4 ms·

do you really see "black" here ? https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3452082/no_black_dress.0.png https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/

by lucio 12y ago

do you really see "black" here ? https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3452082/no_black_dress.0.png https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3452082/n... Objectively, there's only "yellow-brown" (gold) and "light blue" which most people "mentally" correct to "white"

smoe 12y ago
I'm one of the light blue/gold people and couldn't image seeing black anywhere. But when I look at the picture upside down I see it as blue/gold and when I mask the lower half, as blue/black with a gold touch. http://s4.photobucket.com/user/ometauru/media/YNOPKWp_zpstcvt2hqd.png.html http://s4.photobucket.com/user/ometauru/media/YNOPKWp_zpstcv... Looking at the different things around and behind the dress, everything dark has a similar golden color. Maybe some people correct that to black in the same way most do with the light blue to white
- bjornsing 12y ago
  I see blue/black, but blue/gold makes sense to me too. It's more white/gold that seems improbable to me.
- Squarel 12y ago
  I am the same, I cant see either white/gold or blue/black, and I am surprised that the options for most people seem to be white/gold or blue/black. light blue/gold barely gets a mention in most articles.
quarterto 12y ago
local colour vs perceived colour LOCAL COLOUR VS PERCEIVED COLOUR LOCAL COLOUR VS PERCEIVED COLOUR nobody is arguing that the perceived colour of the dress is black.
bjornsing 12y ago
It's easier to understand the gold part than the white part to me. But I think I assume that the goldish hue comes more from the light, since the further down on the dress I look the more black it seems. Phrased slightly differently: The yellow-brown (gold) color is most visible on the upper torso where the fabric (to me) is likely to reflect a light source specularly. On the lower part of the dress (where I assume) light is more ambiantly reflected I see black. Looking at your color squares to the right it's quite clear to me what my visual cortex is doing: It's assuming that specular reflection expains the difference in color in the left column. So each color there is a superposition of two: the ambient color of the dress and the specular reflection of the light source. Separating those two gives me black dress and yellowish lighting. UPDATE After writing the above I think I understand why it seems so weird to me to see white: I parse the light source as yellowish, so a white dress would never look blue in that light. To me seeing a white/gold dress requires contradictory hypothesis: the light source needs to be blue to explain bluish tint on white stripes; but it also needs to be yellowish to explain the "gradient" in gold/black stripes from top to bottom of the dress.
- chao- 12y ago
  I'm the same as your update. I tend to enjoy these sorts of illusions and normally can see them "both ways" for some specific illusion. Not so on this one. The rest of the image (i.e. beyond the dress) leads me to also perceive the light being yellow-ish, in which case a white dress would certainly not appear blue.
- bjornsing 12y ago
  Ha! I just had a moment where I could perceive it as white/gold: It was a cropped version showing only the belly portion of the dress with no background, displayed in isolation as a thumbnail on a news site. When cropped like that it made perfect sense. :)
- smoe 12y ago
  I think people correct the blue to white, since for some reason they mentally assume the picture is taken outside illuminated by daylight where shadows can have a bluish tinge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow#Color_of_shadow_on_Earth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow#Color_of_shadow_on_Earth When i turned the picture upside down with the light source in the back now at the bottom, which couldn't be the sun anymore, my perceived color changed from very very light blue to blue instantly. And now I can't unsee it:)
  - greggman 12y ago
    People are not correcting blue to white. The image is measurably white and not blue. Some people may be correcting back to blue but regardless of whether or not the original dress is blue there is no deep blue of the original dress in the image being displayed. We can measure the RGB or HSV or whatever of every pixel and see that objectively
smackfu 12y ago
I see overexposed black. The background is clearly blown out.
benihana 12y ago
Why the condescension? Did you even read the top comment in this thread? The whole point is yes, some people do in fact perceive black in that picture. Because color perception is relative. I find it funny that the HN crowd is arguing over this, given how in our line of work, I'm sure many of us have looked at an image on several different devices and have seen different shades and colors. Someone's monitor might have a higher contrast setting than your smartphone. And you're condescending to someone for perceiving a color that isn't objectively there.
- lucio 12y ago
  >Why the condescension? Was not my intention. I'm not a native speaker. Honest question, to learn: How would you rephrase the post to remove "condescension"?
  - bradleyjg 12y ago
    The words 'really' and 'objectively' in your post give the reader the sense that you think what you see is the correct way of seeing things and anyone who perceives it differently is wrong and somehow lesser. Hope this helps.

