What color is this dress??? (the interwebs are asploding)......

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MarkXIX

Platinum Member
Jan 3, 2010
2,642
1
71
This whole thing is like idiot attractant. Color me pissed off when I go to my kid's school and there's three people at the front office debating it.
 

BlitzPuppet

Platinum Member
Feb 4, 2012
2,460
7
81
It's a big deal because it shows a difference in human perception. Wars are started for less due to lack of understanding. It's pretty crazy really.

Regardless of how the picture was taken, or what effects of lighting have, you still have 2 distinct perceptions of that very same picture. That is quite interesting (to many).

Yeah, it's like ink-blot testing, but instead of ink and paper it's a dress captured with shitty lighting and a crappy camera.

:D
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
Why are people making a big deal about a PICTURE of something?

Because it's interesting how people are so differently perceiving colors in said picture. Jesus Christ, aside from this dress, my Facebook feed is also filled with people blowing their lids about how unimportant this dress is relative to ISIS, Ukraine and other depressing shit. Fuckin' A, do you people have no joy in life?
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
Yeah, it's like ink-blot testing, but instead of ink and paper it's a dress captured with shitty lighting and a crappy camera.

:D

BUt that's the whole point. Yes it's shitty lighting and crappy camera, but one would normally assume everyone will still see that picture exactly the same. They don't. That is what the big deal is.

I may not have thought much of it until I did the experiment on my wife who saw it completely different than I did. This was before I read what color the dress really was. Totally blew my mind.
 

CraKaJaX

Lifer
Dec 26, 2004
11,905
148
101
♫ Hey
Blue on black
Tears on a river
Push on a shove
It don't mean much
Joker on jack
Match on a fire
Cold on ice
A dead man's touch
Whisper on a scream
Doesn't change a thing
Don't bring you back
Blue on black
Oh yeah, blue on black ♫

Some people see blue on black, others see gold on white. Maybe it depends on where you start.

Amazing fuckin' guitar player. Had the privilege to meet Kenny and Noah last summer. Cool dudes to talk to. Kenny showed me his strats, pedals and amps telling me different stories about each. Guy has incredible chops. Had them sign a drum head for me. :thumbsup:
 

njdevilsfan87

Platinum Member
Apr 19, 2007
2,342
265
126
Even with the image balancing, its still blue for me. It's just goes from light blue to blue. So I don't think that is exactly what others are seeing when they see white/gold. But then again having side by side comparisons probably ruins the whole thing anyway. I already saw blue to begin with, and then seeing an even "more blue" version of it just makes it impossible for me to see white/gold even on the other extreme.
 
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edro

Lifer
Apr 5, 2002
24,326
68
91
I can't make a judgement without feeling/seeing the fabric in person.
It could be a silk type fabric that has high reflection, causing all kinds of distortion.
 

flexy

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2001
8,464
155
106
Screw ISIS and Ukraine...but in all seriousness, we have enough of that every day, it's not that ISIS or Ukraine would be under-represented in current news media?

But THIS is interesting for so many reasons:

First of course because it's about human psychology and perception, a nice example how "reality" is often not so objective as some may assume. (Example: Witnesses of a crime or an accident where everyone is seeing something else).

THEN...and now it gets even better....is how people INSIST how their own, subjective view of things is "the correct one" while anyone else must be stupid, color-blind, mentally ill or whatever :) It's human imperfection at its finest. This is why this is so interesting. Just love me some human psychology...

But on a side-note...yes I am pretty pissed now that I can NOT get back the "white gold" impression I had yesterday at first...so I am seriously wondering what the criterion was that I saw it as white/gold at first but not anymore. It's like once you go black/blue it won't go back.

The OTHER interesting thing to note here is how some people try to "rationalize" something which *per se* is subjective - with all sorts of technical "explanations", ranging from over-analyzing and explaining it with incorrectly calibrated monitors etc...or saying they're "unable to make a judgement without seeing the dress in person" <--- of course YOU CAN make a judgement, the picture is right before your face. (Which color the dress has "in real life" is not even the question here, I think we established already it's black/blue in reality).
 
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WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
33,108
11,285
136
I can't make a judgement without feeling/seeing the fabric in person.
It could be a silk type fabric that has high reflection, causing all kinds of distortion.

Thats missing the point though. Its about what colour you see in the picture not what colour the actual dress is.


I still cant see how anyone can see anything other than a goldish colour there.
 

Bubbleawsome

Diamond Member
Apr 14, 2013
4,834
1,204
146
Thats missing the point though. Its about what colour you see in the picture not what colour the actual dress is.


I still cant see how anyone can see anything other than a goldish colour there.
I thought the same thing, but then the white turned a medium blue and the gold turned an obvious black. I saved that picture to my phone and now it looks white/gold again. It is mind-blowing how different it looks when your brain switches over. I thought they were two different pictures.

Try being outside for a while and then looking at it.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
Screw ISIS and Ukraine...but in all seriousness, we have enough of that every day, it's not that ISIS or Ukraine would be under-represented in current news media?

But THIS is interesting for so many reasons:

First of course because it's about human psychology and perception, a nice example how "reality" is often not so objective as some may assume. (Example: Witnesses of a crime or an accident where everyone is seeing something else).

