
Why Old Sports Photos Often Have a Blue Haze - lelf
http://petapixel.com/2015/10/15/why-old-sports-photos-often-have-a-blue-haze/
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soheil
It appears as if in the past 40 years we have traded the smoke in the air with
ad-riddled public spaces.

Time for a California Indoor Ad-Free Act of 2016?

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jensen123
I think we ought adopt a writing system similar to the Japanese, with Chinese
characters. When I've been to Japan, I've seen areas with lots of advertising,
but it looks pretty because of the Chinese characters being used. So, I'm
thinking it's our ugly Latin alphabet that is the real problem here, not ads.

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madeofpalk
The grass always looks greener on the other side. Perhaps when the Japanese
come to western countries they admire the simplicity of our Latin alphabet and
think our ads are better than the pictograph-laden Japanese ones.

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bojo
I've actually had this conversation here in Japan.

It was pointed out to me that Western signs are incredibly drab compared to
those written with Chinese characters. The primary reasoning as explained to
me was that the Chinese characters tend to be incorporated as a main part of
the design, while Latin characters tend to be used in a more practical nature
and supplemented with other design features. Very subjective of course, but an
opinion I find myself agreeing to.

For the record, Chinese characters (Japanese kanji) are considered
_ideographic_. Pictographic implies that the meaning of the symbol can be
derived from the design itself, which isn't true for the vast majority of
Chinese characters. Only a small subset are actually pictographic in nature.

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rangibaby
Japanese design trends roughly follow the same timeline as Western ones.
"Modern" brands eg Toyota will use katakana or a "gothic" kanji typeface,
similar to a sans serif.

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kepano
I've noticed the Staples Center lighting in videos, but didn't realize it was
part of a Lakers campaign called "Lights Out". I think this goes a long way
towards increasing the drama on the court. While it might not have the added
haze of a smoke filled room, it does make a big difference to the viewing
experience and seems to result in much better photography. Found this related
article from a sports photographer
[http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1671](http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1671)

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harryjo
Article is from 2006 (or 2002? there are two dates). Is "Lights Out" lighting
still used today?

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forgottenpass
Yes, look at the photos in the original article from the Staples Center in
2015.

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wyldfire
Is this the same phenomenon as Rayleigh scattering [1]?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering)

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OopsCriticality
Actually, I think it is more accurately ascribed to Tyndall scatter:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndall_effect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndall_effect)

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dest
to replace the smoke of cigarette, they could just use artificial smoke ;) but
except for photographs, this would not be welcome by the public

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lflux
Tobacco smoke has finer particles than standard glycol-based smoke machines.
For concert lighting, tobacco smoke gives a much better effect if all you want
to see are the light beams, glycol is a bit coarser and not as smooth-looking
in comparison.

You can get a fair bit closer to that look by using an oil-based cracker.
Those have finer particles than glycol-based, but they have their own
drawbacks as they rely on an air compressor that's either noisy or needs to be
placed somewhere far away, and the oil tends to get on every light fixture and
surface in the venue. It looks fantastic though.

When they introduced a smoking ban at the concert venue I worked at, I noticed
that we had to run our smoke machines a lot harder to get the same looks we
previously got "for free" from the punters smoking tobacco.

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dest
Thank you for those interesting details about smoke technology

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InclinedPlane
Similarly, air sickness rates have become much lower since airplane cabins
haven't been filled with cigarette smoke.

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dorfsmay
But it's been more difficult to find air leaks in airplane body during
maintenance, tobacco traces on the metal (behind the plastic walls) used to
point to leaks.

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edward
Why can't we have the same effect as an instagram filter?

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wtbob
It's not just arenas. Bars and pubs were more attractive when they were filled
with smoke, back in the free days a decade ago.

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simoncion
> Bars and pubs were more attractive when they were filled with smoke...

A while back, I had occasion to re-visit Alabama to see friends and family. At
_that_ time in Alabama, bars and pubs are free to choose whether or not they
prohibited indoor smoking. (I've no idea what current regulations are
regarding the same.)

In bars that permitted indoor smoking, the atmosphere was a _horrible_ eye
irritant. My clothing reeked for a week, or until I washed it -whichever came
first-.

Back in my college days, I didn't see what the big deal was. Then, I moved out
to a place that prohibited smoking in indoor public places. It took that
change of perspective to understand how much nicer I find an environment that
is not saturated in tobacco smoke.

YMMV, of course, but I expect that I'm far from the only one who holds this
opinion.

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jemfinch
I share your opinion at well, but would rather vote with my dollars than use
the state's power of coercion.

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Bud
Voting with your dollars doesn't work. We gave that a chance. How many bars
were there that chose to be smoke-free? Zero.

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visakanv
Yup; the problem here is that while most people probably prefer smoke-free
environments, heavy smokers are likely to be the heaviest drinkers, too. So
the bar owners are incentivized to reward their best customers rather than the
majority of their customers.

