[subego]

But I'm one of the people for whom the switch occurs. Started out as white and gold fo me.

So, yes. This is totally legit.

[BadKosh]

Isn't the CENTER photo the correct one? Not the over or under exposed versions?

[subego]

I've only seen it as a single photo.

[ort888]

It's weird, because my wife was showing it to me last night and I didn't give it much thought. I figured it was a GIF or something dumb on Facebook. To me it was as clear as day. Dark Black and Blue.

Started reading something about it this morning at home and it was black and blue. Got to work, opened the exact same article and BAM. White and gold.

[subego]

Once it changed for me to blue and black, it wouldn't switch back all night, but it was white and gold for a bit this morning before switching back again.

[Laminar]

Check out this white Lambo with gold wheels:

[ort888]

It's freaking me out! It keeps changing!

Blue and black...

Dang, I thought you had a picture of a black lab eating cake

[andi*pandi]

blue and black for me, on a nice apple monitor.

[mattyb]

Monitor has nothing to do with it apparently. 80% of my office see gold and white, me (only Englishman) and the youngest member of the team see blue and black.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

What in the bloody hell are you people talking about?

[Cap'n Tightpants]

It's obviously blue and black, WTF?

[Atheist]

I'm baffled by you black and blue people. I see that the white has a blueish tint to it but the other color is clearly gold. How on earth can you be seeing black?

I've looked at this thing on 3 computers, 2 phones both day and night. I see the same thing every time.

Here's a photo that Wired mocked up with the white-balance adjusted to try to explain the perception differences. The center image is the original:

[The Final Dakar]

Oh good, it flipped on me. I've officially gone insane.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I don't get what's going on. That dress in the middle is a blue colour (maybe with a sliiiight purplish tinge) and the lace isn't gold colour, but a golden brown.

Where does white and gold come in again? How is it possible to say that's white and gold?

[subego]

The center picture will appear to people like one of the pictures on the ends.

Even weirder, it will switch.

[P]

As I understand it, the issue lies in the white balance of the original shot being off, so it appears as white&gold to some people. The person who took the picture says it's blue&black in real life, and the manufacturer agrees.

I said "blue&black" when I saw it, and even when looking at different setups, I can't see it as white&gold. I can see how you might see the stripes as gold, maybe, but the background is blue and doesn't flip for me.

[Spheric Harlot]

Newsflash: shitty cameras result in confusing color reproduction.

News at...oh wait...not news.

[sek929]

My g/f showed me this last night. She could only see White/Gold, I could only see Blue/Black.

Looked at it again earlier today and saw White/Gold, then it swapped to Blue/Black and stayed there.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

Newsflash: shitty cameras result in confusing color reproduction.

News at...oh wait...not news.

This isn't about color reproduction. This is a bug in human color perception. This is why it's news.

[OAW]

Originally Posted by Atheist 

I'm baffled by you black and blue people. I see that the white has a blueish tint to it but the other color is clearly gold. How on earth can you be seeing black?

I've looked at this thing on 3 computers, 2 phones both day and night. I see the same thing every time.

Here's a photo that Wired mocked up with the white-balance adjusted to try to explain the perception differences. The center image is the original:

Same here. The center image is clearly white (with a touch of a bluish tint) and gold to me. Indoor lighting or outdoor in bright sunlight. Laptop or iPhone. It's never changed for me under any conditions. A very cursory and unscientific survey around the office most people seem to see white and gold by a 2 to 1 margin. With a handful that say it changes.

OAW

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by subego 

This isn't about color reproduction. This is a bug in human color perception. This is why it's news.

I'm pretty sure the issue wouldn't exist if the camera hadn't been so shitty. The ambiguity here isn't a bug in human color perception, it's the contextuality of color perception.

Here's my reasoning:

The colors actually in the photo are brown and blue.

The golden brown looks like black textile in the context of sunlight and overexposed photography.

The bluish hue looks whiter or blue depending on how you interpret the black.
Which wouldn't be possible if the photo weren't so shitty.

[OAW]

This is the actual dress from the retailer Roman Originals based out of the UK. It's black and blue ...



But IMO that's beside the point. The question was what was the color in the center photo ....



And I'm still on #TeamWhiteAndGold.

OAW

PS: Naturally, sales of the dress have gone through the roof since "The Great Dress Debate" got started.

