Here is another fun at home macro photography project. And this is best done inside, so weather is not a factor. Similar to macro oil and water, macro bubble photography is as much fun. You will need a few things…dish soap, water, small container and ideally glycerine (find it at your local supermarket). Mix 3 parts water to one part dish soap and stir it up well. This will create the bubbles you need. Add a teaspoon of glycerine…this helps hold the bubble together, otherwise it pops pretty fast. Now your mix is done.
Next, set up your mini studio. You want a black background so the bubbles will stand out…anything black will do. You will need an overhead light source pointed straight down at the bubbles. You could use a speed light, bigger flash, continuous light…even a flashlight will work as long as the room is dark enough. I set up one of our continuous lights on a boom arm and placed it about 4 inches above my bubbles. I added a small amount of my bubble mixture to a lens end cap, and placed this on a upside down mug to be at eye level. I was shooting my D850 with 105mm 2.8 macro.
With everything ready to go, place a straw into the mixture and gently blow, slowly moving backwards as a bubble begins to form. If you blow really hard, you get a lot of small bubbles instead of a big one. You will notice the soap colors spinning on top of the bubble. Make sure you shoot at a fast shutter speed with lots of depth of field. I was shooting a 1/250 at F22…brighter lighting allows you to shoot faster and at lower ISO numbers.
You will be amazed at what designs form on the bubble. Have fun and happy shooting this weekend!