Optical illusion

At some time or other you have probably taken a ‘peculiar’ photograph, with someone standing right in front of a tree trunk. It seems as if the tree is growing right out of their head. How does that work exactly? And can you deliberately take these kinds of peculiar photographs yourself?

Two girls stand in a room with one girl appearing to be many times taller than the other.

Step 1

Look at the photo above. What surprising effects can you see? How are these effects created?

A girl appears to lie in the body of the back of a toy truck

Step 2

Now look at the photo above. How was this photo taken?

A girl lies on the ground holding up a toy truck, another girl sits behind it on a chair while another girl takes a picture of this

Step 3

Here you can see how the previous photo was created. Could you try this yourself?

A girl holds a toy car while another girl behind it pretends to ride in it. Another girl takes a picture of this.

Step 4

Try to work out how you could take a photo like this, one that seems to show something that is totally impossible. See also the example shown above. Place a small object close to the lens. Use distance to make the object appear bigger or smaller. Can you make it seem like someone is driving a toy car?

Step 5

Take the photo and check the end result. Can you think up any other trick photos?

What did you discover?

Images like this create an illusion. This is why they are called optical illusions – they are not what they seem to be. They always include a combination of different objects or different people, and a difference in distance is almost always involved. You only notice the difference if you look very closely indeed.