Be Amazed With These Unbelievable Optical Illusional Photos

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.

Capture Visitors’ Attention Through Your Home Page

What made me decide to share with you this article is the experience I had when I was working as a part-time freelancer. I remember that whenever I planned the design for websites, I always made it a point that the home page is the most attractive page on the site. I made sure that the home page can capture each viewer that visits the site, not only to scan the home page but to enjoy exploring the whole site.
The home page is the page that loads when the Home button is clicked and usually the first page you see when a website loads. Therefore, it is one of the most important pages on your site. Do you agree?


Look at the image below. If a person wants to be loved, the first thing he or she will do is to be attractive to get the attention of the opposite sex. Then, they will find a way to search and know that person well. We know that the first thing a person looks for is the physical appearance, that’s why we are doing almost everything just to look attractive. Haven’t you thought that this can also be applied to web design? If a website wants to get the viewers’ attention, then the physical appearance must also be attractive.

Image by: Camille Joyce Pascual

A home page is also like a teaser…
A teaser is one way to advertise, and a homepage advertises too (even a website). A teaser “teases” viewers that drives them to be curious. A homepage should have this characteristic too. Viewers must be curious the first time they see the homepage and make them explore the whole website.

Image by: trolf

In this article, I will be sharing some of my ideas on how can you let your viewers love your site and tease their eyes by making your home page capture viewers’ attention. But let us know first on what should be the characteristics a home page must have.

Must-Have Characteristics of a Homepage

1. Attractive

Every pages of a site must attract viewers. This way, they won’t get bored while visiting each page of your site. But the home page must be more attractive than the other pages of the site because this is the first page your viewers will see. In creating your homepage, you may ask the question, “How can I make the home page attractive?” The answer to this question is good designing.
Appropriate and Attractive Color Scheme
Colors capture viewers’ attention, especially if they are used in an appropriate manner. If your expected viewers are children, the best colors you can use are the bright ones but make it pleasing to the eyes. If you are designing for a company, then you should choose colors that can give a professional look.

Image by: Elissa Merola

rapid xhtml is one of the websites with very attractive color scheme and still remains to be appropriate for the website. The dominating color, which is White plus the nice shade of Blue they used blended well on the other elements of the site such ash the header, the orange mascot and navigations of the site. It’s very appropriate, clean and professional in look.

Creatively Designed Header
Headers also attract people. With modern designing, headers are now becoming very dynamic and really creative. Take a look at the example below. There are different kinds of tools gathered together and on the monitor part, there’s a video clip playing. This is a good concept of telling the audience that the website is related to media such as photography, video, audio, etc.

Easy-to-Understand Navigation
To capture lots of viewers, you need to have a well-designed navigation. Viewers want everything to be spoon fed on your site, so when they see your navigation they should already understand how it works and so.
Carbonica is one good example that has a well-designed navigation. The designer made a nice concept where the buttons are labeled so that people know on what to expect when they clicked a certain button. Like when clicking the motorcycle button, the page that loads is a calculation of a motorcycle’s emission.

2. Focused

Home page must focus on its purpose. For instance, if the website advertises a company’s services then the viewers must instantly know what the website’s purpose is. And that is to advertise the company and its services.
Viewers do not want to waste their time thinking on what could be the site is all about. Instantly, they want to get the information as soon as the page loads. Like when you are searching for a specific book in a library. If you are looking for a PHP for Dummies book, you don’t want to waste your time going around each section, rather you will just go to the Computer section of books to find what you are looking for. That’s what viewers expect on each site, and you can already give them an idea on what your website is with your home page.
Shopify did a great job on putting focus on what they do. From the domain name up to the home page, you can already grasp what services the website advertise.

