How to Photograph Bubble Play | Greensburg Family Photographer
If your house is anything like mine, Easter and springtime mean bubbles! But those see-through little orbs are so elusive to photograph, right? I've pulled together 5 tips so that if the Easter bunny leaves bubbles in your child's basket this year, you'll know where to start.
Bubble Tip #1: The first and most important tip is to try to position yourself so that the bubbles are against a darker, more contrasty background. If you try to photograph bubbles against a bright sky or a white surface, they will blend in and it will be extremely hard to see them in the photo. The cleaner the background the better. You can see in the above shots, I didn't have a very clean background, but at least I wasn't shooting towards the white house or plain sky. I was purposely lining myself up so that the bubbles would pop against black shadows, green foliage, or red brick.
Bubble Tip #2: Don't delete pictures in-camera because they look out of focus or it's clear you missed focus. (You should actually never do this, but that's another blog post!) Wait until you load all your photos onto your computer to see how they look and feel. Out of focus bubble pictures can be beautiful and really communicate the overall mood perfectly.
Bubble Tip #3: Don't be afraid to get your camera's lens close to some bubbles while keeping your subjects in focus. That's what will give you that dreamy rainbow wash and create a sense of layered depth.
Bubble Tip #4: If you have beautiful, golden, or slanty light- use it! Here, I wanted to shoot into the sun since the evening light was so glowy and warm, but I knew the bubbles themselves would not show up against the sun. So in these frames, I shot towards the light but used other objects (trees, houses) to be my bubble backdrop. Look at the way the light highlights those soapy spheres and makes them sparkle!
Bubble Tip #5: Get a bubble machine. Go ahead- I'm giving you permission. Bubble blowing pictures can be fun if your kids are big enough to handle the wand without drenching themselves. Or having a trusty helper stand outside the frame and blow as many as they can to the children works (for awhile). But bubble machines are the only solution that gives you massive numbers and, bonus: no lightheadedness!
Happy spring and happy bubble-blowing!