What colors do you see?

[Belak]

Apparently, people are freaking out over this dress. It doesn't make much sense, but some see blue and black while others see white and gold. No one can come to an absolute consensus. I see gold and white, I'm interested in the colors you guys see.


http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/weird/What-Color-Is-This-Dress-We-Cant-Agree-294301191.html#

 

[zerkalo]

white and gold

i honestly thought this dress mania was a joke until i showed the dress to my brother and he said he saw black and blue

 

[Yellow]

I saw this earlier today, (by "saw", I mean I skimmed right by it as a tl;dr on Imgur's usersub). It looks like a light periwinkle/lavender and brown to me.

But it's one of those "your brain has to make assumptions" things. If you use the other cues in the image to see the dress as being lit-up, then you will interpret it as black and blue. If you use the other cues in the image to see it as in shadow, then you'll see white and gold.

 

[onesteptwostep]

i don't get it. this is one of those stupid social experiments isn't it

 

[Jennywocky]

white and gold

i honestly thought this dress mania was a joke until i showed the dress to my brother and he said he saw black and blue

wtf?

Yeah, I see white and gold.
And of course I'm right.

Actually, what I noticed more is that it wouldn't look good on me.

EDIT: I saw the pic on a DIFFERENT page with other pics next to it, with the picture cropped, and now it looks blue and black. LOL.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/two-women-behind-viral-dress-042241205.html

 

[TBerg]

The glare in the background means it is an overexposed image. That means it is even more black and blue than we can deceifer.

 

[SpaceYeti]

Subtractive dayvision human error.

I already looked at it in PSP. It's blue, albeit a dim blue (Red 100-150ish, Green 110-160ish, Blue 125-175ish), and a very dark goldenish color (Red 90-130ish, Green 70-120ish, Blue 40-75ish). Everybody's right, but exactly which colors seem more potent depend on your eyes (specifically, your cones and rods). Though, it's probably more mathematically accurate to say it's dull blue and bronze.

Here's a strip of the image, focusing only on the colors of the drerss itself, no background or border, to better isolate the dress colors;

Here's a fade/noise/etc correction to the original image;

And the strip fixed for sharper color and saturation;

 

[zerkalo]

EDIT: I saw the pic on a DIFFERENT page with other pics next to it, with the picture cropped, and now it looks blue and black. LOL.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/two-women-behind-viral-dress-042241205.html

it looks gold and light blue to me in that pic :P

amazon review:"1/5 stars
The good: Works equally well as formal or business casual attire.

The bad: Carves a crooked path through perceptual reality and leaves behind it a wake of confusion and existential crises. Also unforgiving on the hips."

 

[EyeSeeCold]

My guess is it's due to your eyes adjusting for the different light that you're seeing otherwise, and will change colors depending on what environment you eyes were recently focused on. I saw gold and white first, now a definite blue/black.

Also I wonder which important story or scandal this phenomenon is distracting from, went viral way too fast imo.

 

[Reluctantly]

Blue and Gold...lol

 

[The Gopher]

Re: What colour is this dress?

Black and blue, Blue and dark brown, white and gold then gray and goldish brown. in that order.

 

[Jungle]

Re: What colour is this dress?

Black and blue, Blue and dark brown, white and gold then gray and goldish brown. in that order.

So you mean your perception keeps changing from one set of colours to another? And when you first saw it, it looked black and blue?

 

[Direwolf]

Re: What colour is this dress?

The actual place its from states it as blue and black.... Just sayin

 

[Direwolf]

Saw on the news, showed website originally from and they state it as blue and black by the designer so one would assume the designer knows thy shit.

 

[The Gopher]

Re: What colour is this dress?

So you mean your perception keeps changing from one set of colours to another? And when you first saw it, it looked black and blue?

Yes

 

[Coolydudey]

wtf?

Yeah, I see white and gold.
And of course I'm right.

Actually, what I noticed more is that it wouldn't look good on me.

EDIT: I saw the pic on a DIFFERENT page with other pics next to it, with the picture cropped, and now it looks blue and black. LOL.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/two-women-behind-viral-dress-042241205.html

OMG thank you Jenny that made me saw it blue and black too.

