In the age of AI and reality-manipulating technology, computer and internet literacy is a must. Critical thinking and a healthy dash of skepticism also helps.
But not everything online is necessarily fake news or AI’s attempt at breaking free from its technological shackles to try to take over the world. Nope, sometimes it is much simpler than that. Think confusing perspective, perfect timing, and other lucky kinds of photo shots.
You see, on rare occasions, when the photo lens meets that one split second coupled up with that one particular angle, you have photo-ops like the ones featured below—pictures that bend the mind and require a double-take (or twelve) to actually make sense of things. And if you don’t know just how lit that is, read on!
#1 I Hung Up This Picture That Depicts The Four Seasons Based On The Angle You View It From. Hung It Up Next To A Mirror For Added Coolness
Image credits: viewerdoer
#2 The Sky Over Minnesota Reminds Me Of That Scene Of Interstellar When They’re On The Water Planet
Image credits: MyNameGifOreilly
#3 A Still Image From The Phenomenon That I Was Lucky To Capture At Yosemite Falls
Image credits: gregharlowmedia
If you’ve been on the internet for long enough, you’ll very likely be aware of what confusing perspective is. As a phenomenon, it’s quite literally what it sounds like—pictures of things that are placed in ways that make it look like it’s other things. We know this description leaves much to be desired, but it’s what it’s.
#4 This Shadow From Two Different Trees In My Parking Lot
Image credits: UnholyFire23
#5 Apparently My Dogs Have Merged This Morning
Image credits: NegativePitch
#6 My Cat Looks Pixelated Because Of The Window
Image credits: AkiteruSanpaii
A popular hub for sharing all things confusing and perspective is a subreddit of the same name. Created back in June of 2014, r/Confusing_Perspective is today home to 1.9 million members and is ranked in the top 1% by size on Reddit. So, there is definitely a following of sorts online.
#7 Dog Illuminated By A Glare Of Sunlight
Image credits: reddit.com
#8 The Light Coming From The Bathroom Window Makes My Cat Look Like She Just Had A Great Idea
Image credits: lucyvlt
#9 Insanely Well-Timed Picture
Image credits: Stidgen
Confusing perspective photos are more or less illusions of sorts, except the methods of the matter differ. And illusions are a whole bucket of chum that requires an understanding how the human brain works.
The tl;dr version is that the brain is a blind blob of neurons and has to rely on the eyes for guidance, but the brain has to use its own imagination anyway.
#10 A Rare Optic Sight, The “Brocken Spectre” Occurs When A Person Stands At A Higher Altitude In The Mountains And Sees His Shadow Cast On A Cloud At A Lower Altitude
Image credits: bisector_babu
#11 This Photo I Took In Versailles That’s Not Two Photos Spliced Together
Image credits: ronneldavis
#12 A Kitten Is Napping In A Toy Truck
Image credits: liangjianyi7
But if we were to look into it in more detail, the brain is all about interpretation and nothing about perception. Since it doesn’t have eyes, ears or any of the other senses in and of itself, it relies on the appropriate sensory organs to tell it what’s what.
And this is where the fun begins because the brain doesn’t necessarily understand everything that these organs tell it. And so it has to resort to filling in the gaps.
#13 Once In A Lifetime Shot. Sunny Reflection In A Stormy Sky
Image credits: riccarjo
#14 Thought The Sky Looked Interesting In This Photo From My Trip To Belgium
Image credits: TheDoob
#15 My Dog In The Clouds
Image credits: cryssbrock
The filling in of the gaps is in part due to the fact that the sensory faculties use simple language to describe things to the brain. We shouldn’t expect an eye to know Shakespearean, right? So, the brain makes due with what it gets, but pulls its weight around by adding more details to things to the best of its knowledge.
#16 Sioux Falls, SD Turned Green (No Filter) During A Huge Storm Tonight
Image credits: SoDakZak
#17 Flying Cruise Ships Illusion Spotted On The South East Shores Of Cyprus
Image credits: LSD25hoffmans-potion
#18 “Gap”, Photographed By Kenichi Ohno. Yes, This Is Not Photoshopped
Image credits: Kenichi Ohno
A perfect example of this is peripheral vision. Peripheral vision is essentially side vision—everything that is to the extreme side, off the center of our visual focus. The way our eyes work don’t really allow as much peripheral vision as we can actually sense when we look at things. But the brain expands upon the field of view by assuming the things and projecting an image for us.
