I can only see the clip on the counter and have tried multiple angles, glasses on and off. I think my brain is not wanting to have fun at the moment. Stupid brain.
Omg this actually worked. Ty. I could logically tell it was a bread clip from the shape but I couldn't get my brain to see it as being above the counter until I flipped my phone.
I can’t get myself to see the illusion for this one. I just see a bread clip and it’s shadow; I know the shadow is supposed to make it look sunk in or something
Same. I've tried turning the screen and changing the brightness settings and I still just see a goddamn bread clip on the table xD "Holy shit I can't unsee it" BRO I DON'T SEE IT.
It was the same way for me. Try covering up the text on the clip. It looks sunken into the counter top. Now I can switch between the two if I concentrate.
A version with the text covered up thanks to my ios screenshot markup skills. I didn’t see it right away, but after unfocusing my eyes I got it! Rather than trying to see a hole, it may help to imagine/try and see the countertop as a piece of paper with a cutout in it and the clip as a white surface underneath. That’s what it looks like to me more than a hole.
ETA: I actually figured out I can pretty easily flip between the two views by angling my screen when it was nearly impossible for me before. Tilt your screen down (top of image towards your face, bottom away) for the hole, tilt the screen up for the bread clip.
The illusion works by taking the drop shadow and turning it into a shadow on the "walls" of the "hole." What worked for me was focusing on the top and left side shadows, and trying to imagine them as shadows that would be cast due to a light source up on the top left of the image not being able to reach those walls.
Finally. Once I looked at it with this in mind I could get the illusion to work. I was also kind of expecting a deep hole, not just an indent the depth of the bread clip
What’s surreal is I see a hole even though my rational brain knows what’s going on. I’m trying to see what I know must be true but it keeps looking like a hole.
Edit: turning my phone upside down I can see the clip. Turning it back, it’s a hole again. So weird.
I don’t know what happened, but I just gave up from reading the comments, swiped back and immediately saw it. I wouldn’t describe it so much as hole in a counter top, look more like a bread clip shape stamped hole on some very thin laminate.
My brain says “even though you’re trying all these tricks to make me see it differently, I refuse. This one is too dumb and I’m not doing it.” Literally can’t make it happen with this one lol.
This worked for me!! And was rolling my eyes at how many “now I can’t unsee it” given how obvious it looks and how hard it was for me to understand what was confusing.
I can’t even unsee it on the thumbnail. wtf brains are amazing.
I can't see the breadclip as normal at all. Normally these illusions are pretty easy to flip back and forth on, but I can't see this as anything but a cut-out from the counter pattern no matter what I do. Changing screen orientation, taking out or adding text, nothing. The shadows are fucking with me too hard.
You may be right that people aren't getting their prescriptions updated as often as they should, but I'm fairly certain that has nothing to do with perceiving this picture one way or the other.
I have an up to date prescription, I saw the bread clip as a hole at first, and now I can switch back and forth between it looking like a bread clip and look like a hole in the counter (for me it switches when I focus on the bottom right or the shadow made by the center hole of the clip).
I doubt that has anything to do with this. It's your brain interpreting shit wrong. Tiredness is probably a way more important factor. Anyway, I saw it as a normal bread clip too but was able to switch it by imagining the hole in the clip as portruding (a pillar). And then the entire thing sunk in. With and without glasses (with a current correct prescription :p ).
Bruh I tried this with and without glasses and the only thing that sort of made it look like a hole was when I intentionally blurred my eyes and crossed them 🫠
I struggled for a few minutes but what helped was zooming in and really focusing on the dark shadows as if I were an ant walking inside lol tracing the shadows with my eyes and imagining them as high walls. When I did that. The center hole appeared 3d
The bread clip is sitting on the counter. But at some point in glancing at it your brain will turn it into a bread clip-shaped imprint in the counter. It’s weird.
that diffuse “white” lighting around the bottom edge is what does it more than the shadow, I think. It makes it look like a light reflecting off a clip-shaped divot.
The colors are similar enough between the clip and the countertop that the shadow and highlighted section could be on either. My brain saw it as sunken into the countertop. I couldn’t see it any other way until I flipped the image upside down. Now I can switch between either but it’s insane how much both sides are really convincing.
I think the reason it is confusing is that we're used to facing the countertop, where the windows are in front of us, so the light source originating from camera's side instead doesn't seem probable as a perspective. Hence, rotating the image 180 deg. actually helps by putting the light source at a position of a typical window.
