This Optical Illusion Makes Black And White Photos Look Colored

Published 5 years ago

The thing about optical illusions is that they always tend to trick us in creative yet pretty obvious ways. Take this photo of kids posing with a turtle that recently went viral all over the internet. At first glance, it seems like a pretty ordinary, albeit a little bit murky-colored, photo. But if you look at it closer, you’ll see that it’s actually a black and white photo with some colored grids laid over it. Pretty neat, huh?

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Image credits: Øyvind Kolås

Image credits: page_eco

The image was created by Øyvind Kolås, a digital media artist and software developer. The trick behind the photo is that the colored grid sort of gives your brain a clue on what the rest of the photo should be colored like and it automatically applies color. Øyvind calls it the ‘color assimilation grid illusion’.

Image credits: Øyvind Kolås

“An over-saturated colored grid overlaid on a grayscale image causes the grayscale cells to be perceived as having color,” the artist explained his illusion.

Image credits: Øyvind Kolås

Øyvind went on to show that it’s not just grids that create the illusion. Lines and dots work similarly too. In fact, the technique of using dots to make an area look color has been used in comics for quite some time.

Image credits: Øyvind Kolås

Image credits: Manuel Schmalstieg

Image credits: Øyvind Kolås

Image credits: hodefoting

Image credits: MathKyle

See the illusion in motion in the video below

Image credits: Øyvind Kolås

People had mixed opinions about the illusion













Aušrys Uptas

One day, this guy just kind of figured - "I spend most of my time on the internet anyway, why not turn it into a profession?" - and he did! Now he not only gets to browse the latest cat videos and fresh memes every day but also shares them with people all over the world, making sure they stay up to date with everything that's trending on the web. Some things that always pique his interest are old technologies, literature and all sorts of odd vintage goodness. So if you find something that's too bizarre not to share, make sure to hit him up!

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bizarre, black and white, brain, color, grids, illusion, optical illusion, Øyvind Kolås, photo, Trick, weird
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