Is The Dress Blue or White? Why The Internet Just Lost Its Mind

[Aerotrain]

I'm still not convinced this isn't some sort of SCP Foundation artifact that somehow escaped containment. Its power is that it creates discord among those who look at it, that's why the internet blew up like it did (not like it needs much help).

Still, I saw it change color in front of my very eyes from white/gold to the apparently correct blue/black the first time I saw it. See you at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, fellow blue dressers.

 

[The_Darkness]

I'm still not convinced this isn't some sort of SCP Foundation artifact that somehow escaped containment. It's power is that it creates discord among those who look at it, that's why the internet blew up like it did (not like it needs much help).

Still, I saw it change color in front of my very eyes from white/gold to the apparently correct blue/black the first time I saw it. See you at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, fellow blue dressers.

To be fair, it's better than something worse escaping containment - like whatever the heck is down that damn staircase.

I'm still waiting to see it appear white. I've put it into paint and changed the background colour to dark blue and black - still, the dress appears blue. I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't some sort of government conspiracy to convince me to waste time - which begs the question of what is it that they don't want me working on...

 

[Aerotrain]

To be fair, it's better than something worse escaping containment - like whatever the heck is down that damn staircase.

At the very bottom of the staircase there is only a twisted creature, a horrible patchwork of muscle and bones, and it ceaselessly shouts: WHITE...AND...GOLD!

 

[CaitSeith]

Damn you, eyes! You had one job!

Captcha: pandora's box ...please, somebody verify Captcha's self-awareness. This is getting too creepy.

 

[CaitSeith]

It's things like this happening concurrently with people going ape over two llamas on the loose on the same day that makes me question this whole 'existence' thing we've got going on.

Spoiler: I can say only one thing...

 

[Irridium]

Moral of the story: Don't take pictures with a phone's crappy camera with crappy lighting conditions or you'll cause the internet to eat its own face.

 

[The_Darkness]

It's things like this happening concurrently with people going ape over two llamas on the loose on the same day that makes me question this whole 'existence' thing we've got going on.

Spoiler: I can say only one thing...

Okay. One internet. You win it. It's all yours. Have a cookie too.

Genuinely, that's the first time I've laughed out loud at something online in a LONG time

 

[Skeleon]

Huh. Guess I didn't "fall for it" or whatever. It looked blue and black from the start to me. I can only assume the people who thought it was white and gold got that impression from the background and lighting throwing them off. Weird thing to go viral.

EDIT:

...

Wow, what pop-psy nonsense.

 

[Bindal]

Can't say that I am able to notice anything white. Blue and Black on the picture for me - but I am aware that gold can look black under some circumstances (how the light shines on it and how it reflects it, mostly). Not knowing it is gold, I would have gone with black, but if someone told me it would be gold, I would say what I say now: "Yeah, could be. Probably is. Still looks more black to me right now."

 

[StorkV]

''The group pressure implied by the expressed opinion of other people can lead to modification and distortion effectively making you see almost anything.'' -Solomon Asch

 

[Zydrate]

I don't get it. I don't see white -at all-, ever. I can see how the black can be seen as yellow given the material might be reflecting some light in an odd way. But the other color is all blue, all the time.

 

[iniudan]

For me the 3 of them are blue with black trim, it just the tint that vary. Actually can't see wtf some people see gold, other then mistaking light reflection for the actual color of the dress, as the pictures are unusually saturated.

The light blue one I can understand some people not seeing the blue, as blue is usually the hardest color to see for most, thus why light and dark tint of blue can easily be mistaken for white and black by a lot of people.

 

[moggett88]

Um author of post? The designer says the dress is blue and black, and is wearing the dress while she says so. Sooooo totally not blue and gold, as you *promise* in the article (totally triggered by inaccurate information)

 

[AngronIsAngry]

Had a look at the numerical color values. So it is solid blue with hue to the white spectrum and gold (yellow/brown-ish) shoved far in to the black.
I guess the "neutral" properties of white and black as non-colors are the trick here. I would personally be amazaed if the same picture offers such divergence between people, as it is not so much reliant on pattern recognition as with the 2Faces/Vase optical illusion.

 

[garjian]

I think the images that we're shown differ. This one looks blue with darker gold/tan/black. The one I was shown this morning looked absolutely white and gold. I think some people are seeing a white-balanced version of this picture:

http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Untitled-12.jpg

The one I was shown first was the one on the far left. That still looks mostly white (but light blue) and gold while the middle one is clearly blue and black (or dark gold like it appears around the neck).

None of these appear white and gold.
The over-exposure/poor white balancing (of the original image) does make the black shine a dark gold colour, but you can clearly see that the whole image is being effected in the same way, so you can tell it's black.

The white on the other hand, I am absolutely baffled by.
I do not understand how anybody can confuse something so obviously blue with white, especially considering there is actual white from the blown out reflection right next to the dress.
They are not even remotely the same colour. If anything, the conditions make it look lilac/purple. Nothing close to white.

Spoiler: This image clearly shows that the colours in this image at least are brown and blue....

How was this even an argument?

 

[chikusho]

I don't think I get it either. I just took the picture into photoshop and used the eye dropper tool to sample the colors.
The white/blue area is, just as I saw the first time looking at the photo, a pale blue color. A color which in context can be assumed as a shaded white or a brightened blue when looking at a real world object photographed with a background light source.

The gold/black area is clearly a matte goldish color. Possibly sunlight could be reflected on a shiny black to produce that kind of effect. However, I have no idea how anyone could see both in the same image. I tried putting black bars around the dress, and the colors look exactly the same. The blue could be a semantic issue, but the black? Confusing to say the least. Is this some kind of elaborate image switching scheme to anger the internet?



https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21740/blue.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21740/gold.jpg

 

[MisterColeman]

Last night I saw blue and black. Today I see white and gold. All I know for certain is that this makes me irrationally furious.

EDIT: Something stranger is happening here. After finding out that Leonard Nimoy died the dress has been clearly blue and black. I was in a much better mood when I first made this post. I was somewhat sad last night as well.

Anyway, the original dress: http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/02/28/business/28dress2-web/28dress2-web-master180-v2.jpg

 

[Shanahanapp]

Weird. Looked once and it was white and gold. Looked again a couple minutes later and it's blue and black. And now it won't change back.

 

[one squirrel]

Seems like some people here are missing the point. It's not hard to see or find out what the colors in the picture are: as many have already done, just use photoshop if you can't tell with bare eyes that it is blue and ochre. The question is what the actual colors of the dress are when seen under white light.