THEN...and now it gets even better....is how people INSIST how their own, subjective view of things is "the correct one" while anyone else must be stupid, color-blind, mentally ill or whatever :) It's human imperfection at its finest. This is why this is so interesting. Just love me some human psychology...

But on a side-note...yes I am pretty pissed now that I can NOT get back the "white gold" impression I had yesterday at first...so I am seriously wondering what the criterion was that I saw it as white/gold at first but not anymore. It's like once you go black/blue it won't go back.

The OTHER interesting thing to note here is how some people try to "rationalize" something which *per se* is subjective - with all sorts of technical "explanations", ranging from over-analyzing and explaining it with incorrectly calibrated monitors etc...or saying they're "unable to make a judgement without seeing the dress in person" <--- of course YOU CAN make a judgement, the picture is right before your face. (Which color the dress has "in real life" is not even the question here, I think we established already it's black/blue in reality).

Exactly. My wife saw the picture on the same screen maybe 30 seconds after I did. All I had read was that people saw it either as "gold and white or black and blue". I assumed at that point since I saw it as gold and white, that was the true color and that the black and blue people were some small portion of the population with brain damage. I asked the wife to look and what she saw. She had no prior knowledge of this, and she said, it looks black and blue. I was shocked. I simply did not (and still do not) see black and blue. When we read further down the article and saw that it was indeed black and blue, I was more shocked.

The other photo of the dress, I definitely see black and blue.

I just find the whole thing fascinating.
 

Arcadio

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2007
5,637
24
81
I'm trying my best to go back to seeing the white/gold dress I saw this morning, but I can't.
 

Bubbleawsome

Diamond Member
Apr 14, 2013
4,834
1,204
146
Google trends says "white and gold dress" is more searched for than "black and blue dress"
 

FeuerFrei

Diamond Member
Mar 30, 2005
9,144
929
126
Someone is playing a trick here with a specially encoded image. I stumbled on this thread several minutes ago, the dress was white/gold - no doubt whatsoever - then after reading a couple pages I returned to the first post and the image had changed - no doubt about it. Not my perception. It's now blue/black! >_> With a yellow cast, of course.

At least I can finally see what the blue/black people are seeing now, FWIW.

Ok I just posted this and reloaded the image, now its back to white/gold. :hmm:
 
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WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
33,108
11,285
136
I thought the same thing, but then the white turned a medium blue and the gold turned an obvious black. I saved that picture to my phone and now it looks white/gold again. It is mind-blowing how different it looks when your brain switches over. I thought they were two different pictures.

Try being outside for a while and then looking at it.

I can see how the white/blue is debatable, white is usually a shade of blue anyway. But the gold is gold, or light brown, not black.

Try cropping the photo so you just get the bits of colour you want. The white/blue is a greyish blue which you can argue is white in the shade or blue in the light. But the gold looks... gold.
 

Bubbleawsome

Diamond Member
Apr 14, 2013
4,834
1,204
146
I can see how the white/blue is debatable, white is usually a shade of blue anyway. But the gold is gold, or light brown, not black.

Try cropping the photo so you just get the bits of colour you want. The white/blue is a greyish blue which you can argue is white in the shade or blue in the light. But the gold looks... gold.
I know, I know, but expose your eyes to a certain kind of light an it just snaps in. It's dark black and a solid blue. It blew my mind. Seriously, look up a darkened version of the photo and that is what it looked like to me.
 

disappoint

Lifer
Dec 7, 2009
10,132
382
126

So are the people who said blue/black. Almost every single person did some subconscious compensation. Some are still doing it now and swearing they see blue/black or white/gold. It is neither.

The picture was blue and gold (or tan). There was no black in that picture. The only white in the picture was in the overexposed portion that was not on the dress at all. Yes the actual dress was blue and black but the picture was overexposed and didn't show the real life colors accurately.
 

Arcadio

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2007
5,637
24
81
I can see how the white/blue is debatable, white is usually a shade of blue anyway. But the gold is gold, or light brown, not black.

Try cropping the photo so you just get the bits of colour you want. The white/blue is a greyish blue which you can argue is white in the shade or blue in the light. But the gold looks... gold.

I think you are misunderstanding the illusion. It's not that "it kinda looks bluish/goldish". It's that the brain actually registers the colors as black and blue without ambiguity. Same for the brains that register white/gold. It's not a matter of "why would someone confuse white and blue". It's a matter of "my brain sees white, your brain sees blue". Remember that some of us actually saw both versions of the dress and they absolutely looked like different dresses.
 
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WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
33,108
11,285
136
I think you are misunderstanding the illusion. It's not that "it kinda looks bluish/goldish". It's that the brain actually registers the colors as black and blue without ambiguity. Same for the brains that register white/gold. It's not a matter of "why would someone confuse white and blue". It's a matter of "my brain sees white, your brain sees blue". Remember that some of us actually saw both versions of the dress and they absolutely looked like different dresses.

Yeah, well my brain sees the colours that are there. :colbert:

Seriously though, the people who are saying 'white' and the people who are saying 'pale blue' are seeing the same thing. The people who are seeing dark blue are just fucked in the head. :p