How to take a photo of the moment a bubble bursts?

If you may need a creative boost or need to rediscover your passion for photography. If you decide to accept this difficulty challenge. I hope you find this helpful in capturing bursting bubbles.

1. Use large bubbles

Larger soap bubbles are easier to focus on than small bubbles, and they are also easier to pop. Additionally, the composition of your shot can really benefit from using larger bubbles - you should be able to get the frame of the bubble to fill the shot without the need for cropping.

2. Find a friend to help you

Unless you have superhuman reaction time, you may need someone else to help you with this project! Blowing bubbles, popping bubbles, setting up shots is just too simple for me, I do it myself. Someone blows the bubbles for you, allowing you to compose and focus your photos without distraction.

3. Shoot indoors

If possible, shoot indoors to limit the movement of bubbles. I take many photos outdoors, but any breeze will cause the bubbles to fly away quickly, making it more difficult to capture.

This gives the background a lot of natural light and some pleasant natural colors, which is exactly the look I was going for. Remember to leave some space between the bubble and the window to reduce possible reflections or glare on the glass.

4. Use a zoom lens

Even when shooting indoors, the movement of the bubbles can still be somewhat unpredictable. For this reason, I find it very useful to use a zoom lens when photographing bubbles, so I can adjust the focus as needed to focus and compose the shot while the bubble is in mid-air. Another advantage of using this lens is that it helps create some pleasing bokeh (blurred out-of-focus highlights) in the background while keeping the bubble detail sharp as the focal length increases.

5. Shoot in full manual mode

Shooting in full manual mode gives you control over the settings you need to get good results. First, you need to set your shutter speed as fast as possible depending on the light available. The action of popping bubbles is very fast, so you'll want to set your camera to a shutter speed of 1/1000 second or faster to freeze the action - the faster, the better.

With such a fast shutter speed, you will need to use a wider aperture (low f-number) or a higher ISO setting. However, due to the unpredictability of bubble movement, you don't want to have such a wide aperture (and therefore, shallow depth of field) that most of the bubbles are out of focus. For this reason, I prefer to increase the ISO setting before dialing in a wider aperture, as some of the additional noise in the image is easier to manage (and can be corrected to some extent during post-processing) rather than having big bubbles. The image is out of focus.

If the available natural light is not enough to provide a fast shutter speed, you can use a flash to help freeze the action. However, I recommend using a diffuser or reflector in any flash situation, especially when shooting indoors in front of a window.

6. Manual focus

Try to capture bursting bubbles without using autofocus. The autofocus is too slow and shots are missed because the camera struggles to find focus. If nothing else, this project will give you a lot of practice with manual focus!

7. Stay calm and carry on

The speed at which bubbles burst means you may need to try multiple times to get the timing right. Patience is key. Don't give up on the challenge. Accept that it will be a little frustrating, but know that when you get the timing points, your final image will be more satisfying.