oil and water: the how-to

Yesterday I posted this picture,


and today I'll show you how I did it.

I've been wanting to do this experiment forever, so when I saw it on the Pioneer Woman's blog earlier this week, I was inspired. For these shots, I used my Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS lens.

I took a glass dish and balanced it on 2 drinking glasses so light would come in underneath it. I didn't use food coloring; instead I laid a piece of wrapping paper under the dish. Here's my set-up:



Here's a shot using the pink wrapping paper background. Even though my macro lens has image stabilization, I still used my tripod. I shot straight down through the glass dish.


I also used a baby medicine syringe to drop the vegetable oil into the water. (This is probably not necessary; it's just the way I did it).

Here are a few more examples. When the bubbles look "flat" like this, it's time to put in more vegetable oil. They flatten more the longer they sit in the water.


I put in more drops of vegetable oil for this shot. See how the circles are more spherical? Another thing that helps your circles look more 3D is to use a background with variations in the color. If you use one color, it will look flatter. Here I laid a dress underneath the bowl.


They're flattening out again. (Which is fine, it just depends on what look you want).


The absolute hardest part of this whole thing is having to focus manually. I can't wear glasses and take pictures, so I could barely see up this close to focus. My images aren't super super sharp...but it's easy to get them sharp (if you can see)! :-)


I kept my aperture around f/3.2. I wonder if using a bit smaller aperture (bigger number, like f/3.5 or f/4), would help all the bubbles be in focus. The downside might be not blurring the wrapping paper (or fabric) enough. Maybe I should have tried that - oh well! :-) Next time.


OK, guys, here's the part of the post I've been putting off for a couple months. Since I started my blog almost a year ago, I made it a point to return all comments, every single time. You might have noticed me falling behind in the past couple months. Your comments are a gigantic blessing to me; they keep me motivated to try new things and they bring me great joy! However, I'm no longer able to visit everyone back that leaves a comment. I'm so sorry! I'm very humbled to have such a great number of wonderful, amazing, encouraging friends that are hugely supportive! I wish there were enough hours in the day to thank you all personally! ♥

I'm a very sensitive person, and to not respond to someone is difficult for me, so I hope you'll understand.

This doesn't mean I won't ever visit your blog; I just can't keep up the same pace that I was. If you ever have any photography questions, please feel free to email me at karlibonnie@gmail.com and I will get back to you as soon as I can. I will always make time to answer questions! ♥