Personally, I appreciate photos so much especially when they have illusion effects. Photos with illusions amaze me a lot. What could we get with these illusions? First, let us know the definition of illusion.

Wikipedia defines illusion as:

“A distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. While illusions distort reality, they are generally shared by most people.”

Illusion tricked our brain and eyes when seeing something that is not really there or something that is not really happening.

Benefits of Photos with Illusions: Exercise and Entertainment

It exercises our minds.

Optical illusions make our minds sharper for it makes us think on what can be on that picture or how could that happened. Optical illusions improve our analytical thinking and it also stimulates our right brain. This is good for most people, for seldom we see left-brainers.

It gives entertainment to viewers.

I always find myself caught up with the entertainment that these illusions give. These give enjoyment to viewers when thinking on what could that happen or what you see on the picture.

Optical Illusion

I consider optical illusion as an art. It amazes me how forms, lines, colors, and brightness or contrast are put together to form one illusion that deceives our optical mechanism or gives us those sleepless nights thinking on what could possibly be on that picture. But did you know that before optical illusions are manually created by men, it is already happening naturally? Yes, it does. Not only nature uses illusions, even military is using this as one of their tactics.

Optical Illusions in Nature

Optical illusions come naturally. For animals, they use illusions to survive where they put their bodies in camouflage so their predators or enemies won’t see them easily.

I have here some pictures to show you how animal camouflage works.

See how the lion blended in the African grasses? Lions does this when they hunt another animal for food.

There is a walking stick that is leaned under the grass. Have you noticed it?

A stingray that hides itself in the sand.

Mirage is a good example of natural optical illusion. See the picture below.

Mirage Over East China Shore

Mists rising on the shore created an in-depth image of a city, with modern tall buildings, wide city streets including cars as well as crowds of people all clearly visible. The city of Penglai had been soaked by two days of rain before the rare weather phenomenon occurred. In Penglai, on the tip of Shandong Peninsula, many mirages have been recorded throughout the history. Because of that city is also known as a dwelling place of the gods.

Optical Illusion Used by Military

A good tactic military thought of is to use colors to blend with the nature foliage.

Image by: Jean Francois

Now, let me present to you optical illusion photos that are created by men. Be amazed and have fun!

Take a look at this photo. What do you see? A rabbit or a duck?

How about this one? Can you figure out on what is in the picture?

Are you giving up already? To find out the answer, click here.

Try looking at this Jesus’ photo for 15–30 seconds. After that, take a look at a wall while blinking your eye. What did you see?

The original image forms a giant bird.

When you put it upside down, the picture would be a guy catching a big fish.

Here is a picture of an island that when turned upside down, you will see a crater.

Island

Crater

Look at this picture, count the faces you will see.

What do you see? A letter E or just black lines?

SUV Illusion

Try measuring the SUVs and be amazed that their sizes are the same but appears to be different.

Camels in the Night Illusion

The palm trees appear to be a camel-shaped.

Black Dots

Try counting the black dots you may found below.

Lucky Clover

See how the circles move?

Double Picture Illusion

Did you see a couple in an intimate position? According to research, when children are the ones seeing this they see dolphins not the intimate couples for they still do not have experience or memory regarding the affair.

Elephant Leg Illusion

Can you count the number of legs this elephant has? Is it four? How about five, six? Or seven maybe? Hmm…

Spiral Illusion

You are seeing a spiral, right? Actually, what includes on the picture are circles put together. And that creates the spiral.

Anamorphic Illusions

Photographers, painters and designers are now using anamorphosis to give attraction to their photographs. Mostly, they use pencils to draw or other drawing tools to create such photo.

Wikipedia defines Anamorphosis as:

A distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image. “Ana – morphosis” comes from the Greek words meaning “formed again.”

Anamorphosis is commonly used in road markings where they put wordings and arrows in a position where drivers can easily read and understand them. Take a look this example, even you are still far you will still see the arrow and words. And as you are getting near of it, they become bigger and more readable.

Take a look at the examples below. Note that these are not edited or modified using a photo editor software.

Julian Beever is a famous creator of anamorphic illusion photos. Below are his great works of 3D anamorphic illusion photos.

Sidewalk Drawing

This is an example of an anamorphic illusion created by Julian Beever. This sidewalk drawing was drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint.

Breakfast

An anamorphic photo illusion drawn in a large size of paper.

Portable Computer

Another photo illusion in anamorphosis. A laptop drawn on the floor of The Strand, London.

Christmas

A floor painting where Santa Clause is caught by policemen going inside a chimney.

To find out more anamorphic illusion drawings of Julian Beever, click here.

Lava Burst

The photo you see below belongs to Edgar Muller's pavement art.

A lava burst was drawn on a street way. Very realistic.

3D Cars Pavement Art

A chalk drawing of a cracked floor where a car fell and flattened and damaged another car.

Can You Believe These Are Flat?

All of these are drawn in 3D using a pencil.

Happy Kettles

Notice the face of the kettles? Those are just reflections of the stove. Cool, isn’t? One technique to take a anamorphic photo is to get its perfect angle to make it look good, and this one is a best example.

Seeing two lighters? The right one is drawn and the left one is real.

BONUS: Dual-Meaning Typography

With the name itself, a dual-meaning typography offers a double meaning. This is one way where designers put an art in communicating to viewers. Combining art and communication is one great way to achieve your purpose of communication. These kinds of typography are funny and it really makes you think on what can be the double meanings of such.

To be tricked then impressed, I have here photos that will represent dual-meaning typography that I am telling you.

A mirror reflection with the word, teach and learn in the reverse side of it.

One reason that I enjoy photo illusions is the  Try to guess the two words on each row.

Did you guess that the word is BEHAVE or BELIEVE? Actually, the word is believe where the missing letters form the word, LIE. And those two words are somewhat related, right?

What do you understand written on the Green colored lines? The figure formed on the white lines is a hint.

I like this one. A mind once opened never closes/loses. Be open-minded.

Sources: Best Optical Illusion Websites

Want more optical illusion photos? You may browse some on these websites below.

1. Mighty Optical Illusions

A website that is all about optical illusions. You can also submit your own photos of optical illusions on this website.

2. Eyetricks

You can find optical illusions and also different mind-teasing games and photos on this site.

3. OptIllusions

A website where you can find lots of photos of optical illusions grouped into different categories for your convenience in searching.