life thru my lens

Weekend Hashtag Project: #WHPillusion

Weekend Hashtag Project is a series featuring designated themes and hashtags chosen by Instagram’s Community Team. For a chance to be featured on the Instagram blog, follow @instagram and look for a post every week announcing the latest project.

This weekend, the goal is to take photos and videos that create optical illusions, like this hand-created eye trick from Aakash Nihalani (@aakashnihalani). Here are some tips:

Play with scale and move around to find new perspectives within a single frame. For example, photographing a puddle low to the ground can turn it into an ocean.

Let props help. A cleverly placed mirror or some sleight-of-hand card tricks can elevate a simple illusion to double take-worthy.

Make magic by playing with both artificial and natural light. Use a flashlight to draw the eye toward a specific element of an image or incorporate the setting sun’s long shadows into your illusion.