Why is the dress seen differently? Is the dress blue or gold? What is the phenomenon? How do celebrities see the color of a dress?

04.04.2020

website- At the end of last week, a photo appeared on the Internet that divided the world into two camps. As you may have guessed, we are talking about a magic dress. In the eyes of some people it is black and blue, in others it is white and golden... The editors have collected the facts that scientists told about.

On February 25, a girl under the nickname Swiked posted a photo of the dress on Tumblr and asked her friends a simple question about what color it was. Within a matter of hours, millions of people were divided into two camps: some claimed that the outfit was blue and black, while others said it was white and gold. But even after the author of the photo confirmed that it was indeed blue with black stripes, the debate online did not stop and continues to this day. Even scientists entered into the debate. They decided to finally explain what color the dress actually was. Washington State University neuroscientist Jane Neitz says human eyes and brains have evolved to discern colors in a sunlit world. Light enters the eye through the lens—different wavelengths produce different colors. The light hits the retina at the back of the eye, where the pigments activate neural connections in the visual cortex, the part of the brain that translates signals into images. This theory is put forward by a popular American website.

“The brain figures out what color of light is reflected from the object that the eyes see, and separates that color from the color it considers “real.” “So people don't consider the color blue, and then they see white and gold,” added Bevil Conway, another neuroscientist at Wellesley College.
For example, even what a person looked at before looking at a dress can have a direct impact on what colors they see. The level of lighting in the room in which the person is located also matters.

Lighting is very important for color recognition, which is a combination of how much light falls on an object and how much light is reflected from it. In the case of the dress, some people perceive the image as blue-black because it seems to their eye that the lighting is strong enough and there is little reflected light, others perceive more reflected color, so they see the dress as white and gold.
After this topic became so popular on the Internet, Caitlin McNeil, who published the photo, said that in fact the dress is blue and black.

“In addition to the poor quality of the image, the dispute is also explained by the way we perceive light. Our brain processes light waves of different lengths, each corresponding to a different color. As Bevil Conway, a scientist who studies color and vision, explained to Wired, daylight influences and changes the way we perceive the colors of objects. Therefore, when looking at a dress, our brain makes allowances for daylight and “cuts off” one of the undertones - bluish or yellowish. Due to the individuality of perception, it seems to some that the dress is white and gold, and to others that it is blue and black. In addition, this effect can also be explained by an optical illusion: the way we perceive the color of an object is influenced by the background on which it is located and the lighting. The photo may have been taken in bluish light, which may appear white to many."

The most detailed answer was given by Washington professor Jay Nates: “The dress appears blue-black or white-gold depending on whether your eye has more rods or cones and the lighting conditions in the room. (This is made possible by the different colors that mix around you.) Different people have different rod and cone remnants—those with color blindness are particularly affected.
But the "rods" are also very sensitive to light. The rods detect color using a pigment called rhodopsin, which is very sensitive to low light but flashes and is destroyed at higher light levels. And it should take about 45 minutes to adjust (well, just like your eyes will need time to adapt to the night, in other words). Basically, if you look at a dress in bright light and see one color, then if you go into a dark room for half an hour and come back, the dress will quite possibly change color.
Also, different dress colors among different people are associated with individual differences in color perception. If you've ever tried to work with photography, you've probably encountered white balance - the camera tries to balance it in inappropriate lighting conditions. Your brain does its own white balance, which automatically means that you either ignore the blue tint and see a white-gold image, or ignore the yellow tint and see a blue-black photo.

Ophthalmologists say that different perceptions of the color of a dress do not mean that you have problems with your eyes or mental health. Each person has individual vision characteristics. The brain processes light waves that hit the retina in a unique way, so some people see some colors and others see different colors.
There is a scientific explanation for why people see different colors in the same picture. This is an optical illusion. Objects reflect light at different wavelengths or colors, and the human brain determines color from the reflected light. Objects around you can also reflect color and influence your perception. In this photo there are many other colors around and they are mixed, and the brain cannot immediately determine the color of the dress. So, people who see the ambient light as dark see white instead of blue. It depends on the brain's perception process. Washington University professor Jay Neitz says he's been studying color differences for 30 years, and this case is one of the clearest differences he's ever seen. By the way, the dress seemed white to him.

Most likely, you have already seen this dress, and you probably have your own opinion about its color. But the whole world still cannot come to a clear opinion. For some it is invariably blue-black, for others it is white and gold and nothing else!

There were even cases when a person at first thought that the dress was the same color, and then after some time he was sure of the opposite!

This dress has already caused too much trouble. It's time to face the truth and find out what color it really is.

The same photo of the dress that caused so much controversy:

According to some, the original dress, if the lighting were better, should look like this:

Others believe that if it weren’t for the excessive light, the dress would have looked like this:

But why do people see different colors in the same photo? There is one version about this, and it has nothing to do with the monitor settings, nothing depends on them, we checked.

It's all about how the eyes of each individual person react to an illuminated object. Some people decide that the dress is not lit enough (or that its surface is highly reflective) and their brain signals their eyes to compensate. Hence the white-gold color. Others think the dress has too much light falling on it (or the surface is less reflective) and their eyes tell them it is blue-black.

