Abstract macro photography: shooting soap bubbles at home

Get prepared

Set up a sheet of black card or black fabric to use as your background. A macro lens with a focal length of 100mm is ideal, but any macro lens will do the job, including the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM or the Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM. If you're using a Canon EOS R System camera, the Canon RF 35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM lens is ideal, or with a Canon EOS M series camera, the Canon EF-M 28mm f/3.5 Macro IS STM. Any of these will be great for this technique and enable you to capture the intricate details.

To make a long-lasting soap film, mix washing-up liquid or liquid soap with some glycerine (you can find this in a pharmacy, in the baking aisle of a supermarket or online). Start with a mixture of about 80% detergent and 20% glycerine, and add a little water. You will also need a small loop of wire that you can dip into the mixture – a length of metal coat hanger bent into shape works well for this. Lift the loop out flat and the soap film should cling to the wire.

Lighting

You can use either daylight or flash for this technique, but the vivid colours are only visible when the soap film is lit from the front at a slight angle. Try moving around so you can use the light from a window or a lamp to shine onto the solution.

If you're using your camera's built-in flash unit to wirelessly trigger a compatible Canon Speedlite, the feature can be activated in the main menu. The Canon Speedlite will also need to be set to Receiver mode. Using an off-camera Canon Speedlite such as the Canon Speedlite 470EX-AI gives you more control over the direction of the light. Try bouncing the light off a white wall, low ceiling or even a sheet of white card or polystyrene held above the camera and pointing down onto the soap film in order to diffuse the light (as shown here).

Shooting

For consistent results, set the camera to Manual mode. Using the fast burst of bounced light from a Canon Speedlite can help you achieve the sharpest images but make sure the flash sync speed is the same as the shutter speed (you can find this information in your camera's manual). On this Canon EOS 800D, the flash sync speed is 1/200 sec. To increase the depth of field, set a small aperture setting, such as f/11 or f/16, and start with a low ISO in the region of 100-400.

If you're using ambient light instead of flash, you may need to increase the ISO and fire the camera using the self-time function or a remote control in order to get sharp results.

Experiment