[metaphiston]

Here is a music video I made with Pentax lenses (Pentax-DFA 100mm f2.8 Macro, Pentax-A 50mm f1.2, Sigma 24mm Super-wide II f2.8) and a bunch of cameras (Pentax k-5, Canon 7D and Canon 600D).

You Tube

You Tube

I used my Pentax k-5 for the bubbles in air shots (around 2:00 to 2:40), and a Canon 600D for the closest shots due to it's full-HD 3x digital zoom mode, and the Canon 7D for the remainder. Pentax lenses all the way - the 50mm and 24mm were reversed to focus very close up.

Using reversed lenses alongside a true macro lens really emphasises the weaknesses of reversed lenses - notably reduced corner sharpness and colour aberrations. However, in this case neither is a problem when shooting bubbles as they curve away to out of focus in the corners anyway, and bubbles are so awash with colours and optical effects of their own that the small chromatic aberrations of a reversed lens are small fry by comparison! Still, the true macro shots are razor sharp - see the long shot at 0:57 for example.

The bubbles were created from a litre of home made bubble mix (water with 5% washing up liquid and a teaspoonful of guar gum (thickening agent) and sugar (also helps thicken), with more water added to loosen it up for some shots). I used a variety of backdrops and intensity/harshness of light with bounce boards and diffusers and coloured card. Also for some shots a CD was placed nearby to reflect rainbow colours.

It was interesting to see the life of a bubble - it goes from opaque and slimy to increasingly transparent, then you start to see iridescence, initially in plate-like blocks of bright colours, becoming more fragmented and eventually quite muddy and partially transparent, then it goes yellowy and finally pops!

I think the resulting effect is pleasantly dissonant with the music, and has a nice abstract feel to it. Lyrics overlaid for sing-a-long-a purposes :-)

---------- Post added 03-06-14 at 02:57 PM ----------

I have additional bubble photographs here - all shot on my Pentax k-5 as tests for this video.

Bubbles - Imgur

[fuent104]

It is brilliant in concept and execution. It would be a dream come true for me to shoot a music video with this level of originality and simplicity. Congratulations. You simply must enter this into some music video contests. It is better than many of the music videos out there.

[Tako Kichi]

As a former college lecturer teaching video making and professional sound recording courses I have to say I really enjoyed that, well done.

There were perhaps a couple of edits I would have done differently for technical reasons or to fit the music better but it's not enough to distract from the overall feel.

[VisualDarkness]

Psychadelic deluxe, nice one.

[kadajawi]

I liked it a lot. The song too. Very well done, there's nothing I can complain about.

[maleek]

Great idea well executed.