Really creepy though when I went back to the other one and it slooowly changed back from blue and black to white and gold...

 

[Perfectly Normal Beast]

Re: What colour is this dress?

omg which shoes to wear with it?!?!?!

 

[Helvete]

I see varying shades of blue with gold. Sometimes the blue is pale enough to pass as white but I see blue more so.
I didn't vote, no option represents this.

 

[Hadoblado]

I originally saw pretty clear white and gold, but through squinting and blinking and using my hand to cover contextual cues, I was able to eventually see both. I still can't change what I see at will, but I can see both no problem.

 

[z12]

It's amazing how a single image can blow half of the internet like this.
I'm surprised, intpf was one of the last places i thought I'd see this image
P.S: I see black and blue

 

[TheManBeyond]

oh no here too

 

[nanook]

It's a reflecting synthetic white, so it looks blue-ish in it's dark environment (it's casting a shadow on it's environment). But there is no god damn black in this picture! It's clearly gold. I can't believe there is an optical illusion inside of the picture. If it's not in your brain, it may be in your room though. People may need to get rid of their stupid tiny mobile phone displays and use a real computer for serious internet business like this. Or at least place their screen so it doesn't face sunlight or bright sun-light reflected from the walls of their room. Mobile users are the zombies of the internet.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

It's prone to look dark on tft displays, especially small ones.

You can measure the RGB distribution with a program, similar to what SpaceYeti did.

It's clearly white (blue shadow due to lighting) and brown (gold).

I can't believe there are 2 threads dedicated to this already.

 

[Jennywocky]

As noted in the article I posted, the real dress as seen by someone at the wedding is blue and black.

 

[nanook]

cardassian propaganda!

 

[z12]

It's a reflecting synthetic white, so it looks blue-ish in it's dark environment (it's casting a shadow on it's environment). But there is no god damn black in this picture! It's clearly gold. I can't believe there is an optical illusion inside of the picture. If it's not in your brain, it may be in your room though. People may need to get rid of their stupid tiny mobile phone displays and use a real computer for serious internet business like this. Or at least place their screen so it doesn't face sunlight or bright sun-light reflected from the walls of their room. Mobile users are the zombies of the internet.

You seem so sure that everyone who is seeing a blue dress is using a mobile screen.
But many people reported that the colors have changed infront of their eyes from white/gold to blue/black or vice versa.
The same picture on the same screen is perceived as two completely different colors.



While this is interesting, I am still amazed at the way this picture made it's way to the top popular subjects in less than a day.. Even Sony, Xbox and other companies are talking/marketing about it..

 

[nanook]

look at what blue and black actually looks like:

http://mashable.com/2015/02/26/buy-blue-black-white-gold-dress/

nobody who looks at the white/yellow picture is actually seeing a blue skirt and black stipes, all they see is blue-ish white with dark shadows over it and brown-ish stripes. then they think it can be labeled blue and black somehow because they are think that's what they ought to see. it says something about how conformist people can be, when they use language.

 

[nanook]

what's kinda interesting about the photo is that the colors are the exact negative of each other. the white becomes gold, when inverted, the gold becomes white.

[bimgx=250]http://i.imgur.com/z2hZGCN.jpg[/bimgx]
inverted version of this:
[bimgx=250]http://i.imgur.com/LGxNeGS.jpg[/bimgx]


and when you invert the blue and black photo it looks the same.

[bimgx=250]http://i.imgur.com/U1zhbqP.jpg[/bimgx]

i admit there is an interesting relationship of colors.

 

[nanook]

i found some more optical illusions that are similar
[bimgx=250]http://cdn77.sadanduseless.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/dog-burrito4.jpg[/bimgx]

this dress is actually a burrito.

see close up

[bimgx=250]http://cdn77.sadanduseless.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/dog-burrito5.jpg[/bimgx]

 

[TheManBeyond]

hahahha funny

 

[Absurdity]

Merged another dress thread with this thread. Any others will be dumped in here as well.

