noun

• An impression of a vivid image retained by the eye after the stimulus has ceased.

  ‘They could also be after-images, hypnagogic imagery, or memory images with subliminal material that was not veridical.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘But after-images (of complementary colour and brightness) can be caused by staring intently at any pattern of high contrast.’
  • ‘Yet the image of the landscape lingered in his eyes, an after-image caused by the brilliant bolt of energy.’
  • ‘Such complementary colours produce the greatest reciprocal enhancement by simultaneous contrast when juxtaposed; also when negative after-images are produced, these will be of the colour complementary to that which produces them.’
  • ‘In low light, they create after-images, just like stained glass.’
  • ‘Tate has acquired this smaller installation, two curved rooms where changing coloured lights exploit the effect of retinal after-images.’
  • ‘Move the eye to the left of the canvas after focusing on the stripes and after-images appear.’
  • ‘But if you squint, or view the design at a distance, it morphs in the mind's eye into a much more conservative composition, very much the after-image of its symmetrical Central Park West forebears.’
  • ‘‘After spending that day just staring at the space where the buildings were, it was as if there was an after-image imprinted on your retina, and there's something of that in the towers of light,’ he said.’
  • ‘We only get brief pulses of memories, like a flash bulb going off in your face, leaving the after-image lingering onscreen for a few seconds.’
  • ‘If you stare at a bright colour for a time and then look at a white surface, you will see an after-image, which will be the subtractive complement.’
  • ‘Blooming out fogs the screen by producing a temporary after-image.’
  • ‘I stared at it long after it had vanished, the after-image imprinted on my retina.’
  • ‘Focus on the after-image of the light, without moving your head, until it completely vanishes.’
  • ‘I looked up, and at each flash of lightning, an after-image of a bird was left.’
  • ‘When I stand up, that after-image remains fixed in my visual field.’
  • ‘The blaze began to die down, the flames diminished until all that was left was the dull reddish after-image.’