I know how to see magic eye images, but finding it difficult to explain to my boyfriend who is failing to see the images... does anyone know of a simple way of explaining it?
I find these difficult too. First, explain that he won't see what he expects to see - if you are looking for something like the colour-blindness test pictures, it's not that. It's a "cut-out" effect that becomes 3-d
Try going cross-eyed first, then just relax with the blurred image and it will gradually unfold.
Don't focus on the page surface as you would normally do, try to focus on a point in front of the page. Best done by crossing your eyes a little and back an forth again until focus 'clicks' into place.
What you are aiming for is the brain to match one part of the picture (being concentrated on by one eye) erroneously with a slightly different but similar part of the picture (being concentrated on by the other eye).
If you are short sighted and take your lenses out/glasses off you can get an even better effect -with the page fairly close to my eye the quality for me was outstanding and I saw the images almost immediately. I just let my eyes stare at a fixed point and then move the page until the image kicks in.
Try here, he may not be able to see them! My son in law can't see them because he has a lazy eye. Media URL: http://www.vision3d.com/whycant.html Description: