Wikipedia defines illusion as:

“A distortion of the senses, revealing how the brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. While illusions distort reality, they are generally shared by most people.”

Illusion tricked our brain and eyes when seeing something that is not really there or something that is not really happening.

Benefits of Photos with Illusions: Exercise and Entertainment

It exercises our minds.

Optical illusions make our minds sharper for it makes us think on what can be on that picture or how could that happened. Optical illusions improve our analytical thinking and it also stimulates our right brain. This is good for most people, for seldom we see left-brainers.

It gives entertainment to viewers.

I always find myself caught up with the entertainment that these illusions give. These give enjoyment to viewers when thinking on what could that happen or what you see on the picture.

Optical Illusion

I consider optical illusion as an art. It amazes me how forms, lines, colors, and brightness or contrast are put together to form one illusion that deceives our optical mechanism or gives us those sleepless nights thinking on what could possibly be on that picture. But did you know that before optical illusions are manually created by men, it is already happening naturally? Yes, it does. Not only nature uses illusions, even military is using this as one of their tactics.

Optical Illusions in Nature

Optical illusions come naturally. For animals, they use illusions to survive where they put their bodies in camouflage so their predators or enemies won’t see them easily.

I have here some pictures to show you how animal camouflage works.

See how the lion blended in the African grasses? Lions does this when they hunt another animal for food.

There is a walking stick that is leaned under the grass. Have you noticed it?

A stingray that hides itself in the sand.

Mirage is a good example of natural optical illusion. See the picture below.

Mirage Over East China Shore

Mists rising on the shore created an in-depth image of a city, with modern tall buildings, wide city streets including cars as well as crowds of people all clearly visible. The city of Penglai had been soaked by two days of rain before the rare weather phenomenon occurred. In Penglai, on the tip of Shandong Peninsula, many mirages have been recorded throughout the history. Because of that city is also known as a dwelling place of the gods.

Optical Illusion Used by Military

A good tactic military thought of is to use colors to blend with the nature foliage.

Image by: Jean Francois

Now, let me present to you optical illusion photos that are created by men. Be amazed and have fun!

Take a look at this photo. What do you see? A rabbit or a duck?

How about this one? Can you figure out on what is in the picture?

Are you giving up already? To find out the answer, click here.

Try looking at this Jesus’ photo for 15–30 seconds. After that, take a look at a wall while blinking your eye. What did you see?

The original image forms a giant bird.

When you put it upside down, the picture would be a guy catching a big fish.

Here is a picture of an island that when turned upside down, you will see a crater.

Island

Crater

Look at this picture, count the faces you will see.

What do you see? A letter E or just black lines?

SUV Illusion

Try measuring the SUVs and be amazed that their sizes are the same but appears to be different.

Camels in the Night Illusion

The palm trees appear to be a camel-shaped.

Black Dots

Try counting the black dots you may found below.

Lucky Clover

See how the circles move?

Double Picture Illusion

Did you see a couple in an intimate position? According to research, when children are the ones seeing this they see dolphins not the intimate couples for they still do not have experience or memory regarding the affair.

Elephant Leg Illusion

Can you count the number of legs this elephant has? Is it four? How about five, six? Or seven maybe? Hmm…

Spiral Illusion

You are seeing a spiral, right? Actually, what includes on the picture are circles put together. And that creates the spiral.

Anamorphic Illusions

Photographers, painters and designers are now using anamorphosis to give attraction to their photographs. Mostly, they use pencils to draw or other drawing tools to create such photo.

Wikipedia defines Anamorphosis as:

A distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image. “Ana – morphosis” comes from the Greek words meaning “formed again.”

Anamorphosis is commonly used in road markings where they put wordings and arrows in a position where drivers can easily read and understand them. Take a look this example, even you are still far you will still see the arrow and words. And as you are getting near of it, they become bigger and more readable.

Take a look at the examples below. Note that these are not edited or modified using a photo editor software.

Julian Beever is a famous creator of anamorphic illusion photos. Below are his great works of 3D anamorphic illusion photos.

Sidewalk Drawing

This is an example of an anamorphic illusion created by Julian Beever. This sidewalk drawing was drawn in a special distortion in order to create an impression of 3 dimensions when seen from one particular viewpoint.

Breakfast

An anamorphic photo illusion drawn in a large size of paper.

Portable Computer

Another photo illusion in anamorphosis. A laptop drawn on the floor of The Strand, London.

Christmas

A floor painting where Santa Clause is caught by policemen going inside a chimney.

To find out more anamorphic illusion drawings of Julian Beever, click here.

Lava Burst

The photo you see below belongs to Edgar Muller’s pavement art.

A lava burst was drawn on a street way. Very realistic.

3D Cars Pavement Art

A chalk drawing of a cracked floor where a car fell and flattened and damaged another car.

Can You Believe These Are Flat?

All of these are drawn in 3D using a pencil.

Happy Kettles

Notice the face of the kettles? Those are just reflections of the stove. Cool, isn’t? One technique to take a anamorphic photo is to get its perfect angle to make it look good, and this one is a best example.

Seeing two lighters? The right one is drawn and the left one is real.

BONUS: Dual-Meaning Typography

With the name itself, a dual-meaning typography offers a double meaning. This is one way where designers put an art in communicating to viewers. Combining art and communication is one great way to achieve your purpose of communication. These kinds of typography are funny and it really makes you think on what can be the double meanings of such.

To be tricked then impressed, I have here photos that will represent dual-meaning typography that I am telling you.

A mirror reflection with the word, teach and learn in the reverse side of it.

One reason that I enjoy photo illusions is the  Try to guess the two words on each row.

Did you guess that the word is BEHAVE or BELIEVE? Actually, the word is believe where the missing letters form the word, LIE. And those two words are somewhat related, right?

What do you understand written on the Green colored lines? The figure formed on the white lines is a hint.

I like this one. A mind once opened never closes/loses. Be open-minded.

Sources: Best Optical Illusion Websites

Want more optical illusion photos? You may browse some on these websites below.

1. Mighty Optical Illusions

A website that is all about optical illusions. You can also submit your own photos of optical illusions on this website.

2. Eyetricks

You can find optical illusions and also different mind-teasing games and photos on this site.

3. OptIllusions

A website where you can find lots of photos of optical illusions grouped into different categories for your convenience in searching.

This is just a fun stuff for you to relieve from daily workflow – enjoy it!

Caricatures have been around for hundreds of years. A caricature is a portrait where the person being drawn or painted gets his distinct features exaggerated in order to make an entertaining visual likeness.

Click on the images to see the full versions at the artists deviantART-pages.

1. Will smith by ~mrpeculiar

2. Harry Potter by ~manohead

3. Jacko Caricature by ~karsaprada

4. LEON by *JaumeCullell

5. Clint Eastwood caricature by ~chngch

6. Caricature Albert Einstein by ~crazedude

7. Kanye West Caricature by ~VictorGatmaitan

8. John Locke by ~AnthonyGeoffroy

9. Mr_OBM by *toniart57

10. Bill Clinton caricature by ~clapano

11. Bushie the kid by ~tomfluharty

12. Steven Seagal by ~Parpa

13. Louis Armstrong by ~Parpa

14. Thom Yorke by ~manohead

15. Tiger Woods Caricature by ~jonesmac2006

16. DE NIRO by ~AnthonyGeoffroy

17. Bond by ~bangalore-monkey

18. Jack by *ElectroNic0

19. Rolling Stones caricature by ~MichelAchard

20. Bean by ~Hikari151

21. TRINITY_CARICATURE by ~crisdelara04

22. Snoop Dogg by ~AnthonyGeoffroy

23. Jim Painting by ~infernovball

24. Jack Bauer by ~AnthonyGeoffroy

25. Ugly Betty by ~AnthonyGeoffroy

26. Amy Winehouse by ~AnthonyGeoffroy

27. Adam Sandler Caricature 2 by ~drawmyface

28. JD by ~AnthonyGeoffroy

29. Springsteen by ~jasonseiler

30. Janis Joplin by ~zizi529

31. Uma Thurman Caricature by ~Rancez

32. Alfred Hitchcock caricature by =HammersonHoek

33. Michael Stipe Caricature by *YngveMartinussen

34. Indiana Jones Caricature by ~hcnoel

35. Napoleon Dynamite by ~jasonseiler

36. Caricature of Brad Pitt by *grobles63

37. Travolta by ~Nico4blood

38. Blade Caricature by ~jonesmac2006

39. Adrian Brody caricature by ~fillengroovy

40. Caricature of David Suchet by ~alex-ek

41. Spielberg caricature by ~dugazm

42. Meryl Streep by ~AndreaGerstmann

43. Robert Pattinson Caricature by ~yorkey-sa

44. Caricature I WIP by `mynti

45. Dexter caricature by ~CASTELLO

46. Bruce Lee caricature by ~yohan2

47. Samuel Jackson caricature… by ~sophiyaster

48. Borat caricature by *Steveroberts

49. Marilyn Monroe Caricature by ~manohead

50. House M.D. Caricature by ~hrod-rich

I hope you enjoyed this collection.

Which caricature was your favorite?
The comments section below is open for your much appreciated feedback! :)

Throughout this year several new fun websites have been released and become popular. After heavy research this is what I could come up with! Enjoy, take a rest and have a fun time!

1. Picjoke

In Picjoke you can choose from many cool effects to apply. Just choose picture from your computer and it will do the rest.

2. Cardgame

Create your own personalized playing cards at the click of a mouse button.

3. Condenent

Design your own Wired magazine cover.

4. Blibs

Here you can find lots of effects including animation, adjustments and even kaleidoscoper.

5. Imagechef

In imagechef you can easily create anything from word mosaics to football shirts. With over 100 templates it’s a great place to have fun with your photos. After you have created your photo you can share it social networks.

6. Anymaking

Anymaking is a great place to edit your photos online. Here you can find all the necessary tools for picture editing. Cropping, rounded corners, shadows, frames – it’s all here. There are also some cool effects to have fun with like wanted poster.

7. Frontpage

In 3 easy steps you can create a unique and fully personalised magazine cover for yourself or someone special. Use the magazine covers on your Facebook, MySpace profiles or on your own web site for free. You can even send the cover images to all your friends and family easily and quickly with the email options provided.

8. Maronface

Moronize your photo.

9. flauntR

flauntR is a flash based online photo editor, where you can quickly edit your photos, add some effects, blend photos and create social network photos.

10. Tiltshift maker

Tilt-shift miniature style photos are pictures of real-life scenes that are manipulated to look like model photographs.

11. Effmypic

Choose from over 30 cool effects to your picture

12. Avatar.pho.to

Upload your photo and create a cool avatar from it.

13. Seenow

In seenow you can find a lots of good quality effects and later share your outcomes.

14. Funnywow

Choose from over 40 cool effects to apply to your photos in good quality.

15. Wishafriend

Create photo effects, photo frames, name acronyms, fake magazine covers and much more.

Do you know more fun and free online photo editing websites? Share with us!

I collected all the best free photo editing services, which will keep You busy for quite a while and You will receive amazing results – maybe funny, maybe silly – but You’ll get original photos and few more reasons to smile.

Well, and if you’re interested in photo editing the same way as I am, what about taking step further? Currently everybody is using Facebook to show off their latest photos, images, experiments with photos (in this case), well while it’s good and easy – haven’t you ever wanted to own your own site?

Your own personalized photo gallery you can modify as you want? I remember how I loved to edit and customize my Myspace theme, but Facebook sort of takes it all off – you don’t have a lot of chances to do some customization.  But what I could do if I really wanted my own website address, my own website to get impression from others, stand out and enjoy whole process in the meantime?

What I did in my early days was simply to use website builder, I didn’t have any coding skills, but Adobe Dreamweaver and Frontpage offered some simple ways to setup your own site quickly and without big efforts. Time has gone though and now there are even ONLINE website builders and Squarespace for example allowing you to create your own flash (animated) site in easy WYSIWYG editor.

And what’s the best thing they are free, not like those previous softwares I mentioned before, allows amazing customization and you don’t need any programming skills, you just need little passion and time to play with colors and customizations! :) The same way as for photo editing sites below, you’re also capable of choosing from 100′ of free templates from the Wix Site builder. While there are definitely other similar sites, I just wanted to go into quality not quantity and share the one I actually use in my occasional projects (or just to make a nice surprise for a friend, by creating unique photo based website for him!).

Online Site Builder Wix

Features:

• Easy to use drag & drop editor
• Able to choose from 100′s of free flash templates and layouts
• Upload any kind of media
• Update, modify and publish in seconds
• No download or programming necessary
• Search engine friendly

Ok, now let’s get started on actual photo editing, right? Those are the tools I have found the most entertaining for myself, again you don’t need any special designing skills, just little passion to play with effects – great time waster as well! Believe me – I know it!

1. BeFunky

BeFunky Photo Effects allow everyday people to easily create photographically rich and artistic results from their digital images without the need for any technical knowledge. These “one-click” photo effect options produce desired results effortlessly and each effect comes with the option to make simple adjustments.

2.FunPhotoBox

The FunPhotoBox site is a place where you can create funny pictures from your photos. FunPhotoBox is a free photo editing online service. FunPhotoBox allows you to add special effects to your photos.

3. Imagic Photo Enhancer

Imagic Photo Enhancer is an easy to use digital photo enhancement software that instantly transforms your pictures into rich, glowing, beautiful images. Our photo enhancer was inspired and developed to do one thing.. to make your pictures look their absolute best.. quickly, affordable, and easily.

Now you can give all your pictures a professional touch without the need for fancy, expensive studio equipment. Imagic Photo greatly improves the quality and visual appeal of your images.