3. User-friendly.

One thing that viewers expect on a website is how friendly it can be used. It should provide a comfort and fulfilling time when they explore the site. Many people will say that a home page is just a single page, so it is not important if it is easy to use. I tell you, if the viewer finds it hard to explore the home page then they will just press Alt + F4 or Ctrl + T.
What are the criteria of a user-friendly home page?
Speed
Your home page and other pages must be fast in loading. Or else, your viewers will get disappointed on your site.
Content
There are two things to focus on the content: language and grammar.
In terms of language, English is the widely used all over the world. It is very annoying for viewers when they cannot understand the language you use. If I were to ask, I prefer English to be the language to be used on a website.
There are some people who tend to get annoyed of wrong grammar and leave. So before posting, be sure that the grammar is correct.
Buttons
It should be easy to use and understood by your viewers. Especially in the home page, for this is the starting place of your viewers. So if your buttons are not user-friendly, then they might just leave your page and search for a related one.
Custom Toronto is one of the best examples of site that I find very convenient when exploring. The content is well-written and some information teases you to know more of it, while its buttons are not complicated to use.

4. Drives curiosity.

Awhile ago, I have mentioned that the homepage is like a teaser that drives curiosity on your user. I will give you another analogy. The flyers people distribute inside shopping malls offer 70% off on all or certain items. The offer might suit your needs either be it a boutique or a restaurant. If it suits you, you might go. That’s how a home page must work, it should drive the curiosity of your viewers to visit your site and let them get back next time.

Image by: Maya Alameddine

Some Tips to Ponder

I have here some tips that can help you create a captivating home page. To give you comfort in reading, I have categorized each tips based on the elements to be found on a home page.

1. Do not be a spoiler

Home pages are intended to tease viewers, and will have the move to explore. Do not spoil them by putting all information they need on the homepage.

2. Attract

Attract to get their attention by:
Choosing a good background. You can use an image, or a graphic for your background or you can also leave it plain and simple. See the websites below as an example.
Viget

Free People Clothing Boutique

Twelve Restaurant

Electricurrent

IL FRUTTETO

Putting an appropriate color. Choose a color that represents what you advertise. Just make sure the shade of the color you choose looks professional and pleasing to the eye.
I’ve searched for the meanings of each colors and found these on the internet:
Red: action, confidence, courage, vitality

Pink: love, beauty

Brown: earth, order, convention

Orange: vitality with endurance

Gold: Wealth, prosperity, wisdom

Yellow: wisdom, joy, happiness, intellectual energy

Green: life, nature, fertility, well-being

Blue: youth, spirituality, truth, peace

Purple: Royalty, magic, mystery

Indigo: intuition, meditation, deep contemplation

White: Purity, Cleanliness

Black: Death, earth, stability

Gray: Sorrow, security, maturity

Source: Crystal-Cure
You can use the color that represents you or what you promote on your site, so viewers would know what to expect on the site.
Using call-to-action buttons. Usually, call-to-action buttons are seen on the home page. Call-to-action buttons are a great way to force your viewers to click that button. Take a look at the image below, Wufoo has a great call-to-action buttons by making them noticeable and forceful.

Adding appropriate images and graphics. Images can give your viewers an idea or information regarding your content. You can place images for them to better understand what you wish to convey. Graphics can also represent your content and attracts the eyes of your viewers especially when they are colorful.
Mc Donalds

Fender

Designing your navigations as easy to understand. Navigations are viewers’ way to search on your website. Make sure from the home page up to the last site page your navigation is similar, very easy to use and
Sohtanaka

Fall in Tennessee

MaAllan Ridge

Writing a relevant information. Information is very important for viewers, even if this is the last thing they notice. Put a relevant information about what you would like your viewers want to know regarding your site. Make your content as brief and precise as possible for viewers hate to read very long paragraphs.
When creating a content, make sure the following are met:

• Your headline is very catchy.
• Use words that are pleasing to the ears.
• Be creative in choosing words, and make sure people understand the terms you use.
• Your words are spelled correctly.
• The content is grammatically correct.
• Your content is relevant to what you want to express.

Focus on your subject.

These questions can help you to decide on what to put on your home page:

• What is your purpose?
• Who you are?
• What are your goals?
• What do you want to convey?

Just focus on what you intend to show and convey on your home page.

Wrapping Up

There you go. Creating a catchy home page is not that difficult. You just need to:

• Know the basic of designing.
• Be appropriate.
• Be creative to be attractive yet remains to look professional.
• Focus on what your website is.
• Do not spoil them through your home page. Tease.

I hope this article can help you a lot in creating your home page to attract your viewers. Feel free to put some comments below :)