Nick Benson was inspired to create this beautiful Op Art photo whilst doing research for his 2D Colour Theory class.  From Wikipedia: “Although being relatively mainstream, photographers have been slow to produce op art. In painting, Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley were producing large amounts of art and the same can be said for many digital artists, such as Kitaoka. One of the primary reasons for the lack of photographers doing op art, is the difficulty in finding effective subject matter”

Limitless - Nick Benson Photography

Nick says:  “I took that last sentence as a challenge. Here’s my first attempt at some Photographic Op Art, as well as the steps I took in creating this.

– I found a subject matter on the University of Hartford’s campus

– Took the photo using my Sigma 10-20mm lens to create more prominent vanishing points

– Processed the camera’s RAW image file in Adobe Lightroom 3

– Cropped the photo down to an 11×14 aspect ratio for a more effective compositon

– In Photoshop CS5 I inverted the colors and added a cooling filter, to create the three major classes of color interaction; simultaneous contrast, successive contrast, and reverse contrast.”

Nick says he is planning to take more Op Art inspired photos in the near future, so please keep an eye on the new Op Art Photography Gallery where we’re hoping to see more of Nick’s work soon.  In the meanwhile, you can see more of Nick’s inspiring photos at Nick Benson Photography on Flickr.

A Flag for the Forgotten - Nick Benson