Everything is like in the famous Adelson optical illusion. In the picture, square "A" is the same color as square "B", although it seems that this is not the case.

In general, it turns out that a person’s eyes see an image the way the brain perceives it. Past experience is also important. If a person has seen a fabric with a similar texture or a similar dress in a certain color, this will likely influence what color they see in the photo of the dress. Scientists still know little about this phenomenon called “perception difference.”

And here is a photo of the real dress. It still turned out to be blue-black.

Incredible facts

What color is this dress? This issue has sparked heated debate online, with users divided into those who think it is a white and gold dress, and those who see a blue and black dress.

The photo of the dress was first posted on Tumblr by Scottish user Caitlin McNeill after she noticed that her friends were seeing different colors in the photo.

The photo quickly became an online sensation due to controversy surrounding the true color of the dress. A label #TheDress (dress) began to quickly gain popularity all over the world.

The girl herself said that she did not expect such a reaction to the dress she wore to a friend’s wedding.

Optical illusion

There is actually a scientific explanation for why some people see a blue and black dress while others see a golden and white dress.

The photo itself is optical illusion.

Objects reflect light at certain wavelengths or colors, and the human brain determines the color of an object by taking on the reflected color. This perception may be distorted by the colors of nearby objects.

This is similar to Adelson's shadow illusion. In the image, cell A is the same color as cell B, but their surroundings make them look different.

In this photo, the surrounding colors are so chaotic that the brain cannot understand what color the dress is.

Is the dress blue or white?

Digital analysis of a photograph of the dress revealed that one of the stains on the black lace is orange in the photograph.

The original photo is in the middle. On the left, the brightness and contrast have been adjusted so that the dress looks more white and gold. On the right, the brightness and contrast have been adjusted to make the dress appear blue-black.

Thus, people who perceive the surrounding area of the dress as dark will see blue as white and black as gold. It depends on how the brain perceives and processes colors.

This dress is actually blue with black lace.

On February 27, almost the whole world went crazy because of an ordinary, at first glance, dress - show business stars, fashion gurus, and ordinary social network users argued about what color the dress shown in the photograph was. The media promised to reveal the secret of the dress and explain why some saw a blue-black dress, while others saw a white and gold one, writes Gazeta.Ru.

It all started with a social network user. The girl published a photo of the dress that had not yet made a splash and asked her friends to help her determine its color. “Guys, please, help. We've already lost our minds with our friends and family, we can't decide the color of this dress.", she wrote. After this publication, not only she, but the entire progressive world went crazy.

What color is the dress actually?

We also joined a survey launched by the BuzzFeed portal, in which their opinions, like the opinions of the whole world, were divided into two camps. Some saw a blue and black dress in the photograph (as in all other statistics, these turned out to be a minority), others clearly saw a white and gold dress.

The author of the photo said that The dress is still blue and black, as a minority of voting participants saw it. The original photograph of the dress, in which its true color was clearly visible, was published a little later, when the whole world had time to break its brain in search of the correct answer and debates with relatives.

Why does everyone see a dress differently?

It turns out that the whole controversy is based on biological differences between people - different people saw conflicting colors in the photo because the light hit their eye photoreceptors differently. The human retina consists of two types of photoreceptors - cones and rods- the perception of color depends on which of them the light fell on. If one person's retina has more rods or cones than another person's retina, then they will see the same object in different interpretations.

Simply put, some people have more rods on their retinas, while others have more cones - this is what made the dress multi-colored in the eyes of two such people. The brain automatically interprets colors; this process is invisible to humans. If you go into a dark room and stay in it for 30-40 minutes, then upon returning the color of the dress will change for him, regardless of what color interpretation he initially saw it in. This will happen because some photoreceptors will have a “temporary failure”; they will later recover.

Experts report that such color illusions happen to a person all the time, but he does not notice them. You can check the true color of an object in a photograph using an image editor program, for example, using Photoshop, turning on/off the controversial shades. Some people's eyes ignore blue shades in certain lighting, while others ignore yellow ones. If a person saw a black and blue dress in a photo, then his eyes ignore yellow shades, and if a white and gold dress - blue.

Checking the real color of a dress in Photoshop (video):

Scottish singer Caitlin McNeill posted a photo of the dress on Tumblr with the question: what color is the dress? White and gold or black and blue?

People's opinions are divided: some believe that the color of the dress is blue and black, others - white and gold.

Celebrities added fuel to the fire:) Taylor Swift tweeted that the dress was blue and black:

I don"t understand this odd dress debate and I feel like it"s a trick somehow. I"m confused and scared. PS it"s OBVIOUSLY BLUE AND BLACK

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West believe: white with gold and black with blue, respectively:

What color is that dress? I see white & gold. Kanye sees black & blue, who is color blind?

Photographer Hope Taylor(Hope Taylor) helped to understand this issue using Adobe Lightroom.

If you make the color of the image “warm”, then the dress will look like white and gold, but if the color is “cold”, then the dress will become blue and black:

Given the lighting conditions in which the original photograph was taken, the color debate has a clear answer: dress color blue and black.

The phenomenon of different color perception is interesting. There are theories that this may be due to a number of factors, including the person’s age, lighting, background color, etc.

And here's what this dress looks like in the store:

The Amazon online store also confirmed the black and blue color of the dress: