IDP Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 A friend brought this topic to my attention over the weekend and the whole discussion has gone viral on the internet. Apparently the debate arose after two people were talking at some social gathering and one of them referred to the woman in the "black and blue striped dress". The other person was somewhat perplexed as the only woman he/she could see was in a white and gold striped dress! I'm sure many here have already seen it but I thought it a very interesting example of colour perception. The image below show 3 shots of the dress and the debate is - what colour is it? I see the two shots on the left as white and gold (one darker than the other) and the one on the right as blue and black. However, my friend (and, it would appear, many others) see all three dresses as white and gold. I confess to being totally bemused by this and it does raise interesting questions about colour correcting images. Those who see all the dresses as white and gold are not colour blind. It's apparently all to do with the way the brain adjusts for the colour temperature of ambient light. It's why we perceive colours under artificial light in a totally different way to a camera. In warm light the brain subtracts reds and yellows and in cold light it subtracts the blues. It would seem that some brains are attuned to subtract a bit more blue than others. What we perceive is also affected by the colour temperature of what one has previously been looking at. In my own work, I do make some effort to colour correct every image and always work in a darkened, neutral coloured room. I've sometimes noticed that, having worked in that environment for a couple of hours, I can go out and get a cup of coffee in the daylight and, when I come back, the images I've been colour correcting look totally different. With regard to the image of the dress, is it really worth spending so much time on colour correction if people's perceptions can differ so dramatically? I've put a poll (I hope!) at the top of this post to see how many see the blacks and blues (I'm guessing it might be the majority?) Ian D Edit: Apparently, the dress was black and blue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 The fist 2, clearly gold. The 3rd I see brown and white but seriously badly colour balanced to the blue. They're differe4nt corrections of the same image.. Unfortunately I can't copy the image to do a colour correct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCat Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 It's the image in the middle that has actually been used to ask what people see. Apparently most people either see white and gold or blue and black. I see lavender and bronze. I am not alone but we are in the minority. Paulette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I see the blue, but I know it isn't blue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDP Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 I believe the three images are simply to show degree of difference in perception. The important image is the one on the right, where my friend sees absolutely no blue or black but just dark gold and cream. Those who see the far right image as blue and black (with absolutely no browns or creams) will probably see the middle one as white and gold but veering towards lavender and bronze - because it's a lot darker. Ian D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 The colour balance is way off and so is you friend's colour perception, unless his monitor is seriously ill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpole Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I am colourblind and can see 3 different colours Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Richmond Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 It's the image in the middle that has actually been used to ask what people see. Apparently most people either see white and gold or blue and black. I see lavender and bronze. I am not alone but we are in the minority. Paulette Me too. The minority just got bigger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDP Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 The image I've posted is the one my friend showed me on an iPad - and we were both looking at it on the same device. Nothing to do with faulty monitors. This example would seem to have been manipulated so as to test wider differences in perception - where people still don't see the right hand dress as black and blue (like my friend and several other people in his office). Having delved a little further into it, Pauline is right and the original question was asked about the middle image and that's the one that most of the debate on social media is about. There are probably a lot fewer people who see the right hand dress as totally cream and gold but some might still see those hues in it. Getting back to my original point in posting, people's different perceptions do question the validity of spending a lot of time on colour correction. Ian D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Richmond Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Getting back to my original point in posting, people's different perceptions do question the validity of spending a lot of time on colour correction. Ian D Which begs the obvious question; How many photographers have perfect colour vision? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 THere's an online test for that. We had a discussion a while back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCat Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 All this reminds me that I had a sore throat recently and decided to shine a light in and see how it looked. I forgot that most flashlights these days are LED and give a rather blue light. I was appalled to see that my entire mouth and throat were a sickly shade of yellow. Fortunately I found an an old, and feeble, flashlight with an incandescent bulb. Nice pink mouth. Those of you who are experts in lighting will find all this very obvious. Paulette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 They are look blue and bronze to me. Just darker shades of each colour. Don't see white anywhere in the dress. Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 From left to right, white and gold, darker white and gold, blue and black. Just like you, Ian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I see things as Ian does . . . but that doesn't mean I'm a bad person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I see pretty much what NYCat and John see and I would be worried as a colour photographer if I didn't. There is actually an objective way of looking at this - save the image to your computer, open in Photoshop (or any other program with a colour measurement tool) and use the eyedropper and the info panel. Allthough the images here are pixellated so causing some strange colour effects in the white areas , the basic conclusions from this exercise are that there are three distinctly different sets of colours: white and gold, similar with a strong blue-magenta cast ( the lavender and bronze of NYCat) and blue and black. The eye dropper tool does not name the colours but these three sets are broadly correct, irrespective of your monitor, perception or description. I wonder if people who say the middle one is simply darker than the left one really mean that see a colour cast. There is absolutely definitely a colour difference between left and middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I see things as Ian does . . . but that doesn't mean I'm a bad person. Nor does it mean you are not a bad person . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Originally this was quite an interesting question (and this is quite a few weeks old now) but it was just one image of the dress (the middle one). If you want to see the original concept/question, delete the left and right images, then ask the original question: what colour is the dress? Without the two white-balanced versions to compare the middle one against, your perception may surprise you (your perception may be affected by the assumptions your brain makes about the light the photo was taken in, amongst other things, interesting subtleties swept away by adding the manipulated left and right images). Obviously some idiot along the way didn't quite get it and thought it'd be simpler if they changed it, for some unfathomable reason, into the "new" three-image version shown here, thereby kicking the stuffiing out of the original/interesting phenomenum illustrated by the original single image--in this bastardised version, the left one has been white-balanced for white/gold dress (which is why it looks white/gold), the right for blue/black dress (which, duh, is why it looks blue/black). Just another example of an originally intersting idea stuffed up by dumbing down . . . dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I first came across this image a month or so ago . . . on the radio. Yes, life is filled with strange things. The second question is the more interesting one: if you're not in the norm, what do you do about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Walker Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I just see three naked women does that make me a bad person...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lastrega Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I see white and gold and everyone else in my family sees blue and black. The actual dress is, in fact, blue and black: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-31656935 Edit: typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I just see three naked women does that make me a bad person...... No, John. But it indicates where your interests are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 I just see three naked women does that make me a bad person...... Where! where! Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDP Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 I seem to have been living in a cave for the last couple of weeks! The BBC article certainly clarifies the background to the story and is somewhat at odds with what I'd been led to believe. I thought the confusion over colour initially occurred in a real life situation but this isn't the case. It doesn't affect the whole debate about perception but is much easier to understand when it's an incorrectly colour balanced photo that caused the confusion While looking further into this and other instances of differing perception, I came across the following page of colour illusions. http://brainden.com/color-illusions.htm#prettyPhoto These are actually pure optical illusions which, I would hazard a guess, most people are fooled by. Nevertheless, they provide interesting food for thought. I thought the one entitled "Identical Colors" was particularly dramatic. Ian D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert M Estall Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Like most, I see the one on the right as rich blue and black with no hint of gold, the one on the left a fairly soft gold and white, the one in the middle, a kind of fudge between the other two. How anyone can see the right as gold and white is really hard to figure. I too saw this a few weeks ago and I was kind of wondering about the problem we had many years ago in film days when certain dyes in fabrics were causing problems in studio work with fluorescence in some examples. We should all know that fluorescent strip lighting looks sort of OK to the (adjustable) naked eye, but film just saw it as an awful sci-fi green. To-day's digital seems much better able to cope, though it's not perfect. I'm looking at a 27 inch iMac in a slightly darkened room about mid-day. No artificial lights turned on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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