By Vurdlak on August 24, 2007, with 195 Comments
Kurt found this photo on flickr and thought instantly of our community. He added: “At first I thought it was just a picture of someone’s shadow but it didn’t really make sense once I saw his feet in the picture and realized where the angle of the pic was taken from, and that with the feet in the picture, and where the sun shines and makes the shadow, the cameraman should be in the shot, right? Even if it was shot over his head, we should see it. Please let me know if you know how he took this picture, I’m stumped and it’s starting to bug me. Thanks.” Can we answer Kurt’s question? Let’s try. Today I found out the official date I’m arriving back to my hometown, Zagreb. You should expect daily updates after September the first. In the meantime few more illusions will be posted. Enjoy ;)
(29 votes)
This one is very stupid!
First Comment!!! (?)
Great photoshop job
Is it just me or this post doesn’t make much sense?
The photo doesn’t look like an illusion to me. And there’s no obvious reference to Kurt’s description.
What?? how is this an illusion…i don’t get this…
There’s a hidden illusion in this pic. If you turn your head to the left you can see a woman’s profile in the trees! How neat is that ??!
idk whats happenin with the cameraman, but if u ask me, they look as if they are walkin on water
First? cool…
are they just jumping?
thats crap
Is this the right picture for the text?
thats really cool!!!!
i like it
even tho u can tell that there jumping off at a straight angle, it still looks very interesting
nice job.
They could’ve just jumped and the camraman got a lucky angle to make it look they were walking
thats so easy. the camaraman is just behind the kids. all the kids are just jumping into the pool, and the camaraman just timed it right. good pic.
I am pretty sure they are standing on pexi-glass, as in this chriss angel youtube video… http://youtube.com/watch?v=A4R2d1r8zzM
i am not sure what the illusion is and what shadow? I am sooo confused.
Shadow? Overhead?
Maybe they’re just jumping in.
Are we looking at the same picture? I think these kids were all jumping in the pool and he got the shot at the exact right second.
i think the photographer just took the picture on the high speed shuter setting on his camera. I have a camera and this setting let’s u take photos of anything moving and still get a clear photo. so these kids are jumping in and he took the photo. I think…
They are in mid-jump. Am I missing something, or is that really not painfully obvious?
The kids are standing on plexy glass cubes which are on the water.
All I can think of is Photoshop, but of course thats what everyone else is going to say also
just by running the risk of commenting just the same that others write about 10 seconds before me…
i only wanna say that there is a talented photographer that captured 3 people by jumping into a pool at accurately the same time.
and by the way; everybody that could make his cracked photoshop-version just partial to run… is able to add the shaddow into/onto the water!
ciaso, Alpha103
PS. first post … not really
They probably jumped, and the photo was taken when everyone was in a walking position. Hmm….
I think it’s photoshopped.
i honestly dont knwo what im saposed to be seeing
It just looks like the kids are jumping into the pool…
Duh… They’re jumping.
What on earth are you talking about? These are kids jumping into a pool.
I’m really tempted to remove you guys from my google homepage because I never get any real insight into an illusion – half the time you’re talking about something entirely different and all the links in the description go to other pages which is really annoying. If you’re going to hot-link words, hot-link to things like wikipedia where people can actually learn something. Jeez.
WTF? the paragraph above this pic has absolutely nothing to do with it!
they jumped posing in the air ….
they all have shadows in the water, which (for me) proves it’s not a photo edit.
they’re all already wet, which means they’ve already been in the pool
they all have thier arms out
basically, they’ve tried and tried and tried jumping in and finaly got this one where it looks like they’re all walking on the water, or floating in the air. none of them, if you were to take them onto dry land, look ballanced enough to stand up like that. the girl is leaning considerably backwards…
basically, they’ve all jumped lots of tims and this just happens to be the one where they get it right.
Hi. Love the illusion! Thanks for posting it. I do not understand the cameraman question though. No offence but I think you´re overthinking it a bit. It helps *a lot* that it´s an overcast day. No hard tell-tale shadows to destroy the illusion. One can see that they´re “flying” by observing the reflection of their bodies on the water, and can even calculate from it about 20cm before …SPLASH! Cameraman just stood there and took the great shot. . .but no big engineering behind it. Regards.
shadow? on a cloudy day? ..lucky shot and good pose… not much of an illusion tough..
