What colors do you see?

What colors do you see on the dress?


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Hapax Legomenon

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I get the whole thing about how your brain interprets color based on how it perceives shadow, but I don't understand why some people's brains cause them to see it one way, and some another.

In the very large picture in the link, I see white-gold when I'm looking at the top and blue-black when I'm looking at the bottom. It might have to do with what part of the background you naturally looked at first. The top of the photo has two bright flares in the background, which could make you think that they're behind the foreground and therefore the foreground would be in shadow, while the bottom of the background does not and it's easier to perceive the dress as illuminated the same way as the rest of the picture.

In this case, it may be less a matter of different brain function and more a matter of initial screen viewing angles or something like that.
 
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Diana Hignutt

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Okay, here's a trick that's worked for me:

If you have a lap top:

Put a light on behind you so you have a little glare on the screen. Then tilt the screen slowly up and down to watch the picture colors change. I've only tried this with people who have seen the image flip and I'm curious if it works for single-versioners.
 

robeiae

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Okay, here's a trick that's worked for me:

If you have a lap top:

Put a light on behind you so you have a little glare on the screen. Then tilt the screen slowly up and down to watch the picture colors change. I've only tried this with people who have seen the image flip and I'm curious if it works for single-versioners.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9319842&postcount=82

My oldest daughter and I saw white and gold, but could see black and blue if we tilted the screen back.

Tilting it forward didn't do anything for us or for my son who sees only the blue/black.
 

CassandraW

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The trick worked for me.

And interestingly, I was then able to switch between blue/black and white/gold at will, without tilting the screen.

I. Will. Not. Look. At. The. Dress. Again! (Mostly because I'm afraid I won't be able to pull off that trick again.)
 

Quentin Nokov

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I only see white and gold--although with the dark light it's understandable if one says the white as actually a very pale blue. To note: I had my parents look at it and both see blue and black. I tried tilting the screen but nothing has worked. All I see is white and gold. My mom wondered if blue-eyed people see white and gold whereas brown-eyed people see the blue and black.
 

Sage

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Well, tilting it back shows me black and blue, but that doesn't really tell me anything, because tilting my screen back on any other images changes the colors there too. I can make the grass on the first pic in Quentin's sig look black instead of green with brown patches.
 

CassandraW

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I'm green-eyed, but I very much doubt eye color has anything to do with it.
 

Hapax Legomenon

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Has anybody else tried viewing the top half versus the bottom half?
 

CassandraW

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Has anybody else tried viewing the top half versus the bottom half?

yes, I tried that. Covering up portions of the picture didn't change anything for me, but tilting the screen did.

I'm fascinated that once I was able to force the color change with Diana's trick (i.e.,backlighting and tilting the screen), I could do it at will without using the trick. It was as though I'd trained my brain to do the switch. Did this happen for any of you?
 

BethS

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So this is happening right now.


There's a picture of a dress on the internet. Some people look and see white and gold. Others see blue and black. Some see it white and gold, then later the same picture blue and black. I don't get it.

My daughter, who is a pretty smart girl (She takes after her Mom, okay?) looked at it, saw white and gold, then freaked when she saw it as blue and black minutes later. I had it up on my computer and she said it was blue and black, but I saw it as white and gold. So it's not that the picture is changing. She insisted it was 1 when to me it was another. I have only seen white and gold.

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It's pale blue and brownish-gold, although when I first saw it, I thought that being in shadow could account for the bluish tint, and allowed that it might actually be white.

I know it's really royal blue with black lace. There's no way I can make my eyes turn that lace black, though.

This site shows how the mistake can happen. The gif is fascinating.

But if any of us saw the dress in person, none would be making the white-and-gold mistake. We'd all see the true color. This illusion is a result of viewing it digitally.
 

Sage

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Has anybody else tried viewing the top half versus the bottom half?
Yes, if I look at the top only, I see unequivocally white and gold. If I go down to the bottom, the blue is more pronounced and I can *almost* see black if I focus on the blue stripes, but I can't get rid of the gold highlights in the lace, even at the bottom.
 

Don

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But if any of us saw the dress in person, none would be making the white-and-gold mistake. We'd all see the true color. This illusion is a result of viewing it digitally.
Yep. I'm kinda amazed this has generated so much controversy. It's a fairly simple optical illusion based on a number of factors, mostly electronic. It has zero to do with "perceiving reality." Has nobody seen "Brain games?"

