Photo Tips

How to Take Photos of Frozen Bubbles

Me Ra Koh

Taking photos of bubbles is always fun in the summer!

But have you ever tried taking photos of frozen bubbles?

Imagine Taking Photos Below Zero Degrees!

Wendy Huddleston-Bloohm layered up with her husband and son to brave -21 degrees in Wisconsin.  Yes, -21 degrees!

Together, they had a blast FREEZING the action…like literally FREEZING!

This is a FROZEN Bubble!

Camera Settings with Tips

To capture your own photos of frozen Bubbles, put your camera in Manual mode and try Wendy’s settings;

ISO: 100

When you’re shooting in the snow or at the beach, light is reflecting everywhere!  Take advantage of this and use the lowest ISO possible for best color saturation and vividness.

Aperture: f/2.8

To have what I call a “buttery-blurry” background, dial your f-stop (aperture) as low as you can.

Shutter Speed: 1/4000th sec

The shutter speed is freezing the action.  Does anyone know why Wendy’s shutter speed is so fast?  If you guessed “light” you’re right!  There is so much light from the snow’s reflection that the shutter has to open and close CRAZY FAST to not have an overexposed image.  And when your shutter speed is over 1/125th of a second, you also get clear, crisp, freezing of action too!

Another Tip: Photos of Frozen Bubbles

Wendy told our Confidence Facebook Group that the bubble solution started freezing when they went outside.

She suggests putting the bubble solution in a thermos to keep it warm.

This will avoid the solution freezing before you can blow a bubble.

I still can’t believe she braved -21 degrees!  Is her family AWE-mazing or what?!

This is a fun shot of her husband wearing their son’s hat while blowing frozen bubbles (…because we all know those times when our little ones decide not to wear their hats even though it’s below 0 degrees!  So classic.  LOL!)

Want to Practice Your Shutter Speed Skills More?

Keep Your Bubbles!

When the weather warms up, try this photo exercise on how to freeze the action!

You’ll be working with bubbles and your kids.  But in a much warmer climate.

Notice the different camera settings depending on time of day versus Wendy’s camera settings for the snow.

It’s fascinating!

CLICK HERE for the exercise

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