I intent to take a picture of a bathtub full of water filled with a rubber duckies and some bath toys toys, only the water is going to be manipulated to look like space, I’m going to toy around with some Styrofoam balls to look like planets and a sun, and there are going to be bubbles that I plan on transforming into stars.
But I need stuff that fizzles. Preferably stuff I already own. I’ll be taking a lot of shots, so I’m really hoping there’s a common household item that creates a lot of bubbles when submerged into water I either don’t know about or am not thinking of.
Quick name drops and suggestions would help bring my picture to life.
And hopefully keep me from buying stuff I don’t need. I am bah-roke!
Anything that creates CO2 upon mixing should work. Vinegar and baking soda should do the trick (provided you have enough vinegar that the bathtub full of water doesn’t dilute it too much). You could also try alka-seltzer.
I get these fizzing bath balls from a place called Melt. The benefit: they are balls, so they already look like planets, and they come in a variety of colors. One of them in a bath fizzes for about five minutes. It sounds like you need more than one. They are about $4 apiece. They are a common household item in my house, anyway.
Or you could get a bunch of Alka-Seltzer tablets.
ETA: the Melt balls roll around and go all over the tub.
I recall seeing some liquid soaps with glitter in it to make a woman’s skin sparkle. You might want to check the discount drug stores first, and then those “goochie, poochie, smoochie” bath specialty stores.
This may help give you a better background of “stars” depending on your lighting in the photos.
Try using mildly soapy water and drop in some dry ice. The soap should help keep the bubbles around.
Dry ice is sold in some grocery stores, and there may even be free sources if you look and ask around.
It doesn’t give a good fizzy effect though. Having thrown more than my share of sodium into water over the years, I can tell you that it’s so light that it floats. In fact, the reaction often goes so fast (the sodium combining with water to create sodium hydroxide and liberating hydrogen gas. and heat, which ignites that hydrogen) that the sodium often will skitter across the surface of the water, and can come back at you, if you don’t watch it.
The sodium hydroxide that results is colorless, by the way, and doesn’t discolor the water. The fact that the water in that You Tube video turns pink shows that they added something to the water – probably phenolphthalein, to show that the sodium hydroxide-tainted water is basic.
I’ve never heard of Melt. Where do they sell them?
Alka Seltzer tablets sound like they might work.
No, I think the bath tub will be a bit full for that.
That could be really cool…even if the picture does have me sitting in the tub and I end up covered in glitter for the next five days. I imagine the glitter could work with the bubbles and wouldn’t have to replace them. Thanks!
I think I’ll pass on the dry ice since I wouldn’t want to be in the water at the same time as that.
How long is your ‘shoot’ going to last?
You might be better off going to the local pet store and buying a cheap air pump and some tubing and air stones.
Dunno. Until I get a shot that I’m happy with I suppose.
This one took two nights. Photoshop/Corel Paint Shop Pro X is going to play a much bigger role in this one, and I have no idea how to use it, so this might take a big longer. I’m still not sure where I’m getting photos of our different planets (ones without copyright restrictions at that) I can layer onto the Styrofoam balls I’m using, how to layer over the images of planets onto the Styrofoam balls, and I still don’t have a toy ship. The toy ship is pivotal. I’d prefer a pirate ship, and never mind there’s a blockbuster pirate movie in theaters right now, I can’t find a toy pirate ship for sale. ANYWHERE.
And I really thought the rubber duck was going to be the hard to find item for this shoot. Those practically came falling out of the sky. But no one’s in the toy pirate ship business these days. I may very well have to make my own.
I’m also toying around with the best way to turn the water into “OOUUUUUUUUUTER SPAAAAAAAAACE!”. I initially thought I’d magic lasso the water’s edge and switch to the image’s negative, but after toying around with this test shot, I’m thinking switching the water to black and white and cranking up the contrast, plus turning down the brightness, is the way to go.
The finished picture will be color, save for the water.
I don’t think that will be too hard. From the copyright code:
§ 105. Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works
35
Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government, but the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.
