Lines Appear When Staring at Bright Lights - What's the Explanation?

[Jeremy87]

I took a few pictures too before I saw it was already done. Anyway, the more the better I guess =).

Found it works really well by looking between two credit cards or similar. For my picture I had a piece of paper pressed between the cards to force a very thin opening.
It looked *much* better in the preview image, then the camera decreased the exposure a lot when taking the actual picture, so most of the pattern disappeared. You can still see it though.

 

[sophiecentaur]

I took a few pictures too before I saw it was already done. Anyway, the more the better I guess =).

Found it works really well by looking between two credit cards or similar. For my picture I had a piece of paper pressed between the cards to force a very thin opening.
It looked *much* better in the preview image, then the camera decreased the exposure a lot when taking the actual picture, so most of the pattern disappeared. You can still see it though.

It's a lot harder to get a decent photo than to see the effect with your eye and I am sure it must be to do with the apertures of the eye vs camera. I could get nothing on a 18-55mm lens until I put a pinhole aperture in front.