 

[Jennywocky]

i found some more optical illusions that are similar
[bimgx=250]http://cdn77.sadanduseless.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/dog-burrito4.jpg[/bimgx]

this dress is actually a burrito.

see close up

[bimgx=250]http://cdn77.sadanduseless.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/dog-burrito5.jpg[/bimgx]

Who wrapped that ugly baby elephant in a foam mattress?

 

[nanook]

it's the monitor all right.

https://vine.co/v/O21nlFP9KKl

http://io9.com/the-what-color-is-this-goddamn-dress-debate-explaine-1688378120

 

[TimeAsylums]

Spoiler

the Ted Talk is more interesting, although most people probably know how color or optical illusions work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5otGNbkuc

Also, two vice articles lol

http://www.vice.com/read/heres-whats-happening-with-that-dress-with-the-confusing-colors-882

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/wh...raffic-expert-neetzan-zimmerman?utm=mbtwitter

 

[The Grey Man]

What is this, a joke? It's obviously white and gold.

Under white light, that is. The shadows make it look blue. That doesn't mean it's best described as "blue", though. Green grass under red light looks red, but it's still "green grass" because of what it looks like under white light.

 

[SpaceYeti]

What is this, a joke? It's obviously white and gold.

Under white light, that is. The shadows make it look blue. That doesn't mean it's best described as "blue", though. Green grass under red light looks red, but it's still "green grass" because of what it looks like under white light.

Nope. It's actually a blue and black dress. The slight bronzing of the dark material comes from light reflecting off of something, then hitting the silky black part, which then reflects the light again. Because there's not actually black dye, it's just a very, very dark red, hence having more red and green than blue. The blue part is most certainly blue. The problem comes from our daylight negating brain, as explained... someone linked to it.

The dress is blue/black. I'm not just saying it because it's what I see, I'm saying it because it's fact insofar as the evidence at hand suggests, besides simply looking at it. Look at the images I posted.

 

[nanook]

That is true, but it's the explanation of how the camera was fooled into creating a white & golden image of a blue & black dress.

The monitor story is the explanation of why people have a blue & black perception of a golden & white photograph.

 

[SpaceYeti]

The camera didn't make an image of a gold and white dress. The problem is our perception, not the photograph, though the photograph's features are why we have a hard time perceiving it properly. Specifically, the very bright background convinces us it's getting lit from the back and the shadow is towards us, so we filter out the darkness of the shadow, which is cool, and cool colors are blue and dark. Actually, the dress is being lit from the front for the picture, it's simply also very bright behind it.

 

[redbaron]

I see both depending on which photo I look at. But the 'black' is more like a dark brown/gold. So either white and gold or blue and gold.

 

[Deleted member 1424]

At first I stubbornly saw it as blue/black, but now I can switch back and forth whilst still leaning towards blue/black.

I always enjoy being in the minority, but still right.

 

[Bock]

How the fuck can anyone see the blue as white?!? Look at the glare in the mirror, THAT is white.

The black looks gold because the photo is a nightmare when it comes to color/white-balance/exposure etc.

No blue and gold alternative in the poll? Those colors are objectively what's in the image...

 

[r4ch3l]

The bad: Carves a crooked path through perceptual reality and leaves behind it a wake of confusion and existential crises. Also unforgiving on the hips."

lol

 

[Hadoblado]

To those that are booing the appearance of this thread on INTPf:

Just because something is in mainstream media doesn't make it unworthy of your attention. As can be seen above, most people here were fooled by it (or still are). If someone posted the same thing labeled 'organic optical illusion' at a different time, you'd likely have fun with it.

Here's a good explanation

 

[Kuu]

How the fuck can anyone see the blue as white?!? Look at the glare in the mirror, THAT is white.

The black looks gold because the photo is a nightmare when it comes to color/white-balance/exposure etc.

No blue and gold alternative in the poll? Those colors are objectively what's in the image...

+1

Seriously, how can people ever see blue as white? Shitty uncalibrated monitors? Shitty sight? Zero knowledge of photography and colors?