by lucio 12y ago

smoe 12y ago

I'm one of the light blue/gold people and couldn't image seeing black anywhere. But when I look at the picture upside down I see it as blue/gold and when I mask the lower half, as blue/black with a gold touch. http://s4.photobucket.com/user/ometauru/media/YNOPKWp_zpstcvt2hqd.png.html http://s4.photobucket.com/user/ometauru/media/YNOPKWp_zpstcv... Looking at the different things around and behind the dress, everything dark has a similar golden color. Maybe some people correct that to black in the same way most do with the light blue to white

bjornsing 12y ago
I see blue/black, but blue/gold makes sense to me too. It's more white/gold that seems improbable to me.
Squarel 12y ago
I am the same, I cant see either white/gold or blue/black, and I am surprised that the options for most people seem to be white/gold or blue/black. light blue/gold barely gets a mention in most articles.

quarterto 12y ago

local colour vs perceived colour LOCAL COLOUR VS PERCEIVED COLOUR LOCAL COLOUR VS PERCEIVED COLOUR nobody is arguing that the perceived colour of the dress is black.

bjornsing 12y ago

It's easier to understand the gold part than the white part to me. But I think I assume that the goldish hue comes more from the light, since the further down on the dress I look the more black it seems. Phrased slightly differently: The yellow-brown (gold) color is most visible on the upper torso where the fabric (to me) is likely to reflect a light source specularly. On the lower part of the dress (where I assume) light is more ambiantly reflected I see black. Looking at your color squares to the right it's quite clear to me what my visual cortex is doing: It's assuming that specular reflection expains the difference in color in the left column. So each color there is a superposition of two: the ambient color of the dress and the specular reflection of the light source. Separating those two gives me black dress and yellowish lighting. UPDATE After writing the above I think I understand why it seems so weird to me to see white: I parse the light source as yellowish, so a white dress would never look blue in that light. To me seeing a white/gold dress requires contradictory hypothesis: the light source needs to be blue to explain bluish tint on white stripes; but it also needs to be yellowish to explain the "gradient" in gold/black stripes from top to bottom of the dress.

chao- 12y ago
I'm the same as your update. I tend to enjoy these sorts of illusions and normally can see them "both ways" for some specific illusion. Not so on this one. The rest of the image (i.e. beyond the dress) leads me to also perceive the light being yellow-ish, in which case a white dress would certainly not appear blue.
bjornsing 12y ago
Ha! I just had a moment where I could perceive it as white/gold: It was a cropped version showing only the belly portion of the dress with no background, displayed in isolation as a thumbnail on a news site. When cropped like that it made perfect sense. :)
smoe 12y ago
I think people correct the blue to white, since for some reason they mentally assume the picture is taken outside illuminated by daylight where shadows can have a bluish tinge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow#Color_of_shadow_on_Earth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow#Color_of_shadow_on_Earth When i turned the picture upside down with the light source in the back now at the bottom, which couldn't be the sun anymore, my perceived color changed from very very light blue to blue instantly. And now I can't unsee it:)
- greggman 12y ago
  People are not correcting blue to white. The image is measurably white and not blue. Some people may be correcting back to blue but regardless of whether or not the original dress is blue there is no deep blue of the original dress in the image being displayed. We can measure the RGB or HSV or whatever of every pixel and see that objectively

smackfu 12y ago

I see overexposed black. The background is clearly blown out.

benihana 12y ago

Why the condescension? Did you even read the top comment in this thread? The whole point is yes, some people do in fact perceive black in that picture. Because color perception is relative. I find it funny that the HN crowd is arguing over this, given how in our line of work, I'm sure many of us have looked at an image on several different devices and have seen different shades and colors. Someone's monitor might have a higher contrast setting than your smartphone. And you're condescending to someone for perceiving a color that isn't objectively there.

lucio 12y ago
>Why the condescension? Was not my intention. I'm not a native speaker. Honest question, to learn: How would you rephrase the post to remove "condescension"?
- bradleyjg 12y ago
  The words 'really' and 'objectively' in your post give the reader the sense that you think what you see is the correct way of seeing things and anyone who perceives it differently is wrong and somehow lesser. Hope this helps.