How to See Afterimages

"In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is - as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art." - Josef Albers 

An afterimage is that spot you see when you are temporarily blinded by a bright flash or right after looking at the sun as it sets. Actually we see them all day long, but we tune them out. With afterimages, the photoreceptive cells in the retina become less responsive to a particular color as you stare at it for a period of time.

The main trick is to pick one spot on an object or scene and focus your eyes on just that one spot. You can do this right now...Relax the eyes but keep your focus on this spot, as you count to thirty.... Next, continue to focus on this one spot, but close your eyes. You are now looking at the afterimage. I find them quite beautiful.

Here is a fun game to play if you are out stuck in traffic at night: You pull up behind a car stopped at a light, stare at one spot on the tail lights of the car in front of you. When the car moves again the red brake lights will turn off, and if you are watching carefully, you will see a turquoise spot there! If you then shift your gaze to a red tail light that is still on, you will behold an amazing effect: the turquoise spot over the red tail light will cause you to see a magenta color over the red tail light!

After images come in all the colors. The main thing you see is the shape of the object you were looking at, in the opposite color! The afterimage will transit through all of the colors if conditions are right. Try different distances, light conditions, types of objects, and colors. Some are way easier to get than others. 

(Here are some online you can try:)

Actually we get afterimage type effects with all of our senses, as our brain tries to reset a balance and filter out an over saturation of a particular stimulus. That still coming at you road feeling when you stop driving after a long haul. The ringing in the ears after a loud event. I get images of weeds on my retina for hours after a long weed pulling session. That still vibrating feeling after a session with a power tool. With smell, you just fill up with a particular scent and are less sensitive to it for a while. And with taste, the well known effect, for example, of a sweet thing not tasting so sweet after tasting a way sweeter thing.