Help me plan an aerial photo.
July 25, 2017 10:40 AM   Subscribe

I'm looking to plan an aerial photo for a group. They want to spell (number?) out "2021" on a lawn, with people lined up to make up the numbers. We'll have about 1000 participants.

I'm great with the gear and the technical photography part of the equation, but I'm looking for resources for sizing the physical numbers on the lawn in advance of the group so it's easy for everyone to fill in quickly. I'm also concerned we won't have 100% participation and will need to err on the side of not having enough people to fill out the numbers.

Is there a website or app that can approximate this for me? Another resource? Thanks in advance!
posted by rinosaur to Grab Bag (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This is very low tech, but the University where I work does this every year with the new class.

We generally do it by plotting things out on graph paper (1 square = 1 square foot, we allocate 2 square feet per person) then marking out the hollow numbers on the lawn with spray chalk, then using a hose to erase until we like it.

Be sure you leave a decent amount of space between each number. In general, that's the part we have to adjust on the fly at the end.
posted by anastasiav at 10:47 AM on July 25, 2017


If this is for a school class photo, talk to the marching band director; they know how to do this/and or have software (Pyware) that can do this, and they/the band may be able to help coordinate.
posted by damayanti at 10:47 AM on July 25, 2017 [8 favorites]


Also consider that you might want to adjust the shapes of the numbers for perspective unless the camera will be directly overhead.
posted by exogenous at 11:55 AM on July 25, 2017


Response by poster: thanks @damayanti, it is for a school class but they haven't got a marching band! great idea, I'll look into local resources on that end.
posted by rinosaur at 2:20 PM on July 25, 2017


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