By Vurdlak on July 14, 2006, with 211 Comments
Is the hand-print embossed or extruded (Convex or Concave)? I would like to know how you see it, so please place your opinion in comments, below. Thanks! As a kid I always found optical illusions to be fascinating. Do you know how this effect works?
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It appears to be in da sand at first… but as you look at da other grooves in da sand their shadows are going da opposite way. but it could also be a photoshopped pic or it is a cleverly done imprint…..
my compliments to the creator!!!:)
p.s………….
LOVE THIS SITE!!!!1!!!111!!!!!!!
It appears convex to me. *big sigh to people who make the effort to spell photoshopped correctly, but not “the”. ugh.
Agreed L.T.
I hate when people don’t speek English in their comments.
Are they trying to be clever or are they really that illiterate?
As for the photo, I think the hand is extruded. Excellent illusion.
P.P.S…. i hav this reali cool illusion but i don’t know how to send it!!!! :( plz plz plz can u say it in some way????? and i’m telling u if u accept it its NOT PHOTOSHOPPED!!!!!!!!!!!
This is concave. Look at the shadows of the rocks on the right. The shadows are on teh right. But if the hand was convex, why are it’s shadows on the left? It’s concave.
There is no way to tell. Although it is a bit more ikely that it is a hill.
To the right you see what appears to be either small craters OR small hills.
It is likely that they are craters therefore if their shadows are on the right the sun is on the right.
The shadows on the hand are to the left so it must be a hill.
What???????????????????????????????????????? LOL. I feel so dumb listning to all of your comments people!
CONCAVE
neat too.
My thoughts are that this was mapped to purposely appear like this. It is technically impossible to sole the answer. My opinion is that it is beveled into the sand because of how the lighting works with the “dry” material. It is most likely concrete sand. Or photoshop?
There is something odd about the shadows in this image, which make it difficult to determine whether the hand is convex or concave. The most recognizable shadow on the right is that of a stick. There, the light source is obviously to the left. The same is true of all the pebbles on the far right. If we interpret the entire image by these shadows, then the hand is concave.
However, all pebbles left of the right-side line of the palm have shadows on the left, which means the light source is to the right. If these shadows indicate the correct direction of the light, then the hand is convex.
I’m guessing there is some digital trickery here. That is, it appears to me that two photos were taken, the light source for each placed in opposing directions. And the two images have been spliced together. There is no natural way to accomplish this image.
thisis so wierd at first i saw it convex but the suddenly i saw it concave and now no matter hard i try i can’t see it as convex again help am i going mad
emboss, because who would have the time to dig a large hand print in the sand? :)
At first it looked concave then i looked at it again and it looked convex and now i cant make it look concave again
Its an imprint, ie the hand is pressed into the wet sand.
My friend took a photo of his footprints on the beach a few years back and got exactly the same result as this. As you looked at the set of footprints you could not work out whether it was impressed or pushed out of the sand.
It is all to do with the angle and direction of the sunlight, but they look great.
Actually, you are all wrong! I’ve found the other picture of this on google images! It shows from a different angle that it is most deffinately convex. Really good illusion though! I love these!
It can’t be sticking up, there would be a shadow! Besides, the wrist and index finger just SCREAM missing sand.
It poping out
It Poping out I love this site
im guessing but they pushed their hands in the sand and then carved around it to make it look like it was convex. Again, just a guess.
strange. very strange
Convex
convex. the reason it looks concave is because photo is upside down which makes the shading look like the opposite of what it actually is
i can see both too…i could only firs see it as a covex, but then if you can imagine in your mind the way shadows work then you’ll be able to work out the cocave as well…i think this is meant to be a concave for obvious reason….you can do an imprint of a hand on sand that’s a convex…..
Ok, I have to jump in and ruin everyone’s fun.
This is NOT a trick of the light. The hand is concave, but it’s the shape of a hand, which your brain recognises as a convex shape.
