Trying to capture my dog chasing bubbles

Jzazzi

My dog Dajoun loves bubbles. We love watching him chase bubbles. This is in my front yard as a proof of concept for something I've been trying to capture for a while now. It's really difficult to control the situation though. The wind blows the bubbles every which way, autofocus on my kit lens isn't fast enough to keep up most of the time, and my bubble blowing volunteer isn't very consistant either. I will go to the local park to get a better background next time (cars and houses make lousy backgrounds for this, I hope grass and trees will look better).

Any ideas on how to better control the scene? I'm thinking I can train my volunteer to blow a few bubbles at a time, from a set position and pray the wind cooperates. I think late afternoon in the shade will give best lighting for this because Dajoun's black and white is hard for the camera to meter correctly. Maybe use manual mode for consistancy? I'm trying to get an idea before doing this again because I have to bring another person along, and she's getting tired of this project : (

(this image has a fake depth of field, it's not from the lens, the grass and car were fairly sharp)

Zazzi

Harryb

Jzazzi wrote:

My dog Dajoun loves bubbles. We love watching him chase bubbles. This is in my front yard as a proof of concept for something I've been trying to capture for a while now. It's really difficult to control the situation though. The wind blows the bubbles every which way, autofocus on my kit lens isn't fast enough to keep up most of the time, and my bubble blowing volunteer isn't very consistant either. I will go to the local park to get a better background next time (cars and houses make lousy backgrounds for this, I hope grass and trees will look better).

Any ideas on how to better control the scene? I'm thinking I can train my volunteer to blow a few bubbles at a time, from a set position and pray the wind cooperates. I think late afternoon in the shade will give best lighting for this because Dajoun's black and white is hard for the camera to meter correctly. Maybe use manual mode for consistancy? I'm trying to get an idea before doing this again because I have to bring another person along, and she's getting tired of this project : (

(this image has a fake depth of field, it's not from the lens, the grass and car were fairly sharp)

Zazzi

You would want to shoot early AM or late afternoon, I prefer early morning light myself. You definitely want to avoid strong light for this capture.

I would start out in aperture priority with EV adjustments. Once you have the exposure nailed I would switch to manual and make adjustments as the light and/or background changes.