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[-] Octagon9561@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 week ago

I always saw blue and black, no idea how anyone could see it as white and gold unless they were colorblind tbh

[-] tae_glas@slrpnk.net 13 points 1 week ago

the original photo was much more faded than the one posted here, so people's colour perception depended on how yellow/blue they perceived the photo's light to be tinted, and how bright/dark their screens were.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Wikipe-tan_wearing_The_Dress_reduced.svg/960px-Wikipe-tan_wearing_The_Dress_reduced.svg.png

[-] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

In every configuration, every lighting condition, every monitor, every color manipulation, I see that picture as white and gold. Not once have I managed to see the blue dress, except in separate pictures of the same dress.

I understand the actual dress is blue and I understand the color theory, but even with the picture very heavily tinted blue my brain still interprets the dress to be in shadow and therefore white.

[-] papalonian@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I've always been able to see both colors of the dress by changing the size of the image, so the phenomenon "made sense" to me, but I legitimately have no idea how that image is supposed to explain it lol. There's two different colored dresses with seemingly random parts highlighted with different colored boxes.. are they supposed to look the same in the highlighted area or something?

[-] Godnroc@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

The connected boxes show that the same color appears on both sides; however, the colored boxes provide context based on the lighting which is further reenforced by the rest of the dress outside the box.

Technology Connections did a video about brown that has the same color of orange on a background that cycles between white and black and the color of orange seems to shift to brown or orange depending on the background.

[-] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 week ago

Change the size of the image? Can you elaborate?

[-] papalonian@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I always saw it as black and blue, until I was scrolling Reddit (as was the style back then) and saw a thumbnail for a meme that had the image of the dress in it. I didn't pay attention to the thumbnail before opening it, so I only noticed a vaguely light colored object. But when the image loaded full size, the dress was the distinct black and blue I'd seen before. I backed out and took a second look at the thumbnail, and again it looked white and gold.

Now that I'm thinking about it, it could have been the surrounding colors of the screen that effected how I perceived the dress. After discovering this I recreated the effect by taking a screenshot of the dress while zoomed out really far (to essentially turn it in to a thumbnail on its own), but both that and the Reddit thumbnail had a dark background that may have made the dress seem lighter in comparison.

[-] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago

That seems like a pretty spot on, organic way of figuring out how it works.

The issue I still have is the people who seemingly still only see white and gold or whatever. Is it trolling? Is it being pedantic? Can those people not read captchas? Do they just have trouble? Is it just to make a point? Mental inflexibility? It's a damn mystery.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That image shows how a white and gold dress could appear to be the same color as a black and blue one by putting a filter of blue over it, but the original has a shop window in the bg that looks yellow/white, so for me it's hard to see it as anything but blue and black (which is the actual dress color).

[-] angrystego@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

The original can be interpreted in two ways either as the dress being in too much light, which was the actual case, or as the dress being in the shadow compared to the light background - which explains the blue tint as the effect of the shadow and leads to the gold and white perception.

[-] realitista@lemmus.org 2 points 1 week ago

I'm mildly colorblind and it's just too dark for me to make out. It could be white, blue, etc. But the black part doesn't look solid enough to be black either. I just think the camera failed to properly get a read at that lighting level .

[-] ace_garp@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

That is what I am seeing now too, same as the first time I saw this.

However, when it got posted to Lemmy ~7months ago I could switch it between colours.

I posted then, about how to do it. Something like defocussing your eyes, and then looking at the sunny part on the right-side, to switch to white&gold.

[-] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I am not colourblind afaik and I could not for the life of me see it as blue and black. The lighting just made no sense for that to be the case.

It looks like the dress is in a less lit part with a very strong backlight.

[-] Slab_Bulkhead@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

thats because the OG** photo** (left) it is gold lace on a "white dress" (with a blue tint lighting effect etc) while IRL the dress is black & blue. right side is the edited OP photo. the difference is 'night and day' and if these all look the same i've got some news for you. ...........

