Beautiful Optical Illussions Tricks And Magic

Al illusion have always fascinated mankind since they were first discovered, raising important questions about the way our brain works. The following optical illusions will definitely test your imagination and observational skills to the max so test yourself to see how you perform.

Despite of many years of research the human brain still has a lot of mysteries that are yet to be uncovered. The way our brain perceives reality is a subject that was debated for a long time and the answers are still pretty vague. Although it might be tempting to believe that what we see and what our minds perceives is identical some of the following optical illusions might make us change our mind. A first example is the default picture where it might seem that there are two triangles but in fact only one triangle was drawn. This illusion is known as the Kanizsa Triangle. Here are some other intriguing optical illusions:

Fraser Spiral Illusion

This famous illusion is known as the twisted cord or false spiral illusion. The contrasts in this picture give the impression of a spiral however, this ''spiral'' is actually a simple series of concentric circles that has the power to trick our brain due to the contrasts formed.

The moving image illusion

Sometimes the contrasting colors and the placement of a certain elements can trick our brain into thinking that some images are moving when in fact they are static. This is exactly the case with the following image.

Cafe wall

Another classical optical illusion is the cafe wall, which was first discovered by doctor Richard Gregory. In this illusion although the lines appear to be bent they are actually perfectly straight and actually parallel. Just take a closer look at the picture and you'll immediately see this.

The Hermann Grind

This illusion first discovered in 1870 is characterized by the “ghostlike” intermittent appearance of lightly colored gray dots that seem to connect the white surfaces and the black background. However, once we take a closer look the dots “magically” disappear. This illusion can be explained by a dissonance that takes place in the receptive field of the brain.

Pictographic ambiguity

Nowadays there are a multitude of illusions based on this concept. Photographic ambiguity tests your imagination as well as your observational skills by placing different images that can be perceived by looking from different angles. Can you spot both the young lady and the older one?

Having trouble figuring this one out? here's a little clue to make things easier: the chin of the young lady actually forms the nose of the old lady.

If this one seemed way too obvious for you here's something a little more challenging that will really test your observational skills. Can you find the hidden tiger in this picture?

This painting is might seem like nothing more than a wonderful landscape painting but the this apparently ordinary nature representation holds many secrets that cannot be uncovered at a superficial glance.

In fact the picture has a multitude of hidden portraits all over if you just know how to look. While most people claim that there are 13 faces some claim they have found over 21! How many can you spot?

Tags: Optical Illussions, Beautiful Illussions, Illusion Magic, Illusion Pictures, Landscape Painting

Unbelievable Photoshopped Artwork By Christopher Gilbert

Christopher Gilbert Artwork

I have a rule to avoid placing photoshoped real-life illusions on this site. So many times I hear in my comments: “This illusion is Photoshoped“. I can assure you, that those of you who claim so, are 99% of the time – wrong. Rarely when I post photoshoped illusion, I state it clearly in the post body not to mislead you. Well, this time I couldn’t resist to put this beautiful photos submitted by Eshita Anjum. I’m aware they are edited by a computer, and it is obvious they are. This masterpiece art collection was done by Christopher Gilbert, and you can see the full collection inside. For more photoshopped images see: painted trucks, water flames and the moon star illusion. Enjoy!

Illusions Fool Adults, But Not Kids

I have prepared a little longer article than usual for today, but if you have nerves going through it (specially if you are a kid or have one), I believe you will learn something worth knowing. So let’s begin – take a cup of coffee, sit back in your favorite easy chair and we are ready to start…

Point of this post is to explain how sometimes seeing means deceiving before believing, depending on your age. There is a new study suggesting that children and adults size up objects differently, giving youngsters protection against a visual illusion that bedevils their elders. This unusual triumph of kids over grown-ups suggests that the brain’s capacity to consider the context of visual scenes, and not just focus on parts of scenes, develops slowly. Even at age 10, children lack adults’ attunement to visual context. Paper suggesting so was published online November 12th in Developmental Science. This research was done by psychologist Martin Doherty of Stirling University in Scotland and his colleagues.

