It's Here... Bubble Tutorial

OK, I have never posted a tutorial, but I will do my best not to confuse anyone... I have received several requests to post the directions for these fun bubble pics.

First ... gather your supplies:

Set up your shoot by balancing the glass dish, 9x11 size, between your two chairs, of equal height. Put your bright fabric piece on the floor in the middle, under the dish. Shine your light source on the fabric - I used a halogen work light. Pour the water into the dish, about an inch or so deep.

Pour about 1/2 cup oil into the water (we all know that water and oil do not mix). I found olive oil works best. I tried vegetable oil, and it works, but the bubbles are smaller.

Stir together with a straw. The straw is important for many bubbles.

Basically, you will need to shoot on manual focus. On auto-focus, the camera tries to focus on the fabric and the effect of bubbles just doesn't happen. I have shot with "A" mode - aperture only and get pretty good pics. Use telephoto - I used anywhere from 50mm to 200mm, try different focal lengths to see what you like.
Shoot your pictures in the corners or top or bottom, around the logo on the dish (i.e. Pyrex or Anchor Hocking). Shoot a bunch, then change your fabric. Shoot with several different fabrics for different looks and dimensions. (Why waste your set-up.)

Download your pictures and use your favorite editing program to crop to your favorite bubble configuration. You will also need to crop out any logo that might have made it into your photo. Experiment with different editing effects to find your own style. Try sepia, black and white, chrome, color boost, etc. You may find your best bubble pics are those you just edit to crop and enlarge.

Below are some of my favs. I love the reflections, the bright colors and some of the editing effects. This is a fun to way to experiment with your camera and find a use for that bag of scrap fabric.

Have fun making your very own bubble pics. If you have any questions on the process, please leave a comment and I will try to help you.

I would love to see some of your bubble pics. Leave a link in the comment section.

Happy Bubbles (who doesn't love bubbles??)!