Other way around. You have to focus closer to your face than the object actually is, hence the hold it to your face trick.

Your eyes cross a little when you look at things closer to you and a lot when it’s incredibly close. It’s called convergence and it’s one of the biggest issues that made virtual reality goggles hard to make with our eyes trying to see 3d images as if they are far away despite being so close to your eyes.

I see the image by slightly crossing my eyes to align the two halves and make the image appear. Basically collapsing the image inward. But it’s a very slight crossing, especially when the image is far away like a painting hung on a wall.

Focusing past it just makes the whole thing blurry and is the opposite of how these are solved. Unless it was made with both directions in mind.

You may think you’re focusing past it because at some point while your eyes adjust, the convergent point is in front of the image meaning what you see is spread out as the lines continue past the focal point and separate.

That or if you’re using the hold it to your face method, you may just be confusing where you are focusing as you move the pic away and your eyes want to readjust.