Mighty Optical Illusions » Leg

Photoshop Fail or Optical Illusion?

Vurdlak — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:52:41 +0000

Couple of days ago, Luca has pointed me to the photo of Spanish minister Carme Chacón published on El Pais website. At first I couldn’t see anything strange in it, yet after I’ve read the title of Luca’s email (same as above) – it triggered my attention. Finally, after few moments I’ve noticed that minister’s feet were actually inverted one to another!

It seems as if her left leg ends with the right leg’s foot. Same goes for her right leg. At first I considered this yet another shameful Photoshop disaster, which I immediately forwarded to fellow webmaster who collects these. Yet, the twist came after I was explained there is actually nothing wrong with the photo itself! I couldn’t believe the photo was actually a “mere” optical illusion.

What has happened, is that Carme covered her left thigh in a way where it appears it’s pointing left, instead of it actually pointing up. This photo has been featured in several world sites as a wrong retouch, but after all the false spotlight it received, the agency who took the shoot explained how the legs were actually not crossed at all! I’m not sure I managed to explain what is happening here, but be sure to check the solution I created with help of the Photoshop (below) – it’s still hard to imagine, yet it should explain the illusion.

President/Vice President Illusion

Vurdlak — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:52:38 +0000

Suneel Viralam shared this photo with me back in April, yet only now I gave it a second look. As you can see both USA President and Vice President are in it, yet something feels strange about their legs. Can you guess what happened, and to whom does the middle leg belong to? There are also some other important people in this photo, yet I don’t know who they are. If I was an American perhaps I’d know…

BTW, those of you who contacted me about the problem regarding the “Next Random Illusion” button (that it always returns exactly the same illusion), you might try clearing your browser cache, and the problem will disappear. Please report if this helped!

Shigeo Fukuda’s “Legs”

Vurdlak — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:55:35 +0000

Late Shigeo Fukuda is missed by many, as he passed away back in 2009. Still, his works continue having life of their own. They even managed to surpass the author himself. One such poster made by Shigeo are the male/female legs I posted below. In its simplicity, this transformation is simply perfect. Just try and think for a second where one set of legs ends and the other begins. I haven’t even started with the philosophical background it holds…

The Bow-Legged Illusion

Vurdlak — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 18:04:58 +0000

Our friends over from Deceptology are coming up with some great optical illusions lately. Check out them bow-legged gentlemen on your right for example!

The effect used is relatively simple, one we featured hundreds of times in our Seemingly Bent category. But this time you can see it in more interesting context. The bent lines represent the legs of two gentlemen.

Can you force yourself to see their legs perfectly straight? Even though they appear bent, in reality they’re 100% parallel and straight. If you haven’t realized by now, it’s the checkers background that makes this effect work! This optical illusion originally appeared in 1913, in “Popular Mechanics”.

BTW, hope you had a wonderful New Year’s eve, and I wish you all the best in 2011! Let’s hope our little community does even better than it did in 2010! This time last year I compiled my personal pick of Top 10 Optical Ilusions of 2009. I also did Year’s Recap in numbers. Expect something similar in days to come!

A 4 Legged Chicken?

Vurdlak — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:19:14 +0000

Kristin Newton comes from Tokyo (Japan), and she has shared a very interesting photo with us. I think it would be best to quote Kristin on this: “A friend, Matt Rifkin in Hawaii sent me a photo of some baby chicks that were born in his yard. This one is actually 2 chicks, one slightly behind the other. How ever, it really looks likes one chick with 4 legs. I don’t know if it’s useful for you, but if it is, that would be great.”

Btw, many thanks for all your concern and support during the problem we’ve been struck with…

Summer Stockings Optical Illusion

Vurdlak — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:40:19 +0000

An interesting photo was discovered by Lucas Cantor yesterday. It pictures a young lady, placing her legs in the focus, and what appears some sort of net-stockings on top of them. Offcourse, its not even necessary to explain how the stocking are just an illusion created by nearby metal-grate table interacting with morning sun. I would rather concentrate on the moment our photographer so nicely caught, and how this image special turned out to be. When you combine all these factors, we end up with one beautiful picture. I don’t know why but it somehow brings nostalgia on my mind. Do you agree?

Dancing Soldiers Optical Illusion

Vurdlak — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:02:53 +0000

Just so that you know why there was a 2 day delay between illusions, the reason was my trip for vacation. By now I have accommodated myself at the island of Korcula, which will be my new blogging station for the next month or so. It took some time before I could set up the office and internet connection here, but now all should be set now, and I’m ready to continue updating Moillusions.com from now on.

I’m glad that many of you switched to Facebook Connect, or created Gravatars for commenting on this site. Comments section looks much more “friendly” now, with all those user pictures posted next to their comment body. There was an issue with icons not appearing, but Facebook has fixed the bug, and all should be running perfectly now. Before I log out, I’m obligated to mention the illusion. As you see something is terribly wrong with our little soldiers. If you have problem understanding what is going on around, check original Elephant Illusion (famous one), and drop an eye on M.C. Escher Cowboys.