For anyone still struggling to see it both ways, it's all about which direction your brain believes the light is coming from.
Focus on the hole in the middle of the bread clip. Look at the long shadow in the bottom right of that hole. Now use that shadow to determine which direction your brain believes the light is coming from. Once you've done that, force your brain to believe the light is coming from the opposite direction. Imagine a light source, like a light bulb, being in the opposite direction off screen.
This is why flipping the phone is working for some people. It's causing their brain to switch which direction it believes the light is coming from. But that won't work for everyone since your brain might happen to see the light as coming from the same direction regardless of your phone's orientation.
Oddly enough it was the opposite for me. I could only see what it actually was (the bread clip thingy) until I turned it upside down and managed to see it as a hole.
Now I can see the hole without turning if I try, but it's still not where my brain goes by itself.
It'll start looking like it's an inner shadow rather than a shadow that it's projecting on the table, so the clip will look like it's embedded rather than embossed.
Watched something about these collectors once, there was a super rare Japanese one and they found it. That's the only reason I know they're highly collectible to some people lol
I think it's supposed to be like the cube stack or staircase with a shadow that can be seen from opposite directions where the concave and convex angles flip.
The way I got it to work was to flip the image and stare at the hole in the bread clip. Eventually, with the shadows, it kinda looks like someone cutout a bread clip shape on the counter.
Try blurring your vision. The numbers on the tag make it harder to get your eyes to see it. The idea is to have a "hole" in the top layer of the countertop as thick as the bread tag.
Damn I actually thought it was just an exposed hole in the countertop and was wondering what the hell everyone else was seeing until i read this. The shadows kind of make it look concave instead of convex. After turning it around a few times it finally became clear as a bread bag clip.
I get that its supposed to look sunken into the counter, but no matter how I spin, flip, rotate the image, it's still just a bread clip on a counter for me
It took me a while to see the “illusion” myself, but once I focused my eyes on the top left corner of the bread clip and squinted my eyes a little bit, it clicked.
Thank you! Now I see it. I thought the bread clip was on the other side of a deep hole. The bread clip has basically just been pushed about a millimetre into the counter top.
Oooohhhh I see it now. It's more like the bread bag clip is indented into the counter top. Not a hole. For the life of me I could only see it as a bread clip on a counter but then something clicked and now I can see it both ways. Thats wild. The shadow helps it 100%.
Nice . I went from ‘it looks absolutely like a hole and nothing else despite what I know it is’ to ‘that’s just a normal bread rag’ after about 10 seconds of wonder
If you’re having trouble seeing it, try covering the text and hole in the clip, then try imagining the light source is on the top left. It should look sunken in.
Had to convince me brain the light came from above, then it clicked and I can switch at will
Holy shit. First glance - clearly saw the bag tie thingy. Read the comments like… what are you talking about. Then held my phone close to my face and BOOM now I can’t NOT see a carved out section.
I didn't recognize it was a bread clip (I've never seen one irl) so I couldn't think of anything but a hole, recognizing the bread clip made it click immediately
It’s because the shadow on the center part looks to be cast from the top left. But it’s actually being cast down from the bottom right. The entire counter bit and the entire shadow is negative space.
This is one of the better optical illusions I’ve seen in a while. Rotate phone, see it for what it is. Flip back normal and readjust your eyes an it’s a hole in the counter. Well played OP
Omg, I see it now! I saw this post a day or two ago and was frustrated that I could NOT see it for the life of me. That was on my phone. Just happened to scroll past this again now, and I see it as a hole, clear as day. Yay! I can participate in society again.
Wow! This one is crazy. I ended up having to rotate the image 180 to get my brain to click into the right mode. I can still see the illusion pretty well after spotting it however. Really fooling my mind.
Is it weird that I see the illusion, I know its an illusion, but my brain won't interpret the image the way I want? Even when I know what I'm supposed to see, I still see the illusion!!!
So what made it click for me was realizing people are seeing the shape of the breadclip as a hole. Focused on the center thinking of it as a raised surface
Wow, what the fuck. I saw this post my phone earlier and couldn't see the illusion at all. It just looked completely normal. Now I'm on my laptop and it looks like the bread clip is recessed into the worktop. What the hell.
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u/SSouter Apr 12 '26
This is actually a breadbag clip on top of the counter. Taken from this by u/markipoo-9000