There are lots of photos out there that are fake looking, but they aren’t photoshopped. They are photos where the position of the people and / or objects creates an illusion when taken by a camera. Looking at a group of these, this one struck me as the most deceptive. Why?

• It’s clear and understandable at a glance – there’s a girl’s head on a spoon.
• The proportions are right – the head is not too big and not too small, so it’s possible.
• It’s funny – there’s a girl’s head on a spoon (so I don’t care how it’s done.)
• But I think the most important element is the shadow underneath. Here she is without the shadow (in an admittedly bad clone-tool erasing job):

Without the shadow, it’s flat. The shadow is what causes it to work and fool us.

TheChive>>