[useless_foghorn]

I think that’s why this demonstration is interesting. It’s showing how the light can be bent around the black hole. Anything that crosses the event horizon won’t be coming back, but because of the lensing of the light you can “see” behind a black hole.

[jtbayly]

So if I’m understanding correctly, the black hole is supposed to be between me and what I’m looking at, not in what I’m looking at?

If so, then my question is wouldn’t some light be lost to the black hole? Shouldn’t a substantial portion of the light coming at me from the other side of the black hole disappear into the black hole, making what does lens around dimmer?

[bmurphy1976]

Yes some light would be lost the black hole, but also some light you would not have normally seen is now coming your way due to space time warping.

[ayakang31415]

Here's Veritasium video on Gravitational Lensing effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo

[useless_foghorn]

A lot of light would be absorbed by the black hole. A lot of light paths would be bent and miss or nearly miss the black hole, making edges of the black hole quite bright. The dimming effect would be much larger than the (brighter) immediate periphery.