News Reviews Buying Guide Sample Images Videos Articles Cameras LensesPhonesPrinters Forums Galleries Challenges

NewsMarch 2014

Previous news story Next news story

Photographing bubbles, one bubble at a time

By dpreview staff on Mar 29, 2014 at 07:00 GMT

…

Photographing bubbles, one bubble at a time

British photographer Richard Heeks has made a project of taking something ordinary - soap bubbles - and making them extraordinary. Some of his images capture the exact moment when a bubble bursts, while others reflect the environment around with interesting color. One of his bubbles even looks like the 'Death Star' from the Star Wars trilogy.

Heeks got into photographing bubbles in 2007 after trying to capture refections in his wife's eye.

'And then I saw my nieces playing with soap bubbles in the garden, and so I tried to photograph the soap bubbles', Heeks told DPReview recently. 'The macro focusing techniques I had learned from photographing eyes came in really useful ... I became quite obsessed with trying to capture the reflections in the bubbles'.

And so from that point on it was all about bubbles. He took thousands of shots, gradually learning how light, weather, aperture and shutter speeds affect the final image.

See a selection of Heeks' images in our gallery. To see more, visit his Flickr photostream.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Comments

Total comments: 69

Terrific pics!
I always give up because the bubbles pop on me very quickly. I think my bubble recipe is not quite right?? (Seriously: i have a 3-year-old!) How big are these bubbles?

0 upvotes

Yes, it definitely helps to have a good quality bubble mixture. I buy mine, but I've also heard that using distilled water (mixed with washing-up liquid) is good. My bubbles are about 4-8 inches (10-20cm) diameter. Mixing glycerin in with the mix can help too, especially for making bugger bubbles. Hope this helps.

0 upvotes

Those are some terrific photos, Heeks! Very nicely done! Thanks for the info on how you took them.

0 upvotes

Love the bubbles pics.
Would camera's burst option be of shot-timing help?
My bridge Canon sx50hs shoots 10 shots within one second.

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

1 upvote

Thanks. :-) Yes, I found the burst option very helpful. I have (I think) a 6 fps (frames per second) burst rate on my Nikon D90. I tried to time the bubble burst to when I first pressed the shutter, but the bubbles often burst just after I expected them to. So the burst came in handy. The 10 fps burst you have would be great. I think a small bubble takes about 1/50th of second to pop (i.e. from one side of the bubble to the other). I like to use a 1/500th of a second shutter speed. So if you used a 10fps burst with a 1/500th shutter, I think (I can't do the maths on that) you would get some pop shots fairly soon.

0 upvotes

Aldi in Australia funnily enough are selling bubble making machines this Saturday. For $12.99 might be worth having a go?

0 upvotes

Some time ago I was fascinated by bubbles too. Here are some pictures I took back then:
http://mmartphoto.webnode.sk/fotogaleria/zatisie-still-life/photogallerycbm_847089/24/#bubbles-8902-jpg

1 upvote

http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/2370024978/photos/2882431/1098215_10203665402854807_1251998525_n

Here is one of my shots...

0 upvotes

Cool.

0 upvotes

a frozen bubble !!?? coooolll ! :)

1 upvote

Some of the bubble mix I've given my kids here has had some kind of weird polymer in it that would create sometimes create plastic bubbles that could be picked up and messed with (and were dry to touch). The "frozen" bubble looks like it might have been created this way.

0 upvotes

Nicely done.
Sure would like to know how he photographed the frozen bubble !

0 upvotes

Look below , Richard Heeks answered to my thread inquiry explaining his technique .

0 upvotes

Exquisite

0 upvotes

Great.
Any movie or YouTube shows how to take such amazing photos ?

0 upvotes

The reflection of the house look like the Tardis... ;)
Pretty cool stuff

0 upvotes

Very attractive images! Unusual in colors and shapes.

0 upvotes

Stunning!

0 upvotes

Pretty sure anybody with kids has some of these because after blowing thousands of bubbles you at some point tried to make the bubbles bigger then you see the cool reflections and then you start pointing the camera at the bubbles instead of the kids. Bubbles are uncooperative subjects, but the results are pretty cool.

0 upvotes

Like most comments here....wonderful photos and thank you for showcasing...

0 upvotes

Great work.
With 4k vid coming out, I guess we'll be seeing all types of stuff like this soon (frame grabs)

0 upvotes

Now this is creative and cool. especially capturing the pop

3 upvotes

Really enjoyable pictures with hardly any travel expenses and model fees. I assume it requires a lot of shooting for each really good picture, but that's OK. Digital film doesn't cost much.

0 upvotes

Just magical. Very beautiful and whimsical. Great imagination and patience!

0 upvotes

very cool!

1 upvote

Great pictures I would love to give it a try but without kids who can blow the bubbles? Perhaps I can train the Labrador?

1 upvote

Pics 10 to 12 are amazing!

1 upvote

Finally DPR saw the light. ENOUGH of mommies and daddies with their "another" approaches.

6 upvotes

Now THIS is MEGA cool! Absolutely amazing. If it's not photoshop, it's just fantastic. Unusual, extemely technical, extremely artistic. THIS is photography!

4 upvotes

Amazing!

1 upvote

Very cool!

1 upvote

Beautiful images; thanks DPR for posting.

1 upvote

Amazing series!

2 upvotes

Great idea and well done. #3 & #10 are my favorites, but they all come very close.

1 upvote

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151343303573115&set=a.10151343303533115.531059.713123114&type=3&theater

I am glad with my results took it 2 years back :)

1 upvote

Great images, and the kind which don't require a byzantine back story to enjoy.

1 upvote

Very cool. Great work Richard Heeks!

1 upvote

#10 Out of this world!!!!

4 upvotes

These are wonderful, thank you for posting!

3 upvotes

What a great example of wonderful, original and interesting images from the most simple circumstances. Well done.

5 upvotes

Wow! what beautiful abstracts. Thank you for posting this.

2 upvotes

With the new cameras... this is becoming increasingly easy to accomplish.. instant focus and auto-rifle like capture. Just slam the shutter, take 40 photos and cull and enjoy after the fact. Same for milk drops now... no need to expensive equipment and triggered shutter releases... just jam the shutter button and review the results. Love technology!

4 upvotes

Regardless of gear he did a great job with these images.

Gear helps but an eye is worth far more.

8 upvotes

Yes, the technology does help. I think I would have found it very difficult to take these shots with a film camera, simply because it is cheaper, quicker, and easier to get feedback from a digital camera. So the learning process can be quicker with digital. Interestingly, though, I mostly use manual focus, because I find the reflections in the bubbles easier to see in the optical viewfinder than to autofocus on.

1 upvote

Cool!...let's see your bubble photos!

12 upvotes

I think even with continuous frame rate of 10-11 fps, a bubble still collapses a lot faser than the lag between 2 shots. So regardless of technology - still a very challenging task.

0 upvotes

Dazzer - always the "lets see your .....xxxxx" - why can't someone make a comment without having to prove they too can do the deed? All I said was it is getting easier to take photos... didn't say anything negative about his work or that I could do better....

6 upvotes

"It's getting easier to take pictures!!!1!"

Your comment would just as easily apply to any photograph from any photographer in the past 10 years. Therefore, it is worthless.

Surely that can't be the extent of your reaction to these photos? You can't possibly be that vacuous. Or can you?

5 upvotes

@Dazzer8888. The bubble photos in this article are my photos. I am Richard Heeks - the photographer this article is based on. I saw the article go up, and the comments get posted, so I thought I'd reply to any questions etc. :-)

0 upvotes

Harold Edgerton made pictures like this long before the word "digital" was even invented. Your point about new cameras is...?

3 upvotes

It looks to me fuego6 is just expressing his appreciation for how far technology has come. I don't know why everyone seems to assume he is putting the photographer down.

2 upvotes

Michael, one could just as easily say that basic compositional elements have existed forever as well, and that his technique is nothing new. Kevin understands, fuego6 was just expressing his appreciation for technology in the process of art. He could have made the same comment 50 years ago and it would still be valid compared to the camera obscura.