I predict the next great Internet controversy will be "Do you see two faces or a cup?"
 

CassandraW

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Yep. I'm kinda amazed this has generated so much controversy. It's a fairly simple optical illusion based on a number of factors, mostly electronic. It has zero to do with "perceiving reality." Has nobody seen "Brain games?"

I predict the next great Internet controversy will be "Do you see two faces or a cup?"

If you've been following the many articles on this, according to various experts, this is actually not particularly simple and is not a matter of electronics. This isn't something your computer is doing to the image.

When I have time and am not on my phone, I'll dig up a couple of those articles (if no one else beats me to it.)
 

Quentin Nokov

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Cassandra, you're right eye-color has nothing to do with it. My sister has brown eyes and she sees white/gold, but she did see it blue/black for a brief moment. She scrolled down the page to read comments and when she was scrolled back up for a split-second it was blue and black. When she stopped scrolling and focused on it it became white/gold and that's all she sees.

I tried tilting the screen back but the gold became blue and the white black, so it didn't really work.

ETA: I don't think it's electronic because I've viewed this image on two different computers and it still looks the same to me and likewise it's the same for my sister and my dad who've viewed it on two different computers as well.
 
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dfwtinman

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So yesterday it was white and gold, and today it is black and blue. I can't think that this is merely the power of suggestion. So, I deem it dark magic, not to be played with anymore.
 

backslashbaby

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Yep. I'm kinda amazed this has generated so much controversy. It's a fairly simple optical illusion based on a number of factors, mostly electronic. It has zero to do with "perceiving reality." Has nobody seen "Brain games?"

I predict the next great Internet controversy will be "Do you see two faces or a cup?"

It's absolutely more about (sensory) perception than anything else.

Color constancy doesn't make the kind of easy optical illusion you are thinking of, except that in this case it does! That's what's fascinating. (There are other differences, but the early parts aren't even sinking in for folks, lol.)

...I'm fascinated that once I was able to force the color change with Diana's trick (i.e.,backlighting and tilting the screen), I could do it at will without using the trick. It was as though I'd trained my brain to do the switch. Did this happen for any of you?

After seeing it so much, with Photoshops of the white dress version, I can stare at the dress and make it switch. I don't think I could have without seeing what the white one looked like another way.
 

chompers

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I can see all the colors. If it was really based on the person, why would I be able to see them all? Makes me think it's the photo, not the person.

And this conversation reminds of those 3D Magic Eye posters in the '90s. Those things ruined my eyes!
 

Ambrosia

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I don't understand how a darker blue dress would appear white to anyone. The "black" part appears dark brown to me, however.
 

backslashbaby

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I can see all the colors. If it was really based on the person, why would I be able to see them all? Makes me think it's the photo, not the person.

And this conversation reminds of those 3D Magic Eye posters in the '90s. Those things ruined my eyes!

It feels like those Magic Eye things now that my brain knows how to make it change :D

Let's see here, though. It's based on that picture, absolutely. That picture is brilliant!

But it's also based on the individual's color constancy perception, something the brain does unconsciously with the sensory info it takes in. That's so that we can still tell what colors things are with changes in the lighting, in real life. Our brain changes the colors for us, because the real sensory info obscures them with lighting changes (and that's not as useful).

That's why we can have the normal, very cool, optical illusions involving color constancy.

But this one is finding an ambiguity illusion along with the color constancy illusion(s)! That's why you can see all the colors.

Even more cool, there is a distinct divide among people as to what their brains want to see. The ambiguity illusions aren't usually that difficult to train the brain to see the other version. Not everyone can see all the colors here at all :)

Why that is, I don't know. I know someone will be studying that now, though :D
 

andiwrite

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So yesterday it was white and gold, and today it is black and blue. I can't think that this is merely the power of suggestion. So, I deem it dark magic, not to be played with anymore.

It's creepy how much it changes for me. Every time I look at it now, it's different.

I can see all the colors. If it was really based on the person, why would I be able to see them all? Makes me think it's the photo, not the person.

And this conversation reminds of those 3D Magic Eye posters in the '90s. Those things ruined my eyes!

What do you mean you see them all? At once? If so, that's amazing. It's either one way or the other for me.

Magic Eye never worked very well for me. I always felt sort of left out of that whole thing. Sometimes I could see something, but it never looked like the actual thing. Just a blob.