Description Presented here is a vast gallery of many different forms of Optical Illusions. Whether these optical illusions are conveyed through fractals, photographs, architecture, art, or old fashioned pen and ink, they are bound to remind you that "seeing is not believing."
Caution!!!!Some of the optical illusions on this blog may cause dizziness or possibly epileptic seizures. The latter happens when the brain can't handle the conflicting information from your two eyes. If you start feeling unwell when using this website, immediately cover one eye with your hand and then leave the page. Do not close your eyes because that can make the attack worse.
Here is an optical illusion created by Herman J. Verwaal from his deformation series
Herman points out the red strips appear to be deformed where they cross the fluorescent lights. I agree the red strips seem to narrow as they cross the lights. Even more fascinating to me is that the red strips seem darker where they cross the lights. Yes the red strips only seem darker.
The fact is that the red strips have a red green blue measurement of R:246, G:4, B:0. No matter where in the strip you measure the color is constant. I find this fascinating because the red in each strip, where it crosses the light, appears to darken.
The bottom line is that the red strips above are perfectly straight and the shade of red does not change at any point in this image.
Herman has an excellent collection of Pop Art, Paintings, and Optical illusions. He has given me permission to feature his pieces here. This is just one of many. His illusion art ranges from color perception to distorted illusions.
Thank You for sharing these excellent illusions Herman.
I ran across an illusion that purported that if you stared at the center the colors in the image will be represented by shades of gray. The best I could do with that illusion was shades of red. I decided that it missed the mark, but I recalled the Disappearing Fluff optical illusion that did cause colors to vanish into a gray mist. Using the color scheme from that illusion I modified the original image (developed by Ed Minchau) until I succeeded in creating an optical illusion where the colors faded away and all that was left were shades of gray.
Vanishing Color (c)2007 Walt Anthony
Stare at the center dot (for about 60 seconds from about 12 inches away) and shortly the various colors should blend into various shades of gray. Did this optical illusion work as well for you as it does for me? Let me know.
Here we have an apparently green liquid being poured into a clear glass with normal lighting, but in the glass we see red liquid splashing around. Is this a magic trick or is there and optical illusion at play here? Read what the artist says below.
The artist that created this image, Catherine said,
"Addicted I am, I tell you, to complementary colors. If you put water in a jug and add green and red food coloring (to the same water, in the same jug) and pour it from one receptacle to another the illusion (light and refraction) is that it is green turning into red. It's really red-green reacting to the light. Cool, huh?"
Aside from Flickr Catherine has an excellent photoblog and had a book released last year titled Create Your Own Photo Blog. On her site she states,
"I honestly do believe everyone with a camera should have their very own photo blog - this is my effort to see if I can help with that. "
I was wandering around the web looking for a way to share this site with more people and came across the American Flag League. This is a blog alliance that the only requirement to get on the list is to have an American Flag on your site. So I thought it would be a good time for this optical Illusion.
This is the first after image optical illusion that I have placed on this blog so here are some instructions. Stare at the red dot in the center of the flag image for 30-60 seconds then look at the center of the white spot below or any white surface in the area.
Why did you see a red, white and blue American flag? Those colors are the negative of the above black, blue and yellow image. The negative is what is left after you stop staring at the image. If you were to take the above image and open it in MS Photo Editor and select negative from the effects menu you would have a nice bright American flag.
I found this illusion on several sites on the internet. One semi-popular link farm spent 6 pages of comments discussing this optical illusion. Many were confused about what this optical illusion was all about so let's start off with the following. (If all goes well you might see something like the small image to the right).
The below image is an animated gif file.
The image is composed of 12 frames, each frame has 11 purple dots on a gray background.
These frames are designed so it looks as if one dot is removed at a time progressing clockwise.
There is no green dot in this image at all.
There is no green dot in this image at all.
There is no green dot in this image at all.
Stare at the center cross, you will notice a green dot start going around the circle. As you continue to stare the green dot will appear to consume the purple dots until all that is left is the green dot circling the cross, then the purple dots will reappear one by one until they are all visible again.
Viewing two colors at the same time influences both of their appearances. The following is an example of simultaneous contrast.
It is easy for me to state that the gray bar is exactly the same shade of gray throughout it's range. Most of us however will swear that the bar varies in color as it progresses across the page. If you have access to a color identifier program you will find that the bar is color 7e7e7e at every point within it's border. Otherwise put the RGB value is R126 G126 B126.
Simultaneous Contrast Illusion. The gray bar is the same shade throughout.
I have seen this illusion many times and for some reason never focused on it. I must have past by this optical illusion a dozen times before finally focusing on an article and reading what it is about. It is very similar to the checkershadow illusion but involves color rather than just shades of gray.
Image Copyright Dale Purves, R. Beau Lotto and Surajit Nundy.
The "blue" tiles on top of the left cube and the "yellow" tiles on top of the right cube are actually the same shade of gray. If you use an eye dropper tool to fine the red, green, blue values of each square you will find the value is not precise across any square but they are all definitely grey with a RGB value around R142 G149 B157.
Another interesting tidbit is that the red tiles on top of the left cube are orange and the red tiles on the top of the right cube are purple.
I also found this optical illusion at Archimedes-Lab. This is one of the better illusions that require you to stare. The clarity of the picture after you follow the instructions below is amazing. Try it.
From the same team at MIT that brought you the Checker shadow illusion here is a flash movie demonstration that outlines how the some shades of color can be made to look different when the context of what it around them changes.
This is an excellent interactive site that explores color, light, motion, depth, form and other interesting visual phenomena.
Of particular interest on this site is their LITE Vision area. This area includes a range of visual effects and illusions. Currently under development, it is written in Flash. Many of the applets allow the user to explore, manipulate and enhance the phenomena under study.
Lesson number one on this blog "Seeing isn't Always Believing."
Let's start by stating the not so obvious. Square A and Square B below are the exact same color. Hard to believe isn't it?
I look at this and find it hard to believe. But I used the extension in Firefox called colorzilla which provides you with an eyedropper tool. I checked both of squares and sure enough the RGB values of the grays in both square A and square B are 120-120-120.
That wasn't good enough for my 11 year old daughter she printed the picture out, cut out the squares and put them next to each other an sure enough they were the same exact shade of gray.
Click on the picture for a larger image.
The squares marked A and B are the same shade of gray.
This very moment I know they are the same color, but my eyes refuse to allow me to see it by just looking at the picture. Try and convince yourself that they are the same color. I know it is true but I don't see it as being true.
The documents distributed here have been presented on this blog in the spirit of providing an entertaining venue to educate those interested in optical illusions.
All Flckr.com photos are presented here via Flckr's "blog this" feature. This feature is enabled by each artist on Flckr. If you find material here that belongs to you and you would like to have it removed or credited please contact me and I will gladly follow your wishes.
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. On her site she states, 