0 upvotes

Fabulous stuff.

1 upvote

#13 ... is that a frozen bubble ? didn't know that was possible -amazing .

5 upvotes

Maybe that's just the reflection of the ice?

1 upvote

Awesome stuff overall. I'm also curious about #13!

0 upvotes

Thanks. Yes, #13 is a frozen bubble. I blew the bubble over some snow and then used a sunrise (nice light) to help backlight the shot and thus bring out the texture of the frozen bubble film. Easier said than done, because the bubbles mostly pop as soon as they touch the snow. So I wetted the snow a little first. Bubbles then collapse as soon as they are totally frozen, because (I think) the frozen film is porous, so the air leaks out. So there's only a brief moment to get the shot. I'd love to get a closer-up shot sometime. The patterns in the bubble film are really interesting.

2 upvotes

There seems to be such a thing as frozen bubbles :
http://www.weather.com/sports-rec/below-zero/stunning-shots-frozen-soap-bubbles-20140106

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

1 upvote

@babalu. Thanks for your question. #13 is a frozen bubble. The bubble has just frozen and is collapsing. It is, at least, partially collapsed. What you see on the top left is a kind of crumpling, where the bubble film has fallen down a little as the air leaks through the bubble film as it freezes. Often, the top will fall in completely as the bubble freezes. Sometimes, as in #13, the area around the top will crumple a little before the bubble collapses completely. Regarding transparency - as the bubble freezes, the thin bubble film loses its lens-like ability to reflect or be transparent. Leafy patterns of the freeze spread through the film as it turns to ice. Very pretty to watch!

0 upvotes

Richard Heeks, thanks for clarifying this point of the frozen bubble and sharing your technique and impressions. Marvelous work !

0 upvotes

Bubble are beautiful.

As long as it is not real estate bubble or property bubble or housing bubble for residential markets or any type of economic bubble.

2 upvotes

Congratulations on finding a subject you like! May it be bubbles, water droplets or eyes. Keep being creative!

5 upvotes

Thanks. :-)

1 upvote

I did something similar several years ago and may try again...
http://www.pbase.com/laja30/image/155013774

Comment edited 21 seconds after posting

2 upvotes

Wow..Amazing works

2 upvotes

Really nice!

2 upvotes

Interesting.

0 upvotes

Nicely done. I know how bloody hard it is to get these suckers into focus. Summer after summer I try to capture some when the kids blow bubbles.

6 upvotes

I think he took them on the moon or mars.

1 upvote

Total comments: 69

Editorial content

Product database

Community

About us Write for us Advertise with us FAQ Feedback Interest-Based Ads Privacy Legal

All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998 - 2014 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.

Mobile site


Up close: The beauty of butterfly wings Apr 3, 2014	Legendary photographer David Goldblatt shares insights from career Apr 2, 2014	Bigger than life: Drone flight documents Alaskan ice caves Mar 27, 2014	Behind the shot: 'Louisville in Motion' Mar 24, 2014

127	D9300 - For real or just another tease?
116	m4/3 not allowed on Lower Antelope Canyon photo tour
74	Best to wait for full frame or get the X-T1 ?
66	My dream full-frame camera.
65	Kelby has gone too far now - Launches Canon In Action Tour.
62	sold my ff gear..what next ?
55	Good-bye Sony. Until we meet again.
54	Nikon 105 for butterfly collection
48	I just picked up my Sony A6000 - In stock everywhere?
47	Inconsistent aperture rings
45	Another review of the FE 24-70 4.0... And it's fairly positive
44	1st DSLT/R A58, A65 or A3000
44	Nikon is not afraid of the 645 Z
39	Will the A7711 be mirorless
36	a6000 External Flash?
36	Oly 75mm or...
35	I want a wide lens for landscape + city/architecture
35	Some say, Pentax DX bodies are SO capable, they blow Nikon FX away...
35	Third party batteries
32	A6000 kit lens worth getting?