This Optical Illusion Makes Black And White Photos Look Colored

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?

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