Illinois State Gigapixel Photo

[ST_Lawson]

Illinois State did a panoramic gigapixel photo at their game against UNI last weekend. Looks like they did it between the 1st and 2nd quarters (probably the perfect time, get all the late-coming stragglers, nobody's left to get food at halftime, too early to have people leaving the game due to blowout or whatever, etc.).
You can check it out here: http://gigapixel.panoramas.com/illinois ... /20151003/

Couple of things:
1. It looks cool and their new stadium east side is really nice.
2. Not that there's a ton of empty seating, but if you look at the home side, what empty spaces there are seem "filled in" or somewhat hidden due to the seating being red like what so many people are wearing. It makes the stadium look fuller than it actually is. I think that if/when we actually redo the west side at Hanson Field, we should give a hard look at having purple seating. Should have a similar effect and help make the west side not look so empty at times.

[sealhall74]

That is pretty nice. I am taking a study at home course on photography from The Great Courses right now. Lesson 1 was about subject, light, and background and how effective it is to adjust the background (remove clutter, etc) to make the subject stand out more. ST, I think your argument is counter to the professor (actually a National Geographic guy).

I wonder what the cost is to create one of these things.

[wiu712]

The seating capacity at Illinois State's Hancock Stadium is 13,391. They have sold out their first two home games.

There is no track at Hancock Stadium so the stands are very close to the field.

Western alumni going to the October 24th game should consider getting their tickets from the Alumni Association:
http://www.wiu.edu/wiucalendar/index.sp ... endars[]=2

As usual, the Western Alumni Association will have a tent set up in the tailgating section and will be serving a pre-game lunch.

The October 24th game will be Homecoming at Illinois State.

The seating area for Western fans will be in Sections 121, 122, and 123 which are on the south end of the west stands (Press Box side).
http://ev9.evenue.net/evenue/linkID=ill ... k=64984111


NOTE: This is a change in seating from our last visit there in 2013. At that time, we were sitting on the north end of the west stands.

Another change at Illinois State has been to turn the south endzone into a "Touchdown Terrace" with special field level seating. In past years, the south endzone is where the Illinois State marching band sat. They have been moved to Section 126 which is on the north end of the west stands.

[ST_Lawson]

That is pretty nice. I am taking a study at home course on photography from The Great Courses right now. Lesson 1 was about subject, light, and background and how effective it is to adjust the background (remove clutter, etc) to make the subject stand out more. ST, I think your argument is counter to the professor (actually a National Geographic guy).

I wonder what the cost is to create one of these things.

Right, in most cases you want an uncluttered background or some background that doesn't distract from the subject. This is why you often see photos with narrow depth of field, where the subject is in focus, but the background is blurry (https://flic.kr/p/2gM3gJ). In the case of the stadium though, you want the people wearing purple to blend into the bleachers wearing purple, so that it blends together and it's hard to differentiate between people and empty seats. This gives the impression of more people (especially if the seats are the only part that's solid purple).

[sealhall74]

That is pretty nice. I am taking a study at home course on photography from The Great Courses right now. Lesson 1 was about subject, light, and background and how effective it is to adjust the background (remove clutter, etc) to make the subject stand out more. ST, I think your argument is counter to the professor (actually a National Geographic guy).

I wonder what the cost is to create one of these things.

Right, in most cases you want an uncluttered background or some background that doesn't distract from the subject. This is why you often see photos with narrow depth of field, where the subject is in focus, but the background is blurry (https://flic.kr/p/2gM3gJ). In the case of the stadium though, you want the people wearing purple to blend into the bleachers wearing purple, so that it blends together and it's hard to differentiate between people and empty seats. This gives the impression of more people (especially if the seats are the only part that's solid purple).

I see your point but IMO, when it comes to these gigapixel images with the social media links, the people in the stands are the real subject(s), not the stadium. It would be an interesting topic for discussion in a real photography class.