If you’re background looks cluttered or busy you can use a black piece of fabric or cardboard for a clean black backdrop. In the late 19th century, soap bubbles became more popular through an advertising tool created by the London-based A. Mix 1 part soap with 2 parts water. facebook; twitter; pinterest; instagram; linkedin; youtube; Back to all Tips & Techniques Making vibrant abstract images of the surface of soap film allows you to flex your creativity with a macro lens and step away from the traditional. To increase the longevity of your bubbles you can add sugar (raw sugar, corn syrup, honey,…) or glycerin to your solution. Stir in the dish soap, but be careful not to make bubbles. Soap bubble solutions, generally little more than dish soap and water, can be picked up at a dollar store and are a favorite gift bag stuffer at children’s birthday parties, but if we’re going to be forever blowing bubbles, we’re going to do it right. Your lens should obviously be set to manual focus, as always recommendable with macro photography. There are two primary ingredients responsible for producing bubbles: liquid soap and glycerin. This allows me to blow new bubbles without touching the set-up and film with a pre-focused lens. The slow motion and the almost perfectly flat shape are the result of using a vase instead of a frame. The most common soap bubbles material is plastic. The opinoins expressed in this article are solely those of the author. For the soap bubble sequences I positioned a round and black base filled with bubble solution on an end table with a softbox right above, only a couple inches away from it. To create a film I only have to lift up the vase and dip the frame in it. The increased distance between the water molecules causes a decrease in surface tension, enabling bubbles to form. I decided on a telephoto-lens on extension tubes. Fortunately enough the same vase works well for producing a flat film of soap. Find out more in our Cookies & Similar Technologies Policy. £6.17, £6.74 A bit of alcohol for example makes for even more psychedelic patterns and I’m sure there are other substances that will have cool effects. Andrew Pears had developed a manufacturing process that involved removing impurities from the base soap before adding perfumes. All Rights Reserved, Copyright © Japan Science and Technology Agency. Soft water is good for bubble production 1. Chardin's original work is currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[1] and two later versions of the painting are in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum and the National Gallery of Art. Quite the opposite is true indeed, the more you watch and observe them, the more fascinating they become. Then I replaced the round vase with a tall rectangular one that was just big enough to submerse the entire frame in it: I set up the frame right above the vase filled with bubble solution. Almost all recipes involve liquid detergents, such as Joy or Dawn, and water. Glycerin holds the bubbles together and makes them last. 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Chardin's original work is currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and two later versions of the painting are in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum and the National Gallery of Art. The polymer reacts with air to harden three to four seconds after a bubble is blown. There are certain subjects in the macro world, which are so fascinating and absorbing that almost every macro photographer will point a camera at them at some point. A soap bubble is a very thin film of soapy water that forms a hollow sphere with an iridescent surface. BUBBLEOLOGY Bubbles form easily with the right mix of soap and water. A sphere provides the minimal surface area needed to enclose a given volume, making it the most efficient shape for a bubble. After spending countless hours photographing these mesmerizing patterns, I can assure you that it never gets boring. This leaves us with 2 reflective surfaces, less than 1 micrometer apart from each other. The closer light and subject are, the more of the subject will be illuminate. [C&EN Archive]. The film consists of a thin sheet of water sandwiched between two layers of soap molecules. Soap Bubbles refers to a series of early 18th-century paintings by French artist Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. Great! Abstract macro photography: shooting soap bubbles at home. He was the first to write about soap … Happy Dog Toys, based in Tempe, Ariz., has produced the Bubble Buddy for dogs and the Bubble Kitty for cats. If you look closely at a soap bubble, you will find that psychedelic plays of colour only become visible in areas, that are reflecting concentrated light. As a result the reflected light rays will interfere with each other and change the reflected colour according to the local thickness of the film. Invented by Taiwanese bubble solution expert Jackie Lin, the top-secret Catch-A-Bubble solution contains a polymer that allows bubbles to resist evaporation. Glycerin can be purchased at pharmacies. First of all they have a very short life span and even though there are ways to prolong the short while they last, time will always be a critical factor. Painters Jean Simeon Chardin and Charles Vanloo captured scenes of children playing with soap bubbles as early as the 18th century. In 1886, Pears Soap bought Sir John Everett Millais' painting "Bubbles" and incorporated a modified version into its advertising. Two commercial dish-washing detergents--Ultra Dawn and Ultra Joy--are considered the best bubble producers 1. Now is also a good time to make sure that you’ve got a clean background without any distracting structures. Well you're in luck, because here they come. I used my camera on a tripod for all images and sequences shown in this article and highly recommend to do so too, not only for filming, but for photography as well; it makes for easier focusing and eliminates hand shake. Hard water and water with high iron content will not produce good bubbles.