Pancharatnam Sunset 

Transmission of diffuse light (from an RGB LED flashlight) through a cycloidal diffractive waveplate. The waveplate (provided by BEAM Co., Orlando, FL, USA) makes use of the Pancharatnam phase, where arbitrary variations may be imparted to polarized light.[OPN 2025 Photo Contest Honorable Mention]    

—Image by Ph.D. student Xiulian Shan; edited by advisor Grover Swartzlander, Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, USA

26 Dec 2025

Illuminated Hands

Hands illuminated with a white LED lamp appear semi-transparent. Lower frequencies of light pass through the tissues of the hand, while higher frequencies are blocked, generating the glowing red color of the skin.[OPN 2025 Photo Contest Honorable Mention]    

—Andrea Aiello, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany

19 Dec 2025

Bottle of Dust and Light

This photo presents a tangible manifestation of a 3D caustic surface. This effect was achieved by collimating light rays from lasers of two different colors and directing them onto an optical device that was fabricated using additive manufacturing, featuring an interface with an elliptical profile specifically designed for this purpose.[OPN 2025 Photo Contest Third Place]  

— Osvaldo Ponce-Hernández and Maximino Avendaño-Alejo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

12 Dec 2025

Prismatic Interference

A diffraction pattern produced by a laser beam interacting with the microscopic grooves of an optical disc (CD). The resulting interference creates vivid, rainbow-like spectral rings. The photograph was digitally enhanced for clarity and color balance, highlighting the physics of light scattering and wavelength separation.[OPN 2025 Photo Contest Second Place]    

—Seema Mor, Sanskaram University Optica Student Chapter, Jhajjar, India; under the guidance of Dr. Babita Hooda, Sanskaram University, India

05 Dec 2025

Artistic Glassware 

Through creative use of artificial light, three water-filled glasses placed on a reflective surface against a dual-color background beautifully demonstrate optical principles like reflection and refraction—transforming simple objects into an artistic interplay of light, color and geometry.[OPN 2025 Photo Contest Winner]  

— Kishore Das, Kolkata, India

28 Nov 2025

Optical Mosaic

Oil droplets dispersed in water create a beautiful natural mosaic. Each droplet acts as a tiny lens, bending and shaping the light into unique patterns. A green digital screen placed beneath the setup provided the luminous background, allowing light to scatter, refract and transmit through the spherical surfaces. [OPN 2025 Photo Contest Editors’ Choice]  

—Sritam Sethy Kumar, M. Pharm Student, Balasore, Odisha, India

21 Nov 2025

Atmospheric Palette

At twilight, sunlight grazing the horizon is sculpted by Rayleigh scattering of the shorter-wavelength blue light and Mie scattering from larger particles and clouds, which scatter across a broader spectrum. The low-lying cloud layer acts as a diffuse reflector, blending warm orange near the horizon into the deep blue aloft—a dynamic interplay of light-matter interaction in nature.  

— Mohammad Hadi Sadri, Department of Physics, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan, Iran

14 Nov 2025

Supercontinuum Generation

A bright blue glow reveals a femtosecond filament forming inside a YAG crystal during supercontinuum generation. The intense laser pulses produce broadband light spanning the visible to the infrared.    

—Matteo Mandelli, VIBRA Lab, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

07 Nov 2025

Jack-o’-Lantern Cloud

At sunset, this cumulus cloud lit up like a giant jack-o’-lantern in the sky. Rayleigh scattering enriched the horizon with deep reds and oranges, while Mie scattering within the cloud’s droplets amplified the fiery glow. The silhouetted trees complete the Halloween-like illusion, showing how simple optical phenomena can paint scenes both eerie and beautiful.    

—Vahid Abbasian, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, USA

31 Oct 2025