantiuk tonemapping. I like the way it turned out:

Here is a Mantiuk tonemap of the Mississippi River from the Franklin Avenue Bridge:

Here is the same scene, using the Fattal algorithm. Fattal is definitely less realistic than other HDR tonemapping algorithms, but it can create interesting results:

Now that I’ve discovered the best way to make them, I’ll probably keep creating HDR images. More can be seen here.

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Current Mood: Hungry
Currently Listening To: "High and Dry", Radiohead
Just Watched: About Schmidt

Photos of Minneapolis and the Mississippi River

doctorgonzo — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:27:00 +0000

I took last Friday off, and instead of sleeping in like a normal person would do, I decided to get up as usual and instead take some photos just after daybreak. A couple hours after sunrise and a couple hours after sunset are the best times to take photographs, and Friday morning was no exception. Some samples after the break; the rest are here.

I take many pictures of flowers, but I usually have no idea what they are. This is no exception: these are growing right behind my apartment and approximately a billion other places, and I don’t know what they are. I need a good flower ID book.

This is a picture of the Franklin Avenue Bridge near the water:

Downtown Minneapolis, with the Mississippi River in front:

Finally, proof that fall is not so far away: some of the first fall color I’ve seen this year:

I’ve also been working on some HDR photos; I’ll upload them when they are done.

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Current Mood: Headache

Moving!

doctorgonzo — Fri, 08 May 2009 01:16:00 +0000

It’s official: I and Julia are moving to a new place in NE Minneapolis in July. It’s the top floor of a duplex, new kitchen, pretty cool. I’ll finally be getting back to Minneapolis after wandering in the wilderness of Saint Paul for a bit.

Of course, I’ll post pictures at some future date.

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Photographing Lake of the Isles

doctorgonzo — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:27:00 +0000

I’ve been taking pictures for much of my life. When I was a kid, I got a cheap 110 film camera for Christmas. Like many 110 cameras, it was little more than a plastic toy, but it was something my brother and I put to good use for many years. When I was older, I got a point-and-shoot Nikon 35mm camera, which I also enjoyed. But it wasn’t until I took an introductory photography course in college that I really got into it. I used a Pentax 35mm SLR and shot black-and-white film, doing all of the developing and enlarging the old-fashioned way. It was the very first class I ever took in college (8 AM Monday morning!) and it became my favorite, combining technical know-how with artistic sensibilities.

As technology increased, film gave way to digital, and I got a digital point-and-shoot camera in 2004, an HP PhotoSmart 720. It was an old when I got it, but the price was good and I was looking for a camera to take on trips. Unfortunately, it was slow and didn’t have the customization I got used to with an SLR camera. I finally got around to buying a digital SLR camera last year, a Canon 40D, which I have enjoyed immensely.

I have a lot of photographs on my photo site. The following are a couple of photos I took over Easter around Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis…

Two people play guitar and listen to the old vinyl near Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis.

Downtown Minneapolis as seen from Lake of the Isles.

A bike peeks from around the corner near Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis.

I’ll be posting more photos as I take them.

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