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

[Erttheking]

Unno, every time I've ever looked at it it's been white and gold. No blue to be seen.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

Yeah well, optical illusion or not, regardless of what the dress looks like IRL, the actual colours of the actual pixels on this very specific picture are muddy gold and light blue. Specifically, 7d6d4b gold and 9babd0 light blue in hexadecimal (in the brightest patches). The colour picker does not lie. The picture is simply overexposed. I assume that the people perceiving dark blue and black take the light in the background into account and their brains just fill the blanks in for them.

I find myself reminded of this illusion in particular:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aHtjhCxRIa4/hqdefault.jpg

Some people see a fully coloured picture with appropriate browns, greens and reds when in fact the picture is made entirely of shades of pink.

 

[Sirtety]

That dress is clearly pea soup green and fire engine red. I can't believe no one else can see that.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

That dress is clearly pea soup green and fire engine red. I can't believe no one else can see that.

you mean the colours of the inevitable Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green re-remakes? I always thought the latter would be called Nursing Home Fire Red.

Edit: Is it normal for the borders of this thread to be yellow, descending into white as you scroll lower?

What do you mean? It should be blue and black.

I can confirm that the side borders of this thread are indeed blue.

... I wonder if they adjust the colours based on our expressed opinion of what the colours are or it's just random. I don't remember it being here before I posted a couple minutes ago.

 

[Kashrlyyk]

....Yeah, seeing it as white and gold certainly seems to be the brain accommodate for shade. If you compare the dresses (even though they're only one dress) you'll note that one looks like it's in the shade (gold and white) and the other doesn't (black and blue).

There is another picture of the dress where you can see it is dark blue. The RGB values of the blue there are around 50/50/120 which is a dark blue. Notice how the blue channel has more than twice the value of the other two channels.

But on the picture that started the whole thing the "blue" pixels have RGB values of around 135/140/190. That is grey with a little bit of blue in it which makes it look like white in a shadow. Notice how the blue channel is only around 1.35 times the values of the other channels.

So basically the entire thing started with the shittiest picture someone has ever taken of a dark blue dress.

 

[Lunar Templar]

If I said I was in the 'it's just a fucking dress why does anyone even care' group would that make me more or less sane in this instance?

 

[C_sector]

when i first saw this on the news, the dress looked white and gold to me. But now i see it as black and blue

 

[Strazdas]

It is black and blue, not blue and gold, you took a bad sample. You don't take a sample of the area being hit by the light source. LOL
I have a perfect score on my color test, and my monitor settings are set to match the actual fabric colors I receive.

the image is blue and brown, no matter what the actual dress is. any sample of image not hit by light will be black, because when there is no light its always black. no, in fact you take the best lit part because that, in theory, has best color. unless camera is wrongly adjusted, as it is in this picture.

Also there is no black on that picture anywhere. there are areas of shadows that are grey, as all shadows are. thats about as close as it gets.

maybe your monitor brightness is so low you think the grey is black, in which case i suggest you raise it, because there is a clear difference between real black and grey.

 

[CrystalShadow]

It looks bluer on my phone than it does on my PC. So the screen you view it on can affect your perception as well.

No surprises there. I can alter the colour balance of my monitor quite a bit, and it does have some influence.
In fact, the lighting conditions in the area around my computer also seem to be able to mess with my perception of this image...

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Er... I've always only ever seen it as pale blue and brownish gold.

So... does that mean I'm technically right and everyone else is 'correcting' (which is nonsense, since you're mentally altering a photo, rather than viewing it as is) for whatever variable?

Or is this just highlighting the variation/failings of people's senses?

This is dumb. D:

 

[RedDeadFred]

After about two hours of study and concentration (what has my life degenerated to), I am finally able to "flip the switch" that lets me see one color scheme or the other without moving the picture offscreen.

Don't feel too bad, I did something similar with the spinning ballerina that can be interpreted as spinning in either direction.

