The Ray Model of Light

Our brains always interpret light as having originated in a straight line. But if there are reflective surfaces which can change the direction of which light is traveling then that assumption will not be true. To get a nice crisp image in a mirror you have to have a sufficiently flat reflective surface because if you have a really bumpy surface basically the different parts of the image are going to be all jumbled up. The reason you don't see an image when you look at opaque objects is it's still reflecting light from your face so why do you see an image? You just get a jumble of colors which we see as white in order for a nice picture to be preserved.