Optical Illusions

by Shane Beyor


Hey, It's Shane again, from (EAST SIDE PARANORMAL) and I just wanted to write some more about photography. Many people don't realize how many things can go wrong in a photo. And it's not always the operators error. But we were searching the net for photos and we stumbled upon this site which had a lot of pictures with "apparitions", Now I'm not saying these aren't bonafide ghosts, but I'm saying that we made an interesting observation. The power of suggestion and interpretation is great. If someone says they caught a picture of a ghost and you don't seem to notice it, you may think that there is nothing in the photo. But after having it pointed out you'll see it everytime. Which leads to the point of this blog. I have 2 photos for you to examine, one being a famous optical illusion, and the other being a file photo (Courtesy of ghosthauntings.org).

Exhibit A: The Photo

I want you to carefully examine this photo, and think if you see anything before you progress any further. Give it a minute.See anything?If you didn't, you should have seen a face in the window (or claimed, 3 faces). If you didn't, there is a photo with highlights to show you the features.

Exhibit B: The Photo "Analysis"
See this is the power of suggestion, if you didn't see the faces, your mind is now trained to see what I have suggested you see. Now look at the photo again, you'll pic it out in milliseconds.

Now that we've covered the power of suggestion, we'll move on to the power of interpretation.

Exhibit C: The Optical Illusion

Now upon further inspection of the photo, we've come to realize what we think is causing this anomaly. If you look carefully you may notice what appears to be the shadow of trees cast upon the window. Inspection of the photo will show there to be many shadows, leading to the assumption that the conditions would allow this phenomenon. We may be wrong, but this is what we feel. Interpretation. This is where the optical illusion comes in. There is a famous picture of an optical illusion we'd like to show.

Now you'll notice what appears to be either two faces, or a glass/chalice. Depeding on what?, Interpretation. If you focus your eyes on the white what do you see? Chalice. If you focus on the black?, Two profiles. This same thing can be done with the photo above, but for ease I'll post it again.

See? Now we're not claiming these to be examples of false evidence. But rather we're just giving the photo another explanation. And we hope people can do the same.

If you have any examples of photos you think may be like this photo and just a subject of optical illusion, PLEASE feel free to post them or post links to them.

*Photo used courtesy of ©2007 ghosthunt.org