Tracers
Tracers can be defined as the experience of trails being left behind moving objects such as people, birds or cars. Tracers are usually very obvious and are similar in appearance to the same sort of trails found behind moving objects in long exposure photographs. These can manifest themselves as either smooth trails or multiple layers of the same repeated image which progressively fade into the background with each repetition. The trails can be exactly the same colour as the moving object that is producing it or can sometimes be a randomly selected colour of their own.
A consistent way to reproduce this visual effect is to move ones hand in front of their face or throw an object under the influence of psychedelics.
Tracers can be broken down into 4 basic levels of visual intensity. These are defined as:
- Transparent - The most basic form of tracer can be described as an almost completely transparent after-image which disappears almost immediately and drags shortly behind moving objects with a maximum length of approximately 2 - 3 inches.
- Translucent - At this level, tracers increase in their length to become at least roughly half as long as the distance across the visual field which the object it is following has moved. In terms of clarity, the tracers shift from barely visible to distinct and only partially transparent in colour.
- Opaque - This is the level at which tracers become completely solid in appearance and opaque in colour with distinct and sharp edges to their shape which draw a clear contrast between the tracer itself and the background behind it. They become equal in length to the distance across the visual field which the object it is following has moved in and can remain in the air for up to several seconds.
- All-encompassing - The highest level occurs at the point when a person’s visual field has become so sensitive to the creation of tracers that the entirety of a person’s visual field smudges and blurs into one all-encompassing tracer at the slightest movement of the eye. This can make it extremely difficult to clearly see unless the eyes are kept still and can remain in the air indefinitely or until one moves their eyes and double takes.
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Tracers by Chelsea Morgan -
Motion by Bill Wadman -
Tumbling Dice by Rosendahl
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