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I've just came across a image with a peculiar effect. I'm not sure how they have hidden the original image in the lines(or layer perhaps?)

There has been no visible changes in color nor in the pattern of lines. So, how exactly did they embed the original image between the lines?

And Is there any way I could achieve the same effect using Photoshop?

Image:

Image

The hidden image can be viewed by a steady up and down scrolling

P.S. I'm a beginner in Photoshop.

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    For those that have trouble seeing the image clearly it is best to squint heavily and look away from the image until it comes into view.
    – Adam Caviness
    Jan 14, 2016 at 14:17
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    @AdamCaviness It's also easier, in my opinion, to see it while scrolling.
    – Joshua Taylor
    Jan 14, 2016 at 19:37
  • This is actually hurting my eyes, congratulations!
    – Shane Smiskol
    Jan 20, 2016 at 0:59
  • @TrivisionZero lol, it's just a fuzzy image :)
    – Snazzy Sanoj
    Jan 20, 2016 at 10:02
  • @SnazzySanoj On my phone it makes everything look blurry after, on my computer it just hurts :p
    – Shane Smiskol
    Jan 20, 2016 at 20:45

2 Answers 2

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There are some changes in color. Tts difficult to see with naked eyes but if you import you object to photoshop and use eyedroper you can see some color variations.

How you can achieve this effect:

  1. Create the pattern(There are lots of ways to create this if you don't want to create this manually). You can change the color of upper and lower strips

enter image description here

  1. Now put the image below the Patter (make sure the image is black) and Rasterize both (pattern and Image layer)
  2. Now if you can see the original image, the pattern is little bit thicker where the panda shade lies. So, to do this, the easiest thing we can do is -
  3. Select all the black region of your pattern [(CTRL + Click on the pattern layer thumbnail or Go to SELECT > Color Range > and select black color(increase the fuzziness to a higher value so it can select both shades of black)]
  4. Now, Go to SELECT > MODIFY > EXPAND > and enter the value of 1px.
  5. Now, Invert your selection (CTRL + SHIFT + I) go to the Image layer and hit Delete. It will delete all the unwanted area and will leave behind a thickness or 1px at the border. that's it.

Here's is my result

enter image description here You can zoom out the image to see the proper result.

Note: Make sure you are creating this in high resolution(in my case I have created this in file size of 1350x1920px) So, 1px expansion worked for me.

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    @Janus Bahs Jacquet the white are not completely transparent if import the image in photoshop and use eyedropper you can see some variation in colors
    – Rishab
    Jan 14, 2016 at 8:59
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    It's definitely more complicated than either of the suggestions. Upon closer inspection the lines are just the same colour (not entirely black / white only due to compression noise) but thicker where the shade lies.
    – The Vee
    Jan 14, 2016 at 11:02
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    @ Vašek Potoček I must say you have an eye of eagle. I tried your suggestion(thicker where the shade lies) and yeah it worked here's the image dropbox.com/s/e81o9udbhkr6wz1/Test2.png?dl=0 if you zoom out the image you can see the result(I have added just 1px of thickness)
    – Rishab
    Jan 14, 2016 at 11:19
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    @Snazzy Sanoj I will edit my answer with that one within 3-4 hours when I get back home
    – Rishab
    Jan 14, 2016 at 15:30
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    @Snazzy Sanoj I have edited my answer with the one I did with the image in the dropbox
    – Rishab
    Jan 14, 2016 at 16:29
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The bars in the pattern are actually not of exactly the same width. Some bars are slightly thicker, adding a darker mean shade to the image in that location. This way the picture is visible by just a slightly darker mean color (like 50% brightness for the bright regions and 52% brightness for the darker regions).

You can do this in photoshop, if you start with a gradiented pattern, eg. you create the bar fence as smooth transitions between black and white instead of sharp bars.

You then blend the target picture over that with only some percent and merge it down, to have the soft pattern attenuated a little bit by the picture.

Last step is to use threshold to regain an b/w image.

As the blended picture modulated the brightness slightly, the threshold cut more or less of the bar width and so modulates the bar width.

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  • The soft bar fence may be created by bluring a sharp fence, however this may lead to uneven thickness and rounded corners.
    – dronus
    Jan 14, 2016 at 13:47

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