#19 The Way The Snow Stuck To My Car, Making It Look Like It Was Shaded
Image credits: M_O_Beast
#20 Sometimes You’d Swear It Was The Mast Of A Ship Passing By
Image credits: opie2
#21 I Took This Photo Of My Wife And Baby, And It’s Just An Odd Wrist Angle
Image credits: clarkcw1
So, circling back at the issue of how illusions work—images with ambiguous representations confuse the brain, abusing its superpower of filling in the gaps, but the brain fails to do so correctly. Remember, it tries to guesstimate visuals and make sense of them, and it can be wrong about it. This is why some illusions get trippy in our eyes.
#22 Sky Color Matches Up With The Local Supermarket
Image credits: ivanza1
#23 Poor Cat. Someone Closed A Portal
Image credits: KrisNahkunst
#24 I Really Thought This Was Photoshopped At First
Image credits: woweewow
Due to these deficiencies in how our brain works, we can also only see one side of a picture. My Wife and My Mother-in-Law is a great example of this. It’s the famous picture in which some folks only see a young woman facing away or an elderly woman facing to the side. Some folks can see both, some only see one of them. But it’s fun stuff, right?
#25 I Genuinely Thought My Car Was Hovering
Image credits: theam107
#26 Cat With Only Head But No Body
Image credits: nskd_sr
#27 I Thought My Brain Wasn’t Loading Or Something
Image credits: Cahmomille
Why does any of it matter? Besides proving to be quite a fun distraction in life, it has opened up a vast sea of opportunity for research. You see, some illusions are based on brightness and apparent motion.
This alone has led to a better understanding of how our brain works by putting together several separate processing streams across multiple processing stages to make sense of things. This alone is proof of what kind of a powerhouse the human brain is. And if that doesn’t sound absolutely amazing, we don’t know what is then.
#28 My Little Guy Is Growing Up Too Fast
Image credits: Roooogie
#29 This Brick Wall Making A Zig-Zagged Shadow
Image credits: GhostInThePrompt
#30 This Picture I Took The Other Day
Image credits: lancelotworks
If you’ve enjoyed this listicle, keep in mind that this is one of several in the series. You are more than welcome to enjoy more unphotoshopped goodness or you can scroll on.
In any case, do leave this listicle an upvote and comment on the submissions you enjoyed the most!
#31 This Angle Of My Cat Looks Like She’s Only A Head On A Platter
Image credits: ZoneFive
#32 This Cat Emerging From A TV
Image credits: farts_tickle_my_nuts
#33 These Birds In Hyde Park
Image credits: reddit.com
#34 It Looks Like A Mockup Or A Giant, But It’s Just Me On The Second Floor Of The College
Image credits: joalllucas
#35 This Confirmed. Birds Are Drones
Image credits: Representative_Still
#36 The Way The Sunlight Reflects Off My Vase Makes It Look Like Smoke
Image credits: SimpleSpyder
#37 It Was So Orange This Morning
Image credits: Microtonicwave
#38 Bubbly Cat
Image credits: FloppyPancakeWarrior
#39 When My Blind Is Open Just The Right Amount, My Bedroom Becomes A Giant Pinhole Camera
Image credits: bsiaste
#40 My Dog Just Chilling
Image credits: BoneCollector13
#41 I Managed Perfect Timing While Soap Bubbles Flown Between Camera And Kiddo
Image credits: _Abnormalia
#42 This Rock Is Just Reflecting In Water That You Can’t See Because Of The Fog
Image credits: Legal-Adhesiveness33
#43 Estonian Javelin Thrower Magnus Kirt Impaling Himself
Image credits: oldlilpeep
#44 Giant Dove
Image credits: Adan714
#45 The Reflection Of This Building Makes It Look As If It’s In The Sky
Image credits: pliotta
#46 Here’s My Photo From Cerocahui, Mexico. It Looks Like I Photoshopped It
Image credits: ChicoPacoPancho
#47 The Car Rollercoaster. It Looks So Not Real
Image credits: _deepsky
#48 A Picture I Took Partially Through A Firework’s Flash. It Looks Like It’s Day And Night At The Same Time
Image credits: shhivers
#49 Square Cloud
Image credits: Trosenator
#50 Rome
Image credits: reddit.com