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[–] 84 points 7 months ago (32 children)

I always saw blue and black, no idea how anyone could see it as white and gold unless they were colorblind tbh

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  • [–] 130 points 7 months ago (12 children)

    the original photo was much more faded than the one posted here, so people's colour perception depended on how yellow/blue they perceived the photo's light to be tinted, and how bright/dark their screens were.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Wikipe-tan_wearing_The_Dress_reduced.svg/960px-Wikipe-tan_wearing_The_Dress_reduced.svg.png

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  • [–] 15 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    I've always been able to see both colors of the dress by changing the size of the image, so the phenomenon "made sense" to me, but I legitimately have no idea how that image is supposed to explain it lol. There's two different colored dresses with seemingly random parts highlighted with different colored boxes.. are they supposed to look the same in the highlighted area or something?

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  • [–] 23 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    The connected boxes show that the same color appears on both sides; however, the colored boxes provide context based on the lighting which is further reenforced by the rest of the dress outside the box.

    Technology Connections did a video about brown that has the same color of orange on a background that cycles between white and black and the color of orange seems to shift to brown or orange depending on the background.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (2 children)

    Change the size of the image? Can you elaborate?

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    I always saw it as black and blue, until I was scrolling Reddit (as was the style back then) and saw a thumbnail for a meme that had the image of the dress in it. I didn't pay attention to the thumbnail before opening it, so I only noticed a vaguely light colored object. But when the image loaded full size, the dress was the distinct black and blue I'd seen before. I backed out and took a second look at the thumbnail, and again it looked white and gold.

    Now that I'm thinking about it, it could have been the surrounding colors of the screen that effected how I perceived the dress. After discovering this I recreated the effect by taking a screenshot of the dress while zoomed out really far (to essentially turn it in to a thumbnail on its own), but both that and the Reddit thumbnail had a dark background that may have made the dress seem lighter in comparison.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    That seems like a pretty spot on, organic way of figuring out how it works.

    The issue I still have is the people who seemingly still only see white and gold or whatever. Is it trolling? Is it being pedantic? Can those people not read captchas? Do they just have trouble? Is it just to make a point? Mental inflexibility? It's a damn mystery.

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  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago

    In every configuration, every lighting condition, every monitor, every color manipulation, I see that picture as white and gold. Not once have I managed to see the blue dress, except in separate pictures of the same dress.

    I understand the actual dress is blue and I understand the color theory, but even with the picture very heavily tinted blue my brain still interprets the dress to be in shadow and therefore white.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

    That image shows how a white and gold dress could appear to be the same color as a black and blue one by putting a filter of blue over it, but the original has a shop window in the bg that looks yellow/white, so for me it's hard to see it as anything but blue and black (which is the actual dress color).

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    The original can be interpreted in two ways either as the dress being in too much light, which was the actual case, or as the dress being in the shadow compared to the light background - which explains the blue tint as the effect of the shadow and leads to the gold and white perception.

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  • [–] 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 12 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    What'a always bothered me is, the lighting in the original is so ridiculously blown out that it MUST be blue and black! It could only be white and gold under very dark lighting which is clearly not the case. Unless maybe people are thinking the front is in shadow...?

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago

    Blue and gold maybe, but white and gold doesn't even make sense to me. For a white dress to look blue it needs to be under blue light, which would cause the gold highlights to be dark with a blue sheen. The missing blue sheen indicates that either it's gold under natural lighting or black under yellowish lighting.

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago* (8 children)

    I am not colourblind afaik and I could not for the life of me see it as blue and black. The lighting just made no sense for that to be the case.

    It looks like the dress is in a less lit part with a very strong backlight.

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  • [–] 21 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    thats because the OG** photo** (left) it is gold lace on a "white dress" (with a blue tint lighting effect etc) while IRL the dress is black & blue. right side is the edited OP photo. the difference is 'night and day' and if these all look the same i've got some news for you. ...........

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    Ok this confirms my suspicion! In order for it to be white and gold you'd need to see the dress as in shadow. I always assumed it was in light because the image was lile blown out max lighting, but if you then assume that since it's backlit the dress is in shadow and there isn't significant front lighting, it could actually be white and gold. This theory has been nagging at me for YEARS and you just solved it, thank you!

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago

    No problem. I know the true colour but looking at the actual image I cannot force myself to see it as blue and black. It always looks white and gold even though that makes no sense if you analyse the image even slightly. It has to be in the light but my brains just refuses to see it that way.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago*

    I don't think that's it. I can't perceive the original image as anything but white and gold. I tried to convince my brain about the lighting situation, but I don't think it has helped.

    Edit: nvm, I misunderstood your comment.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    That is what I am seeing now too, same as the first time I saw this.

    However, when it got posted to Lemmy ~7months ago I could switch it between colours.

    I posted then, about how to do it. Something like defocussing your eyes, and then looking at the sunny part on the right-side, to switch to white&gold.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    In 11 years, I'm still unable to see white and gold

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    I'm mildly colorblind and it's just too dark for me to make out. It could be white, blue, etc. But the black part doesn't look solid enough to be black either. I just think the camera failed to properly get a read at that lighting level .

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