New gym floor, 2 silhouettes, how do I do this?

keith204

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I'd like to capture a certain shot, and would like some advice before I go make a fool out of myself :)... I'm needing the shot for a graphic for the front page of a program I'll design for a High School basketball tournament. Anyway, if you have advice on how to do this, let me know.

The Story
The high school gym has a new floor, and it's a big deal in the community. So, the high school wants to emphasize the new floor in the programs I will be designing for the upcoming basketball tournament.

The Idea
Floor bright and shiny
Silhouette of a basketball player
I don't care about the basketball goal being in the pic... the silhouettes will hopefully emphasize basketball by the shape of them holding the ball.

The Emphasis
The floor

The Big Question
How do I really brighten the floor, without brightening the silhouettes? Ideally, the silhouettes would be standing on the floor.

My Current Idea (don't know if it will work or not, so please comment)
- put the camera at my cheset height, and aim at the floor, and zoom so the floor is the only thing in the pic. No gym lights. Add a couple flashes to the floor to brighten it up. Silhouette... standing between camera and flashes (so flashes don't hit him) positioned so that you can only see one half side of him (right or left) in silhouette. Then, I can put all the title of the tournament, and other info, inside the silhouette.

Any thoughts, advice, etc?
 
You are never going to fit a person between a camera at chest height and the floor, and control the light enough to have all that going on. You need room. I would stand a player in uniform holding a ball about 20 ft from a wall in the gym. Light the wall from behind and off to each side of the player.

Light the floor in front of the player with a flash on each side pointed 45 degrees toward camera, carefull that there is no spill from any light onto the player. Use gobos to prevent light from hitting the lens. If the lens doesn't see the lights, then you are good.

Here is a small scale diagram of what I'm talking about.

http://tinyurl.com/yovvrv
 
...could be exposure bracketing, no?
 
You could shoot the player, on the floor...making sure that the floor is lit well...but not necessarily worrying about the light on the player. Then just take the shot into photoshop (or whatever) and darken the player to a silhouette.
 
This is a lot of fun thinking of ideas, and hearing peoples input. All of it has been super

I'm now thinking that as part of the silhouette, I should put a flash on the other side of the player, pointing towards me, so that it outlines them.

Whew I'm gonna need more strobes :) I have the wireless stuff to make 5 of them wireless, maybe I can borrow a couple more...

I assume it's true that the more light I add to the floor, the darker the silhouette can be if I adjust correctly.
 

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