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[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

Ok this confirms my suspicion! In order for it to be white and gold you'd need to see the dress as in shadow. I always assumed it was in light because the image was lile blown out max lighting, but if you then assume that since it's backlit the dress is in shadow and there isn't significant front lighting, it could actually be white and gold. This theory has been nagging at me for YEARS and you just solved it, thank you!

[-] lastweakness@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Okay, something weird just happened to me... When I sent my last comment, I couldn't perceive it as anything but white and gold... Now, out of nowhere, i can't perceive it as anything but blue and black... Why? How? What just happened?

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[-] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 0 points 1 week ago
[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

What'a always bothered me is, the lighting in the original is so ridiculously blown out that it MUST be blue and black! It could only be white and gold under very dark lighting which is clearly not the case. Unless maybe people are thinking the front is in shadow...?

[-] teslekova@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

Yep, I thought the front was in shadow, so I always saw gold and white.

[-] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

NO we are NOT doing this again please!

[-] 1984@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago

Yes we are. :)

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[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

What in the hell, this is the first time I've been able to actually see it as blue and black

[-] ratel@mander.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

If you look at the orginal on wikipedia the image is much brighter:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress

[-] Emotional_Engi@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

It is edited. The background is much more dimmed.

[-] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

That's cause it's been color corrected to remove the harsh lighting.

How your brain looked at the bright ass room and decided to look at the dress like it was dimly lit still makes no sense to me, but this is why people called those seeing white and gold as crazy.

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

This photo does look blue and black to me but when it was a big controversy, it looked white and gold to me

[-] Spezi@feddit.org 7 points 1 week ago

It‘s because the OP picture is a white balance adjusted version.

This is the original:

[-] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago

This fucks with my brain so much. The last time I looked at the original pic, it was white and gold and nothing I did could change that. Looking at this one just now, it was white and gold again but this time as I started scrolling down it shifted into blue and black and now that's how it's staying.

[-] asmoranomar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Woah, I was trying to see it the other way and tilted my phone just enough for the picture to rotate - it was immediately apparent what people were talking about. Now I can see it both ways.

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 week ago

That looks white and gold to me

[-] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago

Well, we now know, for a fact, that you are wrong

[-] Naz@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

They need to invest in better lighting in that store, it's super dark in there

(Also like 40% of the population is red-green colorblind)

[-] YeahToast@aussie.zone 1 points 1 week ago

Ive always seen this as white and gold. I just zoomed in on the shoulder to see the blue.. it just transitioned before my eyes.. I need to lay down

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago

I remember the first time this did the rounds. Someone found a way to trick your eyes into seeing the other color. They flipped it upside down to sort of detach it from what you already associated and began by zooming way in on the part what looked most blue or white (the idea being if you normally see one you watched them zoom out from the one that looks most like the other). It was like magic. It was the only time I was ever able to see it as white and gold. It's the sort of thing I always understood on paper (and even I can see the black part is sort of a very dark brownish goldenrod sort of) but seeing it was amazing.

It sort of reminds me of Outer Wilds, which I know is a weird reference. There's a part of the game where you're going over the scientists of old's research and they find things going into black holes come out slightly before they go in. But they insist they want to actually see it with their eyes so they don't believe it's just a rounding error. The machine they have to demonstrate this is still working and sure enough you can interact with it too and see your probe come out before it goes in.

[-] Toes@ani.social 2 points 1 week ago

I was one of those gold & white people.

[-] Soulg@ani.social 1 points 1 week ago

I was always blue and black, except for one specific time I remember it being white and gold. But only that once, it was extremely surreal.

[-] Bullerfar@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

it's red and pink

[-] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I am already time blind, and now events are repeating?! I'm not even dead yet and I'm watching reruns!

Infinite multiverse at our disposal and nothing to watch.

[-] dumbass@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

Its just grey, never understood that fight it's just grey and light grey.

[-] lechekaflan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

It's amazing that pic caused an uproar.

[-] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

Yes, what a nice dress...

...anyway, have you considered joining the army?

[-] Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf 0 points 1 week ago
[-] TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Go see your doctor, ask them about Jaundice.

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this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
53 points (96.5% liked)

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