Your eyes clearly see sand with a hand imprint in it, while your brain applies meaning to that image; in this case it recognises a hand, so it tries to ‘correct’ your eyes by telling you it’s convex. What you see after this point depends on how you resolve it mentally, but if you have average mental acuity then your brain should resolve this picture to what it actually is, i.e. a handprint in the sand.
Once it has done this, it becomes very difficult to trick your brain into seeing the original image again. Optical Illusions of this type are are often used when describing hypothetical situations for Artificial Intelligences. I can’t remember what this phenomenon is called, however.
Hope you find this interesting…
I say “concave” because of the detail in the middle of the hand seems that it was pushed down, although I do perceive it both ways.
convex for the position of shadows
I bet steph does not even know what convex or concave is, boy i really hate smart alecs! Ok thats my rant but, i totally love this site, and i have gone on every day so…….im trying to finish going through all the categories….. i love illusions! and i would loove to design a logo for this site if they have not got a new one yet…… BYE!
concave.. 2-D pics only in-screen
Convex, though I know it couldn’t possibly be
concave
maybe somebody maked it LOL
Convex. The way I see it the light is coming from the bottom right of the picture. The right side has dents in the sand (concave) Which makes the shading correct for everything.
All I can see is convex
is it just me, or are the “shadows” cast in this supposed trick-of-light/concave-convex-brain-misinterpretation inconsistent with the shadows made by the sand imprints of the surrounding objects?
its gotta be UNDER the sand, whichever one that is :P because on the bottom right of the hand, the “pad” is coming out of the sand! how? For it to be inprinted in the sand, there would have to be a small shadow on that part, but there isnt! I didnt explain that very well, I know
**ARGUMENT SETTLER**
It is NEITHER!
It is a two dimensional IMAGE of a hand print that could be either concave or convex. We can never know for certain whether the original hand print is concave or convex from this IMAGE, since that would require this to be replaced with a 3 dimensional image. We could construct either one that would look identical to this image.
I want to say…. no rather not for “steph” will shake his head and laugh …. fokken engelsman…..
Probably it’s just the way the sun was facing.
It is very obviously extruded. Look at the two holes that are to the right of the hand. The shadowed part of the holes is the inside right half. That means that the light is coming from the right. Conversely, the shadows of the hand are on the left side and outside of the hand, which means it’s extruded, thus casting its shadow to the left. It’s impossible for the hand to be embossed and to cast a shadow outside of its delineation.
hand print is extruded.
in the holes in right side of the picture shadow is in right but on hand print shadow is in left if was embossed shadow most was in right side like the holes.and allways embossed shadow is sharper than the extruded shadow coz of indirect illumination.
I think this hand print is level only seeming embossed
It works because, in a picture, it is impossible for your brain to differentiate which side the shadow is coming from. Is the sun on the left casting shadows on the protruded outside or on the right casting shadows on the walls on the inside. Now logically with deductive reasoning we can determine that it is PROTRUDING from the surface. We do this by looking at the divots off to the right and since those shadows are sharper and more clear they are CONCAVED since indirect illumination causes this effect. If they are concaved the hand must be protruding since the shadows are on opposite sides.
That was awesome! I think it is a convex hand print. Pearl
I only see one. I can only the convex not the concave.
From looking at the stones and so on it is a “pushed down” handprint :)
I see a face does anyone else?
@Guy… I see the face on the right with shaggy hair.
usually I can flip the image to see both images, like the silhouette if the man on the horse, this image all I can see is a convex hand
It’s concave, pressed into the sand. In the upper right of the photograph there is a stick poking out from the sand. The shadow it casts is below and to the right, suggesting that the light source is coming from the upper left of the image. Considering this, the only way there could be a shadow on the left edge of the hand shape is if it was pressed into the sand. The small objects on the right hand side of the image are pebbles or little lumps of sand, the objects on the left are divots or holes in the sand.
i think somebody dug into the sand and came up under the sand and pushed up a little bit and they got that little hand
Not like that, our brains are used to seeing shadows l as if they are lit from above, if you turn this picture upside down it is obviously convex