Kwanzaa Kinara Afterimage
Stare at a cyan, white and pink kinara, then see red, black and green candles appear.
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What do you see?
A kinara in strange colors: three cyan candles on the left, a white candle in the middle, three pink candles on the right, blue flames and pale blue wood. Press start and keep your eyes on the small dot in the center candle for thirty seconds. When the picture is replaced by a blank white panel, keep looking at the dot. A ghostly kinara appears in the familiar Kwanzaa colors: red candles on the left, a dark candle in the center, green candles on the right and warm flames, floating for a few seconds before it fades.
How it works
What you see is a negative afterimage, and every color in the picture was chosen as the opposite of the color you are meant to see.
Your retina has three kinds of cone cells that respond best to long, medium and short wavelengths of light, roughly red, green and blue. Further along, their signals are combined into opposing pairs: red against green, blue against yellow and light against dark. This arrangement is called opponent processing, and it explains why there is no such color as reddish green.
When you stare at the cyan candles, the cells that signal green and blue are kept busy and gradually become less responsive, while the red side of the red-green pair rests. When the white panel appears, it sends equal light to all the cones, but the tired ones answer more weakly. The balance tips toward the rested side, so that patch looks red. In the same way the pink candles tire the red and blue signals and leave a green afterimage, the white candle tires the light side and leaves a dark one, and the blue flames leave warm yellow-orange ones.
Keeping your eyes still is important. The afterimage is fixed to the spot on your retina that was tired, so if your eyes wander, the ghost moves with them, and if you blink a lot it fades faster. Thirty seconds is usually enough; a longer stare gives a stronger image.
The afterimage does not last. Within a few seconds the cells recover and the panel looks white again. That is reassuring: the effect is completely normal and harmless, and it is the same process that leaves a spot in your vision after you look at a bright light.
The colors in the ghost are softer than real paint, because adaptation only shifts the balance a little. Viewing the picture large, in a dim room, and keeping very still all make the afterimage clearer.
History
Afterimages were described by Aristotle and studied scientifically by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his 1810 Theory of Colors. Ewald Hering proposed opponent colors in the 1870s, and Leo Hurvich and Dorothea Jameson measured the opponent channels in the 1950s. The kinara holds the mishumaa saba, the seven candles of Kwanzaa, which runs from December 26 to January 1: three red on the left, one black in the center and three green on the right. This kinara is original artwork for Opticalillusions.com.
Try it
- Stare for thirty seconds without moving your eyes, then look at a white wall or a sheet of paper.
- Try forty-five seconds for a stronger, longer afterimage.
- Look at a gray surface instead of white and notice the colors change slightly.
- Ask a friend to try it without telling them what colors to expect.
Frequently asked questions
How do I see the Kwanzaa kinara afterimage?
Press start and keep your eyes on the small dot in the center candle for thirty seconds. When the blank white panel appears, keep looking and a kinara in Kwanzaa colors appears.
Why do the candles change color in the afterimage?
Staring tires the color cells for the colors you see. On the white panel the rested cells win, so cyan candles leave red, pink candles leave green and the white candle leaves a dark one.
What is opponent processing?
Your eyes combine color signals into opposing pairs: red against green, blue against yellow and light against dark. That is why there is no such color as reddish green.
Who studied afterimages?
Aristotle described them, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe studied them in his 1810 Theory of Colors. Ewald Hering proposed opponent colors in the 1870s.
Sources & credits
Negative afterimages and opponent colors were described by Goethe (1810) and Ewald Hering (1870s). The kinara is an original drawing.
- Hurvich, L. M. & Jameson, D. (1957). An opponent-process theory of color vision. Psychological Review, 64.
- Afterimage — overview Read →
- Kwanzaa — overview Read →
Further reading: The Illusions Index (University of Glasgow) and Michael Bach’s Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena.
Written by K.R. for Opticalillusions.com · Updated . Illusion artwork © The Wizard Of Sales, LLC. Feel free to share a link; see our terms for reuse.
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