Recipe for a fish eye lens for those on a budget:
3 tablespoons Dawn dishwashing soap. 1 teaspoon glycerin. 1 teaspoon canola oil. 4 tablespoons water. Mix very gently as to not aerate, or create foam in the mixture.
Bend a piece of coat hanger wire with a 2" loop at one end. Turn on your camera and have it at the ready. Dip the looped end of the coat hanger wire in your new mixture and gently blow. If a bubble is formed, grab your camera and take a picture of the bubble with the subject you wish to show at your back. Simple! Also it is a very good exercise for developing rapid hand eye coordination.
(the resulting image may be a bit distorted...but hey...you get what you pay for!)
Cheers,
twee
Edited by twee on Apr 21, 2008 at 02:09 PM GMT (Reason: spelling)
Very interesting and compelling shot. What a lovely scene you have captured in this bubble. I love how the image is inverted in its distortion which creates a feeling of swirling around. Great capture. Good luck this week.
Thanks to everyone for your supportive comments! It is fun to try and shoot soap bubbles, it has been a few years since I have tried it.
Yes Steve, the light does strange things when it interacts with a thin film. When the bubble is first formed, the film thickness is at its maximum, and reflects more light. As time passes (mere seconds) the bubble film thickness decreases, and is not so reflective. There are lots of books and web articles on the properties of soap bubble film, some relevant to camera lens coatings! The AR or anti reflective coatings used on lens use principles learned from studying single layer films like those in soap bubbles.
