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New dress controversy. Is the water blue or gold?
Not photoshop. Not AI.
https://mymodernmet.com/kenichi-ohno-bird-photo-illusion/
"So what is happening behind the egret that is causing the illusion? In the upper right-hand corner, there is a cream-colored wall. What we see below the wall is its reflection in the water and the position of the photographer has allowed for a perfectly straight “cut” in the composition, so one side is all water and the other side is the wall and its reflection."
Photo by Kenichi Ohno
@kims Wow, that's wild
I thought the bird might have been part of some kind of time portal.
@kims that's a cool effect, once you know what it is it's obvious but it does seem like perhaps a composite of two backgrounds at first
@AbandonedAmerica
I know quite a bit about magic effects, including how to deceive using mirrors and lighting, and almost nothing about photography.
I confess, having read the description twice, the 'obviousness' of it eludes me. And much like an optical illusion, even when I (almost kinda sorta) understand the effect, it continues to fool me.
I regret learning as much about magic as I have, and am grateful that photography retains all its magical charms.
@kims @AbandonedAmerica i think a key element in this is that the wall in the top right is inside the water, but we can't see the top of it, so it's confusing how come the blue water come all the way to the top of the picture
@kims some things are still magic even if you understand how they work - for example, a photograph's ability to provide a window into a past moment still seems like a bit of wizardry to me even though I understand roughly how it works 
@AbandonedAmerica
I suspect the line did not originate with him, but one of the first times I interviewed The Amazing Randi he described a telescope as a time machine.
I love people who can see the world that way.
@kims that's very true! And it is a cool perspective. The world is full of wonders. For example, right now I am marveling how two days of rain has completely changed how my whole yard looks
@kims @AbandonedAmerica oh man this really is going to be like The Dress? With my autism this is deadly simple and I even have a place near my last home where this would look familiar. Meanwhile the neurotypicals — what is it you see?
@whophd @AbandonedAmerica
I am definitely not neurotypical and I see a magic trick, but I share your frustration of often being the outlier with stuff like this.
@kims @AbandonedAmerica ah okay I saw it for 2 seconds, while my app was cropping the photo even harder
@kims “Oh, no” is exactly the right name.
@kims I can only process the image as real if I concentrate on the distortion of the line in the ripples at the bird's feet. Otherwise it keeps breaking my brain.
@kims the sky is blue, the wall is gold, the water is reflective ;)
@kims The water is transparent and colourless, but its surface is reflective.
@kims @tvaziri I’m not sure the “straight cut” depends on the position of the photographer; even though the 50/50 split is a matter of framing.
Is this going to be another case of “nothing looks mysterious to me” but all the neurotypical audience disagrees? I focussed straight in on the mossy water edge of the sandstone.
QTKO 
) @kims Oh, I see it now! That's so cool!
@kims it took my brain waaaaay too long to process that image correctly