The blog of Nathan Hunstad » Mississippi River http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog The blog of Nathan Hunstad, covering topics like photography, computers, politics, Minneapolis, and more Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:35:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 HDR photos http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2009/09/hdr-photos/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2009/09/hdr-photos/#comments Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:50:33 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=172 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:

Downtown Minneapolis HDR.

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

Downtown Minneapolis HDR.

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:

Downtown Minneapolis HDR.

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

]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2009/09/hdr-photos/feed/ 0 Photos of Minneapolis and the Mississippi River http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2009/09/photos-of-minneapolis-and-the-mississippi-river/ http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2009/09/photos-of-minneapolis-and-the-mississippi-river/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:27:00 +0000 doctorgonzo http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/?p=161 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.

Closeup of a purple flower.

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

The Franklin Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River.

Downtown Minneapolis, with the Mississippi River in front:

Downtown Minneapolis reflected in the Mississippi River.

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

The first signs of fall color along the Mississippi River.

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

  • Current Mood: Headache
]]> http://www.nathanhunstad.com/blog/2009/09/photos-of-minneapolis-and-the-mississippi-river/feed/ 0