You may see three different versions of Ebbinghaus Optical Illusion test accompanying this article. Visual context can be experimentally manipulated to distort adults’ perception of objects’ sizes. But strangely, Doherty’s group finds that children, especially those younger than 7, show little evidence of altered size perception on a tasks such as Ebbinghaus illusion. Other investigators have noted that children with autism don’t succumb to visual size illusions, consistent with the idea that autism involves an excessive focus on details. (more…)

But visual context largely eludes all young children, not just those with autism. Doherty’s team studied 151 children, ages 4 to 10, recruited from a Scottish primary and nursery school. Another 24 volunteers, ages 18 to 25, were college students. You may see the test we are talking about presented in the example below:

Participants viewed a series of images containing pairs of orange circles in which one circle was 2 percent to 18 percent larger than the other. An experimenter asked participants to point to the circle that looked bigger. Control images showed only two orange circles. In other images, each orange circle was surrounded by gray circles intended either to hinder or aid accurate size perception.

Misleading images showed the smaller orange circle surrounded by even smaller gray circles to boost its apparent size. Large gray circles surrounding the larger orange circle were intended to shrink its apparent size. In helpful images, large gray circles surrounded the smaller orange circle to make it appear smaller than it actually was. Small circles surrounded the larger orange circle to magnify its apparent size.

4-year-olds correctly identified the larger circle in 79 percent of control images. That figure rose with age, reaching 95 percent in adults. For 4- to 6-year-olds, accuracy of size perception for misleading images remained at about what it was for control images. Misleading images increasingly elicited errors from older children and tricked adults most of the time. Adults made almost no errors on helpful images. Kids from age 7 to 10 erred on a minority of helpful images, while 4- to 6-year-olds performed no better than chance.

Book Cover Illusion

Francisco Delgado found the original cover by Douglas R. Hofstadter, for the book Godel, Escher and Bach. As you see, the clever design of the object casts three different shadows, each one giving initials of another artist. We reviewed the illusion in this post, and day after received edited version from another reader. Francisco said: “Regarding Steve’s initials, here you go: Godel, Escher and Bach. The book is a killer, too!” More and more we see optical illusions in modern media. Proof for that are recent Sony Bravia billboards, The Prestige movie poster, Mira foundation…

Hands Of God Seen In Clouds

To my knowledge, these two images below weren’t tempered in no way, using photoshop nor simmilar image editing tools. However, I can’t be too certain if such a wonderfull cloud-shapes could actualy take shape by themselves. What do you think? Do they remind you of Michaelangelo’s painting “The Creation Of Adam”? Hands of God:

Waterfall Woman Illusion

Riju Dasgupta, the guy who already submitted illusion few days ago, already sent a new one! The art we see below greatly resembles Skull Bakery, covered by one of our guest bloggers. I forgot his name, but believe it’s the same artist. What is interesting with below illusion, is that it holds few hidden meanings. Not only does the beautiful naked woman in it, participates in a bigger, older women’s profile, there is also a hidden face in it, and one more thing I found… Can you see it? This is probably a reference to life and how it passes us in a blink of an eye. This motive is very often found in art, specially illusions – like Young Woman or an Old Hag, and Old Couple.

Tags: artwork images, photoshopped pictures, Christopher Gilbert, Unbelievable art, beautiful illusions

Amazing Optical Illusion Of A Tiger

Remember the Best Optical Illusion Ever article, posted two months ago? Well, those of you who’ve seen it will have no trouble understanding this one. Rest of you, quickly jump to the prequel post before continuing with this one. Ok, now when you know where this is going, there’s still one additional Easter Egg left.





There is a gallery included below, which reveals how this optical illusion came to existence. In my humble opinion, Craig Tracy really deserves being included in some sort of Art Hall of Fame. Did I remind you that what you are seeing is a real life photo? Now for that Easter Egg – count how many individuals were included this time.

Mummyfied Sea Monster Illusion Pictures

I for one hope this is just an illusion, or I wont be taking a dip in the sea so soon. However, original owner claims this is a real sea monster that was dumped by the sea on a near-bye beach. Discovery Channel also claimed that unbelievable sea creatures live in deep-sea, and that we aren’t aware of their existance. Probably this one is a representative… but I doubt it. Decide for yourself, but before you do, jump inside this article for more pictures, and then jump to eBay for more info on this bid.

Tags: Mummyfied, Illusion, Sea Monster, weird, amazing, Incredible, Discovery Channel