How come we always know the image has been flipped

[skoobey]

I was just wondering, how come we instinctively know that an image has been flipped? And I don't mean just celebrities and people we know, signs, license plates etc.

I've been looking at a lot of images lately that look odd for some reason, only to figure out they've been flipped horizontally. Even palm trees look odd. What's up with that? Any ideas?

[Doug Nelson]

Re: How come we always know the image has been fli

People are smarter than they know. The difference between a great retouch and all the others frequently boils down to being sensitive to the subconcious cues (I guess if you're sensitive to them they're no longer subconcious). The uncanny valley is another example of this. We know something is off even if we don't know what is off.

One of the best retouching tips I've heard was to defocus your eyes (or simply look away), then when you refocus on your image note the exact spot that catches your attention, even if you don't know why. Work on that spot. Defocus, repeat.

[insmac]

Re: How come we always know the image has been fli

That and also how much we're used to a little bit of assymetry in one's face - there was a post somewhere with a lot of shots of highly attractive people whom we don't immediately recognize from somewhere (not a celebrity of sorts) - and you could instantly see something was way off.