Photo source: Agnese Eva Montecchi

Life is only a reflection of
what we allow ourselves to see.
~Trudy Symeonakis Vesotsky

Here is a 5th grade science class lesson: Reflection is the change of direction of waves when hitting a hard surface. Waves bounce of a smooth surface at a same angle as it hit.

Real life examples of reflection

• When sounds reflects, it creates an echo. We use this in acoustics, but also ultrasound imagery and sonar mapping.
  
• Surface waves in bodies of water can reflect on a sea wall.
• We mostly associate reflection with light, specifically reflecting images in mirrors, metallic surfaces and still water.
  

Spectacular Reflection

Most surfaces reflect light in a diffused way; leaving the surface in different angles. This is how we can see the objects and their colors, when the light enters our retina.

Some surfaces, however, are so smooth that every ray of light will be reflected in the same direction. It will then form a complete mirror image. This is called spectacular reflection.

Creating optical illusions with reflection

Reflection is a physical illusion. The illusion happens due to the physical properties of the environment, long before the light hits your eyes. The eyes and the brain are not involved in reflection. This also means that you can photograph these illusions or show them to the public and they will all be seen the same.

Reflection illusions are also popular with illusionists and magicians because they can manipulate every viewer in the same way.

Here are some tips to use reflection to create your own optical illusions:

Beginner: Use mirrors to reflect a subject that is not in the view of the camera:

Intermediate: Find reflective surfaces in nature and position your camera to capture the perfect image. Flip the photograph if necessary:

Photo source: Ali Alzaidi

Expert: Mix reflection and reality in a way that seems impossible:

Photo source: Christiaan Triebert

Accidental optical illusions with Reflection

Here are images from our collection of accidental optical illusions thanks to reflection

Click on the images to see the larger version and read the explanation of the optical illusion and the source/credit of the image.