What Color is This Dress? - Neatorama

(Image credit: Cecilia Bleasdale)

There’s been quite a debate among Tumblr users about the colors of this dress. The picture was posted by Swiked, and then passed around, igniting arguments wherever it showed up. I looked at it and said, “That’s white with gold lace.” Then I read three posts at Buzzfeed about the controversy surrounding the colors, with plenty of pictures of the dress with various color corrections and even a catalog entry, and they determined that the dress is actually blue with black lace.

But what really floored me was when I returned to the original picture and saw it as blue and black! I could not make myself see white and gold again at that point. THEN I went somewhere else for about twenty minutes and returned to the original picture. It appeared white and gold again- for a minute or two, then it turned blue and black again. Now, my eyesight isn’t the greatest, but this is one weird phenomena.

Update: There's a discussion of some of the factors going into this photo here.

What colors do you see in the dress?

Comments (17)

Newest 5

Newest 5 Comments

I suspected that's what it was from my experience, and that's what the neuroscientists who've talked about the dress believe.

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So kind of like if you _know_ what it's supposed to look like, then your brain will fill in the correct color?

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The secret is to look at different pictures of the same dress. once you have a reference point, you'll start to see the blue and black.

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I'm with you, Ladybugs! I can only see white and gold, regardless of what I try to do (stare into the monitor, squint a bit, squint a lot and so on). Now I feel left out!

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There are actually a lot of determinations (not just assumptions) regarding white balance you can make from the highlights and shadows of the image (color casts are different at the extremes depending on lighting, especially when using cheap digital sensors), the adjacent objects (the cloth right behind it), and even the flaring from the dirty lens (you can actually see the color blend from the background lighting to the material in the top right). The lighting is too omni-directional to have a blue light be hitting the dress without it hitting anything behind it. That's enough to at least confirm that the white balance and lighting isn't so dramatic that a white/gold dress would reflect a blue wavelength to the camera (since we can measure and see that the color is distinctly blue).

That's not to say you couldn't have a situation where you could genuinely fool people (see today's XKCD), but there's definitely enough information in this image to be 99% sure that it is what it.... well, let's say what it can be measured to be. :)

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Who was the idiot that bought that couch?? It's HIDEOUS!

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Ironically, the only place the UCP would be of any use is where a soldier would be safest; the living room couch.

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There are a few articles floating around online outlining the difference in digicam...namely the Army's pattern, USMC's two patterns and how each came to be.

Bottom line, USMC had enlisted input beyond desk jockeys, infantry even, and ended up with two patterns that work well. The Army relied on Os and bureaucrats and got something that only works on flowered furniture. And is expensive...and doesn't look particularly squared away on any soldier for some reason...

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The ACU pattern was the butt of a lot of jokes when I was in the Army, and we suspected at the time that it was selected for political reasons. It was just so wrong, and so obviously wrong, that it could only have been the product of some Pentagon level nepotism.

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everyone here on post or happy about it. i agree with you jennifer, its not about the money spent. we would spend what ever it cost to keep our men and women safe,its about the design flaws.

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But.. but if we cut the funding for defense we won't have billions to waste like this.

And in the mean time young men and women die.

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The ACUs worked well if you were covered in mud or dust, also you could not sew combat skills patches on the uniform. The only positive thing is that the ripped less than the BDUs, for me at least.

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Sammy, mine are coming from wondering how many service people were injured or lost their lives because of this fiasco. Talk about playing directly into the enemies hands...

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I laughed so hard when I read that the army had spent $5billion on a camo design that made people more visible but I'm not sure whether my tears were from laughter or the sheer waste of money.

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Everybody told them that going into battle dressed as Bozo the clown wasn't a good idea but still they wouldn't listen.

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