Writer and comedian Tessa Coates went shopping for a wedding dress, and this picture was taken during a fitting. When she looked at the image, she got a big case of the willies. When Coates posted it to Instagram, her fans were at first shocked that she was engaged (she hadn't announced that before), and then shocked at the picture itself. If you can't see it, her arms are in different positions in the two mirrors and on her body. The picture was not Photoshopped, nor was it a Live Photo, nor a panorama. It spooked Coates so badly she almost threw up.
As Bored Panda tells the story, Coates waited in line for two hours at the Apple Store to ask what happened. The explanation she got was that as the phone scanned from left to right, she raised her hands and artificial intelligence decided to stitch the two images together.
Digital cameras take images by scanning from one side to another, but artificial intelligence doesn't necessarily factor into it. This kind of glitch has been happening for much longer than AI has been used in digital cameras. As pretty as this dress is, the spooky experience made Coates reject it, and she doesn't ever want to be near it again.
(Image credit: wheatpraylove)
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What's weird is that I distinctly remember posting about this effect, and there was a slang term for it that I can't recall. No matter what I put into Google search, I couldn't find it because photography has changed so much that all those old terms mean something different now. It was definitely before the iPhone debuted in 2007. I feel so old now.
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I thought it was some kind of social tradition issue of needing to have an all white dress or something, not expecting a technical issue. I agree, too superstitious. Nice dress.
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Before I read the explanation, I'd already figured out it was a side-scanning camera. Why are people so stupidly superstitious? I would have thought it was a cool pic, and would have been my favorite out of the set, just for it's quirkiness.
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