Stage Lighting for Bubble Shows

Soap bubbles are visible only because they reflect flecks and shimmer in different colors. Bubbles are absolutely transparent, and so that the viewers of your soap show see them better you need a particular kind of light.

Moreover, to make the bubbles change their colors, you need a professional approach here, or just good luck with the arrangement of your lights. To provide the best view of the artist and the soap bubbles, it is important to arrange your stage lighting.

Few people noticed, but a bubble does not immediately start shimmering with colors. This happens 1-2 seconds after it has been blown. It is such a deceptive feeling that the bubble is gradually gaining light. I noticed this a long time ago when we were taking pictures of kids standing inside a soap bubble in kindergartens. Once it was a school, there were about 1,000 children. You can see lots of things during such a long photo shoot.

Let's have look at the nature of these color overflows. I see it like this. A soap film is not homogeneous; there are layers of soap and water in it. The soapy liquid overflow in a soap film occurs from top to bottom due to gravity. Therefore, the film is thinner on top and thicker on the bottom. Besides, the angle of incidence of light and the angle of view are also important. Therefore, the color of the bubble is different.

The soap bubble changes color, because there is a movement of soapy liquid inside its walls. In addition, the thickness of the wall of the bubble changes because of the soap film starts to dry out. To ensure that the soap film does not dry out quickly, you need to choose the right detergent for your bubble show.

The temperature of lighting, its spectrality, as well as the number of light sources matter too. The richest spectral light is the sunlight.

As you can see, there are a lot of factors. Therefore, arranging the stage lights for the performance so that the bubbles are visible and even change their colors is whole other kind of art. The stage light for bubble shows is scarcely described in books and even less on the Internet. To obtain such experience I have to experiment a lot, it is quite costly.

Let me post some photos with a good location of lights and the photographer when the bubbles blaze and shimmer in different colors.

This is one of the most popular of my photos, she went viral on the Internet at the speed of light. Here you can see both the flecks and the color palette of the bubble. Well, and the girl, of course, is nothing but a miracle. This is a photo shoot inside a bubble in one of kindergartens. We have even tried to find this girl to give her a gift, but have not find her.

So, let's consider 2 variants of stages for bubble shows, where you may need a lighting support.

If you need the stage lighting for example in some club, where there is some stationary lighting equipment, ask the technicians to give you some warm yellowish light, and maybe an additional multi-color light device for your show or photo and video shooting. It is important that you are lit by a warm yellow light, so that your soap bubbles during the performance played with their bright colors. It's great, and the photo looks very cool. Your bubble show will become iridescently bright.

Portable lighting devices are used to illuminate the stage during your offsite shows. Most often – with a color dynamic light. Ideally, you need to use both a color changing light, and the foot lights to illuminate the artist, the white ones.

But there is one nuance; it is not always easy and convenient to carry two kinds of lighting equipment for each event. In addition, to illuminate an artist, you need some foot lights and a few above, since the light stream coming from below results in wrong shadows on your face, which is not entirely pleasant and aesthetically looking. In this case it is better to have absolutely no light than with the light, which will distort the face of the artist. To solve this problem, you need to put the white front lights at or slightly above the artist's face.

The most optimal solution is to buy LED lights for your shows. These are LED floodlights. Ideally, if there are 4 lamps that need to be arranged this way: put two of them in the back and 2 in front in the corners of your carpet, and the direction of their light rays are to be directed center stage. These rays will illuminate your soap bubbles, and all viewers will be able to see everything better due to very bright highlights.

LED-lights are quite versatile in their use. They have the ability to adjust their light rays depending on music. When the LED-light is correctly adjusted, the color and music will change simultaneously. Such lighting devices can work in the strobe mode, make bright short flashes of light. It looks very spectacular.

Modern LED-lights are flat and relatively light. The average cost of such a light is about 4,500 rubles. But this investment is worth it. You and your audience will be satisfied with the brightly lit bubble show.

I'm doing bubble shows. This is a full concert lasting for about 100 minutes.
For a big stage and a big bubble show, I use leased equipment worth about 3 million rubles. The rent for one performance is about 110 thousand rubles. This is for large stages, such as large clubs or concert halls. The equipment needs to be transported from city to city, it takes up a whole truck.

This year, for my offsite shows at weddings and corporate parties, I used a rack with 4 LED flood lights + 4 additional spotlights, which are usually used to illuminate the mirror ball to create rays + front light. All these lights were operated from the light console.

In this video, you can see another experiment including the arrangement of such lights during my bubble show:

I must say, this is a sufficiently voluminous light support. Probably, I will refuse from such lighting in the next wedding season.

I'll buy lights, which I will put on the floor, and I'll hang the front white light on the rack. That is because all the structures and racks create inconveniences in their transportation and installation. I also have to take the light operator with me, which creates additional costs.

It is advisable not to give up the front light, it creates a sense of the stage. It's dark in the hall, but the stage is illuminated. One can clearly see the face of the artist and his/her emotions. Like in a classic theater, people feel like they are inside a theater.

Yes, of course, it looks very beautiful, and for some events I will use such lighting. But my practice has shown that such events are not booked very often.