Flamming, Spinning football

I have a football player portrait shoot coming up next week. The player wants a shot where he is holding a football that is on fire. The simple way to do this is to put a little rubber cement on the football in an area he will not be touching and light in on fire and shoot away with him holding it.

But, I would like to see a shot where the football is actually in motion out in front of him like he just tossed it up very low and is catching it. I want the motion to be more spinning than anything. So I am thinking of shooting the flaming football separate and photoshop it in later over the top of a non-flaming football I will have him toss in the live shot.

So, the question is, has anyone done this who would be willing to share the best way to go about it. (The spinning football shot, not the rest). I was thinking of making a rig the football could be cradled in out of PVC pipe and spin it with my drill. I would also use a fan to gently blow the flames back as well. ...or maybe mount something on the end of the ball and spin it from that.... Anyone?

Since you're making a composite in photoshop anyway, why not add the "spinning" motion blur in PS?
I'd recommend shooting the flames against black separately rather than try to get the flames and ball in a single shot.

.. could add the flames using special brushes in photoshop? Might avoid the H&S risk ..

Incoming lawsuit alert! hehe

Yeah just add the flames in Photoshop, super easy and there are some very good looking flame textures to use on the net.

NickJushchyshyn wrote in post #10527446
Since you're making a composite in photoshop anyway, why not add the "spinning" motion blur in PS?
I'd recommend shooting the flames against black separately rather than try to get the flames and ball in a single shot.

The main reason for the spinning is to not only get the slight blur on the ball but hopefully get the flames to track that motion as well.

I plan on doing the shot with black background and totally separate from the portrait shoot in my spare time, in my garage or driveway.

Yes, adding flames from scratch in PS is an option and would be fairly simple if they were simply on the football. But my skills are not up to par to get spinning and trailing flames in way they would look good enough.