Soap Bubbles .

If you would like to post, you'll need to register. Note that if you have a BCG store account, you'll need a new, separate account here (we keep the two sites separate for security purposes).

Silver Eagle

Well-known member
Supporting Member
Marketplace
Beating the November Blahs.
In these parts, both flowers and insects are dormant until Spring. COVID has precluded all travel until..who knows.
So, it’s back to basics to get a bit of Macro fun.
It would be interesting to know what Macro projects the Forum Members are into to beat these rather dull days.


1605820104530.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

1605820124196.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

1605820189712.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.


1605820229278.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

1605820291282.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
Holly heck! How about a webinar/video/ ?? on how you do it ? I live in Minnesota and all the bugs are dead and I want to learn more about this!!!
Hi Andrew,
There are many video tutorials available on youtube. Here are the links to a couple:
The biggest challenge is placing the light just right. Also, if you don't have glycerin for your soap mix you can use clear corn syrup. My soap mix is 3 cups water, 6 tbsp spoon of Dawn dish soap, and 3 tbsp of glycerin. Have fun, and please share your results.
 
I will suggest another Winter macro project - ice crystals. Like those in the soap bubbles, the colors you see in these ice crystals are a result destructive interference. But the interference is from a different mechanism. Here is the setup: An LED light source covered with a piece of polarizing material (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XWXRB75/?tag=backcogaller-20). Put a polarizing filter on your macro lens and mount your camera looking down on the light source. Adjust your polarizing filter to make the light as dark as possible. This is when the polarizing directions of the filter on the light and filter on the camera are at right angles. Now add a thin piece of glass on which you have frozen water between the light source and the camera. The colors you will see in the ice depend on the orientation and thickness of the ice crystals. Play around with different rates of freezing to get different size crystals.

Geologists use this approach with their petrographic microscopes to identify and study the minerals in thin sections of rocks. The second image here is one I took of pyroxene crystals under such a microscope.

Ice Crystals.jpg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.


Pyroxene Crytals.jpg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
John--Nice pyroxene image. It's been a long time since optical mineralogy for me (as a student and lab TA). Is that from a metamorphic rock or is it just weathered?
Glen
 
John--Nice pyroxene image. It's been a long time since optical mineralogy for me (as a student and lab TA). Is that from a metamorphic rock or is it just weathered?
Glen
Thanks Glen! Those pyroxene crystals were from a sample that was experimentally deformed as part of my Ph.D. research in the early 1970's. I don't recall the exact conditions but it was probably under 10 kilobars of confining pressure, 800 degrees C, and a strain rate of 0.00001 per second. You can see the bigger crystals breaking up and small crystals forming at those new boundaries. Most of my work was with quartz which is not nearly as colorful under crossed polars.
 
Tiny bubbles
In the wine
Make me feel happy
Ah, they make me feel fine… 🥂
Happy New Year, Grumpy and all Forum Members.

Air bubbles in school glue.
1609457426801.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.


Air bubbles over baking powder crystal. Cross-polarized.
1609457443647.jpeg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
Back
Top