THAT Dress

[quote=Searz][img=http://i.imgur.com/usNYBUQ.jpg] Most people here have probably at least caught a glimpse of this viral event. This whole debacle has occurred because the interpreted white balance of the image is different for different people. Meaning that the objects in the image have different colors according to different people. Our brains are automatically figuring out the white balance of the things we're looking at all the time, so that colors stay mostly the same even under different lighting. And they're generally pretty good at it, resulting in mostly the same interpretation by most people most of the time. This is a rare instance in which a lot of people interpret it differently, resulting in a divide of people seeing the image as having cold or warm white balance, resulting in white/gold and blue/black colors, respectively. This is quite the interesting example of the importance of white balance when taking photos. [spoiler=Vote in the poll before reading further]It seems that most people (60-70% according to a poll) take one look at the dress and think that it's a white dress with gold accents under blue light. But the people that are correctly judging the image will notice that the colors of the surrounding area are noticeably warm (orange), rather than cold (blue), meaning that you'll get close to the original values by turning down the red value a little and the green value by about half that (RGB for orange is 255, 127, 0). Resulting in blue and black as the original colors. Exposure also has a big impact. The picture is severely overexposed, so the dress colors are far more washed out than they should be. A possible reason many people see it as white/gold is because their phones have screens with noticeably blue white balance. I'd guess that more people would pick the blue/black option if they had correctly calibrated screens. Looking at the screen in daylight may also further exacerbate the issue. Edit: xkcd perfectly illustrates this phenomenon in this comic here: http://xkcd.com/1492/ [b]The colors of the dresses in both the blue and orange light are EXACTLY the same[/b]. These are their RGB values: [color=#879ABD]White/Blue: 135, 154, 189[/color] [color=#715E3A]Gold/Black: 113, 94, 58[/color][/spoiler] Edit: derped up the grammar in the question, of course it's "is", not "are", I'm referring to a single dress, even if there are multiple colors >.>[/quote]

[quote=Searz][quote=oxide110]No[/quote] Yes?[/quote]

[quote=The_Nameless_Bard]I could probably change that picture through any number of edits to contrast/exposure plus color correction to make it appear to be any of the various colors it actually comes in. But seriously, people actually care about this shit (not trying to insult YOU for bringing it up or trying to explain it, so don't get me wrong here)?[/quote]

[quote=OTGBionicArm]It's green and orange. Fuck you guys.[/quote]

[quote=Searz]A lot of influential scientists care about this because it's an interesting phenomenon, and I agree. Without the science it's just dumb, but with the science it's a worthwhile topic of discussion. The color of the dress is not what I'm trying to discuss here, in case that wasn't clear enough; I'm trying to discuss the science behind the phenomenon.[/quote]

[quote=OTGBionicArm]realtalk, you changed the image from the black and blue to the white and gold. I think this entire thing is a massive troll. xD[/quote]

[quote=The_Nameless_Bard][quote=Searz]A lot of influential scientists care about this because it's an interesting phenomena, and I agree. Without the science it's just dumb, but with the science it's a worthwhile topic of discussion. The color of the dress is not what I'm trying to discuss here, in case that wasn't clear enough; I'm trying to discuss the science behind the phenomena.[/quote]I wouldn't call "a stupid debate that could easily have been avoided by using google" a phenomenon. Science never even needed to be involved. This is 100% no one bothering to look up whether the dress even comes with trim that isn't black (it doesn't) and then determining based on that fact whether the photo was either edited terribly in an attempt to fool people/just taken with terrible lighting or actually showing the true colors. Also phenomena is the plural form of that word btw. Should be "it's an interesting phenomenon".[/quote]

[quote=Meiyjhe]I was thinking lightblue and brown, but maybe thats just me. Idk how this dress got so much attention so quickly tho, the internet is truly a special thing.[/quote]

[quote=Janitsu]My biology teacher (a huge redditor/imgurian herself) explained it to us: The cone and rod cells in our eyes need different amount of light (different frequency as well) to actually get irritated. If you look it in a shadowy place and with not too much light it is white/gold. In a lighted place, it is blue/black (the real colour). You can test it with a light. Turn off all the lights and look at it. Then point the light into your eyes and look at it slowly turn from white to blue. EDIT: You can also scroll the page down so you can only see around half of the dress. This sometimes clears the illusion[/quote]

[quote=XeresAce]Oh god wasn't the picture just taken in a relatively dark place so the cheap camera over-exposed the shit out of it? Personally I see light blue with a tint of violet and ocher. It only turns blue and black when I tilt my monitor a bit :P EDIT: No none of the above? Rly?[/quote]