What colour is this dress?

[alock]

Here is the picture with overlay bars of pure white, blue, black and gold.



Anyone who claims they only see blue+black or white+gold needs their eyes testing as you appear to have a limited palette.

The problem is that the average person has a vocabulary comprised of about 20 different colour words and yet their eyes can distinguish several million shades.

[AndrewEH1]

It's all about white balance as previously posted.

Although when I first saw the picture this morning it was white/gold, but now it is blue/black which is odd.

http://xkcd.com/1492/

[shakotan]

alock said:

Here is the picture with overlay bars of pure white, blue, black and gold.



Anyone who claims they only see blue+black or white+gold needs their eyes testing as you appear to have a limited palette.

The problem is that the average person has a vocabulary comprised of about 20 different colour words and yet their eyes can distinguish several million shades.

No-one is saying the 'only' see black and blue, it is merely possible to tell from the overexposed photogrpah that the colour of the dress, if you saw it in real life, is black and blue. Our brains work that way, we analyse data and draw conclusions, we don't simply just take what we see in front of us for granted.

[JonRB]

AndrewEH1 said:

Although when I first saw the picture this morning it was white/gold, but now it is blue/black which is odd.

Indeed. It's been getting progressively more blue and black to me all day. Yet it was quite *clearly* white and gold when I got up this morning.

Just goes to show what an odd thing the human brain is, and how an awful lot of what we see is down to context and perception.

[Zippee]

Light blue and brown for me!

[PorscheGT4]

shakotan said:

We aren't seeing it as exactly the same, that would be crazy, however the picture on the left is clearly an overexposed, crappy camera pic of the dress on the right, ie: black and blue. Just like the differences between these two pics, although appearing different shades, are clearly the same colour and would appear identical in real life.

you are missing my point, people are seeing the two green pictures as different green pictures, it matters not what they are in real life just what the colour in the picture is, I can make a red picture green, it will still be red in real life, but the picture will be green.

the colour as sampled is gold/brown that's a fact I have proven it. if people are seeing made up colours that's a brain issue but it does not tell you want the colour of the picture is, does not matter if its overexposed or anything, that is a sample of the colour and that gold/brown is the real colour in that picture.

yes it's interesting that people see the true colour of the dress as if were real life, but the picture is gold/brown not black ;-)

[Gilhooligan]

Showed this to my class at uni. Out of the 15 of us that looked at it, only me and one other saw the dress as black and blue. The rest were adamant that it was white and gold and couldn't believe that I was seeing a blue and black dress.
Quite interesting.

[Studio117]

JonRB said:

AndrewEH1 said:

Although when I first saw the picture this morning it was white/gold, but now it is blue/black which is odd.

Indeed. It's been getting progressively more blue and black to me all day. Yet it was quite *clearly* white and gold when I got up this morning.

Just goes to show what an odd thing the human brain is, and how an awful lot of what we see is down to context and perception.

+2

[Alapeno]

Having seen this a few times today, I now know what colour it actually is.

It still looks gold and blue though to me, where's the option for that on the internet?!

[julian64]

Think you lot are getting confused.

Your aren't seeing the same colours because you aren't seeing the same colours.

The human eye has an automatic white balance control depending on how bright your surroundings are.

If you take one of those pictures and adjust the white balance far enough the colour will change. Some colours are more suspetable to ths than others.

For instance take a colour swatch to bed with you under the covers, and in the dim light name all the colours, then see what you've named in the morning. Doing this causes the eye to adjust its range of white balance

Its the same for some cars when you see them in the dark/dim as opposed ot bright sunlight. Reds tend to go black is the favourite

[AW111]

Johnnytheboy said:

I suspect a lot of this is down to the inability of digital cameras to accurately reflect colours.

This plant pot is - I swear - purple:



Every attempt, with several cameras, has it looking blue.

The real colour is like this:

Is that a (purpleish) reflection of the pot in the glass door?

[JonRB]

julian64 said:

Its the same for some cars when you see them in the dark/dim as opposed ot bright sunlight. Reds tend to go black is the favourite

Which is, of course, why you should never buy a car at night.

Or indeed, as I found out, a jacket in Hollister.

[m3jappa]

It's some kind of trick which involves two pictures being published so some people get the white and gold and some get the blue.
Reason I say that is because this came up on Facebook earlier. The dress was clearly blue and black.
I then just opened this thread and it's clearly white and gold.

[phil1979]

Studio117 said:

JonRB said:

AndrewEH1 said:

Although when I first saw the picture this morning it was white/gold, but now it is blue/black which is odd.

Indeed. It's been getting progressively more blue and black to me all day. Yet it was quite *clearly* white and gold when I got up this morning.

Just goes to show what an odd thing the human brain is, and how an awful lot of what we see is down to context and perception.

+2

Same here! It was white and gold this morning!

[Johnnytheboy]

AW111 said:

Is that a (purpleish) reflection of the pot in the glass door?

Neither of our cameras and a couple of people's phones seem to be able to be able to show it accurately.

[Cliftonite]

Zippee said:

Light blue and brown for me!

Agreed!

[Allyc85]

When I first saw it I thought it was white and black, but the white balance of the photo gave a very slight blue tint to the dress. Now it is very much blue and black!

[fezst]

m3jappa said:

It's some kind of trick which involves two pictures being published so some people get the white and gold and some get the blue.
Reason I say that is because this came up on Facebook earlier. The dress was clearly blue and black.
I then just opened this thread and it's clearly white and gold.

It's not a trick, your own mind is tricking you. Give up.

[m3jappa]

fezst said:

m3jappa said:

It's some kind of trick which involves two pictures being published so some people get the white and gold and some get the blue.
Reason I say that is because this came up on Facebook earlier. The dress was clearly blue and black.
I then just opened this thread and it's clearly white and gold.

It's not a trick, your own mind is tricking you. Give up.

I just went back to the picture someone posted on Facebook and the image in the link was blue and black and the same image I saw as blue and black earlier now is gold and white wtf. I will give up (possibly on life)

[Cylinder 8]

This picture was doing the rounds at lunch time today. Most people (including me) said it was blue and black and a couple said white and gold. This was viewed on an iPhone. Now I'm reading this thread on my computer I'm seeing white and gold! AAARRRGGGHHHH!

Edited by Cylinder 8 on Friday 27th February 15:14