…btw thanks for this stuff, its mostly good ;D
Is that even real water? ‘Cause recently there was an entry on i-am-bored.com that talked about adding gelatin or something to the water in a swimming pool so that you could walk on it…
I think the answer is very simple. The sky is pretty cloudy, right? I think that the sun is somewhere above the shot, but still in front of the photographer. So because of the clouds, the shot is not ruined by the light.
I could be wrong, of course.
Whoever had the picture in the first place probally cut the camerman off the picture.
well… no illusion here really,
just a bunch of kids jumping in a pool and some good timing taking this picture make it look like walking on water.
What shadows? All I see are vague reflections of the kid’s legs on the water as they are almost touching it. Nice shot at jus tthe right time, though.
It’s not a shadow; it’s a reflection.
As far as i can see, those people are jumping in when the picture was taken, It must have been very well timed.
I don’t see any shadows or the sun for that matter. It looks cloudy. The kid’s position is weird though. Shouldn’t his back be facing us? The edge behind him is too far back and he would have landed in the water if he jumped from the other edge.
For the real picture:
The camera was held at chest height and the photographer kept his arms tucked in tight. There was someone stood behind him that gave the shadow it’s arms.
Simple.
READ NUMBER 35!!!!!! — HE POSTED THE LINK TO THE PICTURE WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE LOOKING AT. I MISSED IT WITHIN ALL THE COMMENTS BUT IT MAKES SENSE NOW. THE DESCRIPTION GOES WITH THE LINK THE GUY PROVIDES IN NUMBER 35 ABOVE. Sorry for the caps, just want it to stand out.
uhm i dont get this. wht part is confusing? theres nothing wrong with this pic, its just a picha of kids jumpin into tha water. im so confused as to why you are stumped. i dont see any shadows either. so uhm like.. what are you tlkn bout? send me a msg at myspace.com/always_in_love336 to explain btr, or mayb u jst hav tha wrong pic??
…There’s so many pictures like this already on the site. The pool doesn’t really exist – it’s painted or something on, and the kids are just standing on it in positions that make it look like they’re jumping into the pool.
… What illusion, exactly?
I think that the photographer just took the picture as soon as they were about to hit the water.
If you’re stumped you could always say it’s photo-shopped.
What illusion, what sun, what shadows? There are no shadows in the picture – clearly it is a cloudy or overcast day (colour of the sky backs this up too). The kids jumped, the guy snapped at just the right moment… c’mon, let’s see some analytical skills – posting this kind of stuff devalues the site, which i was beginning to like.
I totally know how this was taken! They all were jumping into the water at the same time and the picture got caught right when their feet were touching the water.
Just click on SAW HIS FEET in the text above the picture to see the correct photo for the text. All make sence now :-)
this sucks, you suck
Did anyone read #35?
To Kurt, just saw the real pic you posted and I can say that the answer is simple, the camera is hanging from the guys neck, maybe it was intentional or maybe an accident but it still looks great.
And to all the other people leaving idiotic comments, you would think that after the first post pointing out it was not the intended picture you would get a hint. But 120 pictures down and you can still see morons pointing out the obvious. The internet is not smart…
obviously it has to be the wrong picture. Because the only shadows I see are of the children jumping into the pool.
I don’t think the caption goes with the picture, but the illusion is the fact that it looks like the 3rd kid (farthest from the camera) had to make a huge leap to get where he is. All he did was jump backwards or “twist” while in the air, but it appears he jumped from the far side of the pool, beyond the ladder.
Kurt, as to the picture you intended to post, the camera could be set on timer, hanging around the person’s neck. Cool picture!
Apologies if I’m posting twice; I tried once and didn’t see any sign the comment was sent. Kurt, regarding the picture you intended to post: The camera could be hanging around his neck, with a delayed shutter release so he can get his hands posed. Cool picture!
OK…You people need to read the comments. Kurt commented and gave the address to the actual image he was talking about. His comment is almost in the middle. Maybe you guys should start readin the comments before bitching, it might help a little. Yeah, I went there, I stayed there and sent post cards.
Comment # 37 by kurt …
Right description but wrong pics
the right pic…follow this link
http://flickr.com/photos/imaginemichael/466444861
my comment: no illusion here, not even how the pic was taken…
its a composite pic &/or the shadow was added to pavement pic. It may be done with photohop or another pixel base program.
