Was That Giant Prince Symbol Over US Bank Stadium Sunday Night Real?
You probably saw either the still picture or video footage during Sunday's Super Bowl 52 Halftime Show. You know, the aerial picture that appeared to show a giant, purple Prince symbol centered directly over US Bank Stadium? So did that really happen, or was it digitally created?
When I first saw that image, right after Justin Timberlake's tribute to Prince during the Halftime Show, I was impressed. And, given how various LED lights are incorporated on so many things these days-- from giant video screens to bridges, skyscrapers, buildings and more-- I figured that giant purple symbol might just have actually appeared over the stadium in Minneapolis.
The more I looked at it, though, the more I figured it HAD to be digitally created-- Photoshopped, if you will. Now, I don't know much about digital photography. But, a leading photography expert in the Twin Cities now pretty agrees with me, saying that shot had to be digitally altered.
This Current story asked Eric Riggs, a creative director at Minneapolis agency Crash + Sues, about the picture. He said, while it looked awful authentic, it was most likely digital trickery at play.
“You can see the buildings in the background, and everything in the sky is all purple,” Riggs said in the story. “That’s one indicator that something fishy’s going on there. Things aren’t naturally all that purple. They’re totally altering the image,” the story said.
In fact, other eagle-eyed observers noted that the overhead image had most likely been taken a few nights earlier, and then had Prince's iconic purple symbol superimposed over it. Among other things, some noted that streets near the US Bank Stadium were closed to traffic Sunday, yet in the picture, you can see cars moving along them.
It was still pretty cool, though!
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