4.PicArtia

Create photo mosaic Online and Free! A powerful photo collage maker in 3 easy steps. Get your photo montage in less than 2 minutes!

5.Photo 505

Huge collection of photo templates, which will keep You busy for quite a while.

6.Loonapix

In a few words – Loonapix is going to beautify your life. A lot more photo templates.

7.Funny Photo

Even more photo templates – just upload Your images and choose one of funny effects available!

8.Dumpr

While not all of templates are free, still there are enough to choose from.

9.WriteOnIt

Here you can easily create your fake pictures, captions and fake magazines (Wired, Playboy, Playgirl, Glamour, Time) and other funny jokes for you and your friends.

10.MagMyPic

There are 30 different magazines to choose from for now. You can select any of them and make an impressive, unique, custom fake magazine with ease and Your own picture – it’s simple as that!

11.Hollywood Hair Virtual Makeover

Try on the hottest celebrity hair and makeup looks!

11. Ultimate Photo Makeover Secrets!

Ultimate Photo Makeover Secrets is a product of over 3,000 hours of research and painstaking trial-and-errors that is designed to give your less-than-flattering photos an instant complete makeover! Why spend a ridiculous amount of time and money trying to find the solution when you can conveniently get the answer here at a fraction of the price? Yes, I’ve already done all the hard work for you so you don’t have to!

12.Hairmixer

Lovely tool and it does exatcly what it says in the image below.

13.BigHugeLabs Flickr

Have fun with Your photos, a lot of photo editing tools available here, You don’t need any knowledge of professional photo editing programs.

14.FaceInHole

With FACEinHOLE.com you can easily and in a matter of seconds create a totally “new look” for you and your friends. You just have to select a scenario, upload and adjust a photo (or use your webcam) and there you have it; a great FACEinHOLE that you can send to your friends, post in your blog or make available to the world.

15.Personalized money

Create your own personalized money bill with Your own picther with just a click of a mouse button.

16.Fake Magazine Cover

Here you can personalize magazine covers online (no software applications to install, just use your web browser) by uploading digital photos you have on your computer.

17.My Heritage Face Recognition

MyHeritage.com is one of the world’s first services to apply advanced face recognition technology to personal photos and family history; and it’s free!

18.Poladroid – The easiest and funiest polaroid maker

Easy way how to create high resolution – polaroid like images.

19.FotoTrix – Image Generator

Upload a digital photo to add fun effects and novelty layouts. FotoTrix have over 2,500 templates for your digital photographs! Make it look like you had your photograph taken with a celebrity or add some goofy props to spice up your photos.

20. Picnik

Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. It’s fast, easy, and fun.

21. JpgFun

Jpgfun is an easy-to-use free online service to edit Your photos! You can improve Your photo with different interesting and funny effects or put Your photo on a magazine cover. Mention that it is ABSOLUTELY FREE and easy as one, two, three! One more photo template resource.

22.Dynamic Einstein picture

You can change the text on this image to whatever you like. Change the text in the form below, then click on “preview image”. The text in the image will change accordingly. You can align the text with spaces and enters.

23. Photovisi

Choose from 18 photo templates and create collages from Your photos as wallpapers and more.

24. PixiSnap

Pixisnap allows you to create your own pixisnap photos in 3 easy steps: choose a mosaic type, upload your photo and customize your mosaic art.

25. Fotocrib

Fotocrib is a web based photo editing service. Fotocrib currently allows users to:

* Create montages

* Add 3D effects

* Encrypt photos

* Create rounded corners

* Convert between jpeg, png, gif, pdf and postscript formats

* Send photos to email recipients and lots more.

26.Create Your Own Wired Cover

Ever wanted to be on Wired magazine cover? This is Your chance! You can customize cover headlines, borders, color palette, background – fully customizable!

27. Pizap

Pizap is a fun free photo editor that lets people easily create wacky images with their digital pictures. PiZap was created as a tool primarily for social networking users who want to post their images to their favorite social networking sites

28.Blingee

Add Glitter, Graphics, and Comments to personalize your images, then share with your friends!

29.PhotoFunia

PhotoFunia is an online photo editing tool that gives you a fun filled experience. You upload any photo and just wait to see the magic. Our proprietary technology automatically identifies the face in the photo and let’s you add cool photo effects and create funny face photo montages.

PhotoFunia is free and very easy to use. Just select an effect you like from over 100 different effects, upload your photo, and PhotoFunia will handle the rest for you.

If You know more similar services – feel free to add Your link in comment so I can create even better list!

There is a new article with even more fun websites - 15 More Really Fun Online Photo Editing Websites.