As for the ‘real picture’ as posted by the original poster kurt (http://flickr.com/photos/imaginemichael/466444861)
Maybe the camer is on self shutter hanging around his neck so that it doesn’t show it’s shadow?
so one kid jumped in backwards, what is the big deal?
THIS IS CLEARLY PHOTOSHOPPED!
note that one of each of the kid’s feet are flat as if they are standing on solid ground, it was pretty clear to me, theres no optical illusion
There is a smaller person standing in front of the person taking the picture. the arm on the right belongs to the short person while the arm on the left the taller person. The feet belong to the smaller person. The taller person took the picture over top of the smaller person.
I think in regards to the picture that the caption is talking about is that you can see one arm out. I think the camera is in that hand. It is a tricky shot and much cooler then three kids jumping into a pool.
Okay… for the kid jumping in the pool, obviously the last one jumped in backwards…. but I’m pretty sure the illusion is the reflection in the pool. The water makes a face under the first boy jumping looks like scrooge with a bald head and bent nose? You can see his right eye much better than the left…. Anyone else see that? or is it just me?
announcement for everyone:
RELAX. WE KNOW THEY’RE JUST JUMPING INTO THE POOL, IT JUST LOOKS LIKE THEY’RE WALKING. THE POINT OF THE PICTURE IS TO AMUSE YOU. NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR YOU PEOPLE WHINE. SO SHUT UP.
come on…im 13! you people should know better.
p.s. it looks to me like they’re dancing. XD
OK, regarding the intended picture:
I think two people are in the picture, and what seems to be the sidewalk is actually the wall of a building.
The person who’s feet are shown, is the one with the camera, and he’s actually lying on his back on the ground with his feet against the wall.
Another person is standing behind him (possibly on a platform to deal with sun angle). So the shadow of the standing person is actually being cast over the feet of the photographer lying down.
Notice the size of the pants at the cuff and how the pants “fall” back from the shoe tips. Also notice the size of the pants cuffs relative to the size of the cuffs’ shadows.
three kids jumping into a swimming pool WOW!…don’t see any shadows…have to say this pic is pretty unremarkable
retards……its photoshop, look closely at the shadow outline of the top half as opposed to the bottom
i don’t think a hanging camera would still take that shot, would it? seems like the perspective would be different. it seems like it could be a hanging camera until i look at the feet again, the angle throws me off every time.
I agree with liwenna, judging from the angle of the shot with reference to the feet it appears as if the proper location of the lense is around the lower chest area of the person taking the picture. Very easy with a self timer. Might take a couple of tries to shoot the camera with the proper angle but taking a wide shot and clipping it down should do the trick. Not that impressive really.
I found the picture the text refers too, click on the blue link “photo on flickr” a list of blue links will pop up, click on the one named, “walking on water, part II” that will get you to the picture that goes with the text, it a good optical illusion,so go through the steps i told you, it worth it.
I FOUND THE PICTURE THE TEXT GOES WITH
lick on the first blue link inside the text “photo on flickr”
then find the blue like in the list of them called, “walking on water part II” that will get you to the right picture.
it a good picture too
At first i was confused. But now i just think it is 3 kids jumping into the pool. the first two kids just happen to be at the same height and the third kid went in backwards.
photographer is holding his camera in his left hand in front of a pole or building corner. He has most likely a 14mm lens and poits down at his shadow and got lucky with his aim (or he’s persistant) cool shot.
You can see the shadow in the water
illusion? maybe dillusion.. They are just jumping into the pool, man!!! There is nothing to figure out.
first of all
this is the stupidist illusion iv seen all day. you can see there shadows, and if nobody else can then you should get your eyes checked. there just jumping into the pool and posing as if they were walking on the water. its as simple as that :]
I think you’re all a bit dumb with this one. I first thought it was just a quick shutter pic, but look at the feet they are badly cropped. Its a very amature attempt at making it look like they are walking on water. It is two pics, the first of the pool and the second of kids messing about. The one of the kids has had its bkg removed… nice try… but try harder
hey guys
hate to piss on ur bonfire
BUT ITS SHIT
its 3 kids JUMPIN IN A FOOKIN POOL
love u
Intruiging. It was taken at a VERY good angle at a VERY good time. But the guy with the back of his head facing us, his hand is slightly blurry so you can see the action.