[Spheric Harlot]

[ort888]

I saved this pic to my desktop to make that stupid GIF and the icon keeps changing colors on me. It will look white and gold for a few hours and then BOOM, it's Blue and Black. All day long like that.

I understand what's happening, but it's still pretty freaky.

I feel like if I look at it and cross my eyes I might see a sailboat or something.

[Spheric Harlot]

[Spheric Harlot]

[Spheric Harlot]

[subego]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

I'm pretty sure the issue wouldn't exist if the camera hadn't been so shitty. The ambiguity here isn't a bug in human color perception, it's the contextuality of color perception.

Here's my reasoning:

The colors actually in the photo are brown and blue.

The golden brown looks like black textile in the context of sunlight and overexposed photography.

The bluish hue looks whiter or blue depending on how you interpret the black.
Which wouldn't be possible if the photo weren't so shitty.

But the actual context isn't changing.

Sure. There are all kinds of interesting context dependent color perception illusions.

I've never seen one where the context is irrelevant. I've seen the exact same image in the exact same environment change 90% of its color... within seconds.

[Spheric Harlot]

Of course the context is changing. Your brain provides it. As does the ambient lighting.

Shadow or sunlight? Bam.

[subego]

I used the word "actual" to denote neither the image itself, nor the surrounding environment is changing.

[subego]

To put it another way, it's not everyday you run into a situation wherin your brain is utterly at a loss as to the correct context to apply on a minute-by-minute basis.

[BLAZE_MkIV]

http://www.grand-illusions.com/image.../mainimage.gif

[Cap'n Tightpants]

No matter how many times I look at the original image, I only see black and blue.

[subego]

My dad is stable white/gold. I want to see what happens if I zoom in so it's just blue, and then slowly zoom out to the whole image.

I'd like to just spring it on him, which would more likely elicit a change, but I feel that would be rude.


When asked to describe the triple picture, he says the center pic looks like a white dress in shade.

[mattyb]

You been on holiday Spheric? Good to see you posting again whatever the reason.

Just for info, did the experiment with the gardening club (who drank me out of wine this afternoon). All 10 of them. The majority see gold and white. Everyone got the link sent about why this happens (was in the Nouvel Observateur). Has to do with cones and shite in your eye. Optics was never my favourite subject.

[subego]

[Cap'n Tightpants]

obviously orange and green, yep.

and by that I mean pink and black

[Waragainstsleep]

Its been white & gold all the way through for me so far. With a blue tint to the light.

[subego]

Have you tried zooming way in, walking away, and then looking again?

What color is this?

[Chongo]

[subego]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

source link

IIUC, Randall asks you post a link to the comic along with the image.

[reader50]

I've been trying to see the black & blue. Which sounds like a bruise. But all I've seen so far is white & gold.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I honestly do not see where anyone could get black from the "original" photo. The lace is clearly golden brown - just look at the chest.

[P]

I think it comes from the fact that it actually IS blue & black. Someone posted the image, heard it called white & gold, and said that it is blue & black in the real world. Given those two options, I say blue & black, but judging it for myself, I guess it closer to blue & bronze or something like that.

[Mrjinglesusa]

It's white and gold.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by P 

I think it comes from the fact that it actually IS blue & black. Someone posted the image, heard it called white & gold, and said that it is blue & black in the real world. Given those two options, I say blue & black, but judging it for myself, I guess it closer to blue & bronze or something like that.

But who cares what the actual colour of the dress is - in the photo itself, the lacey bits are clearly bronze, not black. I just feel like there's a lot of "is it this totally different, white and gold colour.....or the real blue and black colour" going on, which completely ignores that the actual colour in the picture is blue and bronze/golden brown.

My loose change

[subego]

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton 

But who cares what the actual colour of the dress is - in the photo itself, the lacey bits are clearly bronze, not black. I just feel like there's a lot of "is it this totally different, white and gold colour.....or the real blue and black colour" going on, which completely ignores that the actual colour in the picture is blue and bronze/golden brown.

My loose change

Look at the triple picture. The example on the right is something people are actually seeing. I saw it myself. The stripes were black after my original flip. They've since faded to the dark bronze, but that didn't happen until later.

I have a feeling the phenomenon was named off of these sorts of perceptions.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I guess it appears I am being frustrated by all your faulty brains! Allllrighty then!