Trouble with Bubbles

Colors As mentioned in the last blog post, I will be discussing the science behind the cool colors of bubbles in this blog post. Spend 30 seconds trying to describe the bubble’s color. It is impossible to ascribe a single color to a bubble, as a bubble has an iridescent nature; in other words, the color shifts wildly from different angles. The same iridescence appears on numerous other objects in nature; for example, a gasoline spill’s swirling rainbow patterns on its surface, or a butterfly wing’s shimmery color. While deceivingly simple, there is a surprising amount of science behind the colors that appear on a soap bubble. In this post, I will be attempting to provide an easy-to-understand explanation of the iridescence of a bubble. The post will be broken down into subsections to help with this explanation. Light To begin with, we investigate the driving force behind color: light. Light is an “electromagnetic wave”, meaning that when it travels through space, it ...

Those who are on your iPhone a lot may have seen this image: as it was the stock background for many iPhones. A cursory glance at this image may lead one to believe this is an extraterrestrial planet; I too was mesmerized by this image, when I realized that this was actually the surface of a bubble shot at a close distance. As I alluded to in my previous posts, light shone on bubbles should theoretically have stunning results. In practice, however, most bubble photographs are unflattering and boring. This is because it is extremely tricky to shine a light on a bubble properly in order to capture its capricious colors. I wanted to see if I could recreate an image such as the iPhone wallpaper (and potentially do it better) by capturing the vivid colors of bubbles and I ended up spending quite some time trying to figure out the most optimal and economical way to illuminate and photograph a bubble. To light a bubble properly for the purpose of photographing, a large and broad light sourc...