OT: I've only been able to see it as blue and black. Though, as the article suggests, I am absolutely a night owl.

 

[L. Declis]

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.

This is why I just stay in my own little world and either read, play games or paint my necron models.

I can't find the words to describe my contempt for the people wasting their time on this stuff.

I don't want to sound all crazy conspiracy, but this was on the same day as the FCC vote which they wanted to delay, and not release the NN paper to the public to view, and generally keep the entire thing away from the public gaze. Maybe we were meant to be distracted?

Or, maybe, people really are morons

Also, paint Necrons? Drybrush Boltgun Metal until covered, add some sand, done. Seriously though, throw a link to your models. Wanna see.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

It is black and blue, not blue and gold, you took a bad sample. You don't take a sample of the area being hit by the light source. LOL
I have a perfect score on my color test, and my monitor settings are set to match the actual fabric colors I receive.

the image is blue and brown, no matter what the actual dress is. any sample of image not hit by light will be black, because when there is no light its always black. no, in fact you take the best lit part because that, in theory, has best color. unless camera is wrongly adjusted, as it is in this picture.

Also there is no black on that picture anywhere. there are areas of shadows that are grey, as all shadows are. thats about as close as it gets.

maybe your monitor brightness is so low you think the grey is black, in which case i suggest you raise it, because there is a clear difference between real black and grey.

When color correcting Photos for an item that you are selling, you actually try to counter the flash that alters the color. The area being hit directly with the light source is the worst sample, not best. You want plenty of light yes, but you also do not want it directly hit with the light source, as that will change the color of the item and not represent it accurately. Why would I change my monitor when the color it shows is the exact color of fabric I receive? I can hold the fabric I receive up to my monitor and it be accurate, if your monitor does not do that, maybe you should alter your settings. You can test your settings by taking a picture of fabrics and holding them up to your monitor to make sure it is accurate.

 

[dalek sec]

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.

This is why I just stay in my own little world and either read, play games or paint my necron models.

I can't find the words to describe my contempt for the people wasting their time on this stuff.

I don't want to sound all crazy conspiracy, but this was on the same day as the FCC vote which they wanted to delay, and not release the NN paper to the public to view, and generally keep the entire thing away from the public gaze. Maybe we were meant to be distracted?

Or, maybe, people really are morons

Also, paint Necrons? Drybrush Boltgun Metal until covered, add some sand, done. Seriously though, throw a link to your models. Wanna see.

It's either a conspiracy to distract people or more likely, people are just morons wasting their time on this stuff.

Well for me I use Leadbelcher, agrax earthshade to make them really beat up looking and then a light drybrushing of Necron Compound to make the silver shine through weakly. I'll send you a pm with some links to them from the shop I go to.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Didn't they already explain how this works on SciShow, with the bad whitebalance and stuff?

Spoiler

But then, I still don't see how it's possible to see gold for anything other than the sunlight falling onto the black, if you see gold at all.

 

[Buffoon1980]

I'm actually very glad to see quite a few people here who see the dress, as I do, as blue and gold. So many places seem to overlook it as an option.

Now, I want to make a few points. Firstly, there is no moral judgement to be made about how people see this image. Secondly, the colour that the dress actually is in real life is absolutely irrelevant.

 

[gphjr14]

From the first time I saw the picture all I saw was a crappy picture of a blue and black dress. My eyesight has always been sharp so I don't know if that has anything to do with it but I can't see anything other than a blue and black dress under a light...

 

[Someone Depressing]

The dress is fucking ugly.

Can this be the end of the conversation, please? It's pretty ridiculous. I don't know, let's look at these nice gifs of llamas-

INTERNET!!!

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I thought it was pretty funny to see how differently people can perceive things. All of my family members saw the dress as white & gold, while I cannot see it in any other way as blue & black.

They even called me insane for seeing it in a different way Though I'm right in the end, muhahah!

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

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).

Thank Christ someone posted this! I was going mad thinking "I swear when I first saw it it was gold and white."