Tranquil - Behind the Scenes

For this self portrait I was inspired by the term "Tranquil". It's how I imagine it would feel to float on a cloud. Submerged and all sound drowned out. To feel weightless and fee of burden for a brief moment in time.

That is until the kids find you and are overjoyed to see bubbles and jump straight in to join you!

For this self-portrait I set up my Nikon Z8 overhead using a c-stand. I connected it to my phone using the Nikon SnapBridge app so I could trigger the self timer hands free. I shot with my Nikkor 28-75mm f/28 lens at 35mm, f/4, 1/200sec, ISO 160 to capture the soft detail and depth I envisioned.

Lighting waws simple but dreamy. I used my Profoto A10 flash off-camera with Clic Octa softbox which gave me that soft, glowing light that wraps gently around the bubbles.

I added glycerin to the bubble bath mixture so that the bubbles grew large and lasted for hours. To bring the magic to life I set up a bubble machine. I photographed multiple frames each filled with different clusters of bubbles, knowing I'd later combine them into one final composite to give the illusion of an endless span of bubbles.

In Lightroom and Photoshop I layered together the best bubbles from each image and then fine tuned the tones and colours to create the soft serene look I had imagined.

And just to note, no AI was used!