It boggles the mind.

The argument about backlighting is shit. Things don't actually look blue in absolute shadows (like in an entirely windowless room), only outside because of scattered atmospheric ambient light. And considering the hard shadows on the dress, it's obviously not on shade, but under bright incandescent lighting (which makes the black look "gold"). How anyone can interpret a blue cast where there is obviously a yellow one is simply beyond me.

The other argument tossed about subtractive vs additive color is also shit. Subtractive color is only relevant for pigments. The human eye perceives light, thus always deals with additive color.

The checkershadow "explanation" is also shit. That can explain misperception in shades (brightness), but not radical misperceptions in hue.

If anything, this whole ridiculous mass internet hysteria shows the failure of language (and most people's profound ignorance of basic photography and digital images) objectively there is no black in the image, but the dress indeed has black. What color is this dress is not the same as what color does this dress look like in this image...

(EDIT: or reveal the extremely deep flaws in the common parlance is full of unscientific expressions like saying things "have x or y color" when indeed color is certain light reflected and some of that perceived. Instead of properly talking about materials absorbing certain light wavelengths and reflecting others, etc...) My war against shit language continues endlessly.

 

[nanook]

there is no optical illusion in how we see the photo! (unless you count the monitor angle thing)

if you cut out the background, the color does not change.

if you zoom in to a microscopic level, the color does not change. no illusion at all.

everyone can see that there is a blue-ish tint in the white of the photo, but the RGB values proofs what is utterly obvious on a proper monitor: we are not seeing a dark blue, not even a light blue (there is way too much red in the RGB value, it's almost lavender, it does not resonate with true blue), but something much closer to white (three very high values, RGB very close to each other).

it's not an optical illusion but a matter of how we use language whether people will accept something that is remotely similar to light blue (even though there is too much red and too little blue in it) as being "blue" or whether they classify it into the broad class of (muddled) "white".

when i use language i try to create an image in your mind that is close to what i see. when i say blue i expect you to visualize the color of the blue area in the american flag. this photo looks like the white stripes in the american flag, in moonlight. so i will call it white.

if you add white to a true color it becomes pastell, if you add more white it becomes as lame as what we see in this photo. if you had to pay the price for a complete can of true blue pigments but all you get is this 5% load, would you buy it?


the illusion was happening in the photographic process:

i don't know if we have heard an explanation for why the camara did not capture the DARK blue color of the yarn.

 

[zerkalo]

I can see how the white part can look blue but I don't understand how some people can see the gold lace bits as black??

 

[Bock]

everyone can see that there is a blue-ish tint in the white of the photo, but the RGB values proofs what is utterly obvious on a proper monitor: we are not seeing a dark blue, not even a light blue (there is way too much red in the RGB value, it's almost lavender, it does not resonate with true blue), but something much closer to white (three very high values, RGB very close to each other).

 

[Kuu]

i don't know if we have heard an explanation for why the camara did not capture the DARK blue color of the yarn.

The fabric could have a sheen, like satin. Or most likely: overexposure

Enough overexposure can make your entire image turn out white. Even in what you might see as pitch black.

I can see how the white part can look blue but I don't understand how some people can see the gold lace bits as black??

Take a "black" thing. Put it under bright "warm" light. Result = reflected light makes it look "brown". If bright enough, it'll look lighter brown AKA "gold". See the overexposure link above.

 

[The Gopher]

As someone who has seen all four colours at different times (Blue-black, blue-brown, white gold, bluish-white gold) I can absolutely confirm you're all morons and it's actually purple and tan.

Also I'm sure there is a triangle in that dress somewhere.

 

[redbaron]

So the problem is photo overexposure then. This Vine demonstrates it fairly well I think: Here.

Also I'm pretty sure the RGB values in Bock's photo are wrong as a result of said overexposure.

R 124, G 138, B 185 would be this colour:

Spoiler

The dress isn't actually that colour. The blue is much darker, so I think using an RGB palette on an overexposed photo doesn't really give us what the actual colour is, although it did at least demonstrate that the 'white' wasn't really a white.