# What color is this dress? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 27, 2015, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742 "2015-02-27T02:07:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/161 "2015-02-27T17:25:47Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > For example, > > [What color is this blanket?](http://www.pawinskiphotography.com/public/blanket1.jpg) > > [Here it is under white light.](http://www.pawinskiphotography.com/public/blanket2.jpg) She’s a witch! I say we burn her!!! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/162 "2015-02-27T17:27:11Z")
> [@Malden\_Capell](#): > > xkcd’s image is still not doing it for me: the left-hand image’s dress is clearly a lighter colour than the blue in the central bar, as is the ‘gold’ neck and collar a different shade from the central bar. Nope, try opening it in an editing app like PS or GIMP and compare with the eyedropper. Same 2 colours, all around. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/163 "2015-02-27T17:27:43Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yes, and I’ve already said the colors are objectively a periwinkle, not white, and bronze, not black, so neither the “white and gold” or “blue and black” camps are objectively correct. I’ve also explained why some folks would see the first and others the latter. There’s no mystery here, as far as I’m concerned. > > No, I would say blue. Not sure how in all my posts you got the idea that I would say white. My very first post says: “It looks like bluish-white and mustard to me” and I agree with the “I see periwinkle and bronze” comment in my very next comment. Sorry, I think I got you confused with another poster here. Anyway, thanks for the explanations. I still think, however, that the color black is nowhere on that dress in the photo. Bronze, gold, burnt orange, pretty much all the same color. Black, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/164 "2015-02-27T17:29:29Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > It’s gotten to the point where people won’t trust any photo and must see the item firsthand. Unless you are using a known target, like an [X-Rite color chart](http://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?id=1192) and color calibrating to that, or dealing with a photographer who knows how to accurately color balance, this is probably a good thing. (Plus you need to have the monitor you are looking at color calibrated, and you have to make sure there is no weirdness going on with color spaces, which is a bit more of an advanced topic.) I would never trust a cell phone or point and shoot camera from a random user to give me accurate enough information to make a color judgment. Besides, anything where color matching is important, like decor and the like, I would need to see the item in person to accurately gauge it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/165 "2015-02-27T17:30:33Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Sorry, I think I got you confused with another poster here. Anyway, thanks for the explanations. I still think, however, that the color black is nowhere on that dress in the photo. Bronze, gold, burnt orange, pretty much all the same color. Black, not so much. I agree. Even in the darkest photos on the Wired article, I still see dark brown, and not black, and Photoshop confirms. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/166 "2015-02-27T17:51:49Z")
I’m still trying to understand how people see it as white and gold. Even turning my laptop screen up, it still looks like a (washed out) dark blue and black. Squinting at the lightest picture in that article, if that’s gold trim, it’s the ugliest gold I’ve ever seen - it looks like the River Ankh or something. And to everyone who thinks the black and blue people are trolling, it’s [the actual color of the dress](http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00SJEUCWU/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00SJEUCWU&linkCode=as2&tag=wwwmirrorcouk-21&linkId=S2EAERDQNXV2CWQC). (The reviews on it are great). If Iran or North Korea gets in on the debate, this could spark off WWIII . . . 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/167 "2015-02-27T17:55:38Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Put me in the white and gold group. There’s no possible way for me to see blue or black. I’ve seen the picture in many different media sites. > > You blue and black people concern me. > [@davidw](#): > > The dress was so obviously blue and black to me. There was no ambiguity. It really did feel like people were involved in some big joke when they were saying white and gold. Yeah, people are adamant. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/168 "2015-02-27T17:58:17Z")
If this were a marketing stunt, it hit it out of the ballpark. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/169 "2015-02-27T18:02:32Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > I’m still trying to understand how people see it as white and gold. Even turning my laptop screen up, it still looks like a (washed out) dark blue and black. Squinting at the lightest picture in that article, if that’s gold trim, it’s the ugliest gold I’ve ever seen - it looks like the River Ankh or something. > > And to everyone who thinks the black and blue people are trolling, it’s [the actual color of the dress](http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00SJEUCWU/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00SJEUCWU&linkCode=as2&tag=wwwmirrorcouk-21&linkId=S2EAERDQNXV2CWQC). (The reviews on it are great). > > If Iran or North Korea gets in on the debate, this could spark off WWIII . . . 😛 It’s possible that the vactual dress has those colors, and it’s possible the camera has a weird rersponse, and peo0ple’s expectations are what they are. But the real issue here is what colors appear to be present in that photograph. I don’t know exactly why, since I don’t know the history of the recording and preserving of that image, but there is no way that the light blue that appears in the controversial photograph is the same as the deep royal blue in the Amazon ad. And there’s no way that the decorative bands on the dress in the photograph that srted this look like the undoubted black in the amazon ad. If you put that ad in front of people and asked them the colors, I have no doubt that people would respond “blue and black” (excedpt for the jokers who would say “white and gold” just to mess with you). but the colors of the original dress don’t really help in talking about the colors in the photograph. I could photograph that dress under red light and it’d all look black. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/170 "2015-02-27T18:04:03Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > I’m still trying to understand how people see it as white and gold. Even turning my laptop screen up, it still looks like a (washed out) dark blue and black. Squinting at the lightest picture in that article, if that’s gold trim, it’s the ugliest gold I’ve ever seen - it looks like the River Ankh or something. > > And to everyone who thinks the black and blue people are trolling, it’s [the actual color of the dress](http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00SJEUCWU/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00SJEUCWU&linkCode=as2&tag=wwwmirrorcouk-21&linkId=S2EAERDQNXV2CWQC). (The reviews on it are great). > > If Iran or North Korea gets in on the debate, this could spark off WWIII . . . 😛 Here’s a photo that may help you understand the [white and gold](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-0LDgSUIAEivoH.jpg) camp. Basically, under different lighting conditions with more surrounding references as influence the dress will look like it’s originally white/gold but appearing under shadow (tinting it blue). (compare the shadow of the white llama to the “shadowed” dress). Thing is, there’s no contour shading on the dress picture as it’s flat, and barely any other reference, so people are going one way or the other by gut instinct. I couldn’t even tell the colors were so overexposed so I assumed that what I saw is what it is. What I find a little odd is that people can’t “see” the literal colors of what’s in the photograph and without even thinking about it their brain is trying to aim for “but what color is this dress _really_, assuming different lighting conditions?”. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/171 "2015-02-27T18:18:47Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > But: Serious question… > > Has anyone here ever seen, say, an animal you didn’t recognize at first so your brain and eyes said “Dog” and then another part of your brain “that’s no dog” and then **you felt slightly sick to your stomach** and finally everyone got their shit together and said “Oh. That’s the biggest opossum I’ve ever seen.” > > That moment of queasiness, is there a word for it? “As I bit into the nectarine, it had a crisp juiciness about it that was very pleasurable - until I realized it wasn’t a nectarine at all, but A HUMAN HEAD!” -Jack Handy ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/172 "2015-02-27T18:22:27Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > I’m still trying to understand how people see it as white and gold. Even turning my laptop screen up, it still looks like a (washed out) dark blue and black. Similarly, those of us who see periwinkle and mustard/bronze or white and gold can’t understand how the “black” part of the dress can be interpreted as black or a neutral gray. It’s not even close to that color in the photograph, and it’s especially evident if you see it in isolation. Seriously, no matter how hard I try I can’t see that as black. The “white” part definitely looks blue–there’s no question about that for me. But how can the color in the [top left](http://www.pawinskiphotography.com/public/swatch.jpg) be characterized as “black”? Color perception is a funny thing. Like I said before, all three answers are “correct,” depending on what your brain is doing. And there are reports of the colors switching for many people. Reminds me a little of that young lady/old woman optical illusion, or of the spinning human figure optical illusions (where some see it spinning clockwise, others counter, and for many, it depends on when they look at it) except with colors. It’s not exactly the same thing, of course, but it’s similar in the sense that two people could be looking at [exactly the same spinning figure](http://www.maniacworld.com/Spinning-Silhouette-Optical-Illusion.htm%22l), with one swearing it’s going clockwise, and the other counter-clockwise. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/173 "2015-02-27T18:36:28Z")
After doing research, yes, it’s a black and blue dress. That being said, it looked 100% white and gold to me at first glance. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/174 "2015-02-27T18:42:36Z")
And, apparently, I still got the coding wrong, despite the edit. Let’s try [again](http://www.maniacworld.com/Spinning-Silhouette-Optical-Illusion.html). I swear, I’m not usually this much of an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/175 "2015-02-27T18:54:54Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I actually did learn something from this. Someone posted an explanation on Twitter that had to do with blue light having the shortest wavelengths. I’d always understood it to be the other way around - that blue light had the long wavelengths and red had the shortest wavelengths. But a minute’s worth of Googling and reading showed that I’d had it backwards for the past 50+ years. > > But I could swear that in elementary school, we were taught that \*red \*light had the short wavelengths, while blue was long, and that tied in with a number of other things, like why all the red at sunset, or why you can only see things a few feet away by the light of your clock radio with the red time display, but a similar clock with a blue time display will illuminate the entire room, or why police cars changed their lights from red to blue back in the 1960s and 1970s. > > Who knows whether I remember correctly - due to **Smapti** ’s music threads, I’ve been forced to realize that my memories of hearing CCR’s “Proud Mary” on the radio during the summer of 1968 had to be false. So I could be misremembering this as well. But I’d be interested to know if anyone else ‘learned’ in school back in the 1960s that red light had the short wavelengths. Frequency is inverse of wavelength, so that blue has the highest frequency (more waves per unit of time or distance) and red is lower. Is that what you’re thinking of? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/176 "2015-02-27T18:58:04Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Do this: > > - [Go here to this article on Buzzfeed](http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/17-things-only-people-who-see-the-blue-dress-will-understand#.wxgMVj1ZZ) (randomly selected from the DOZENS of goddamn dress-related articles today) > - Scroll down to #16, the angry panda (ugh, Buzzfeed you make me sound like a moron!) and put the panda gif at the top of your screen, so that #15 (the dress) is off the top of the screen > - Slowly scroll UP to reveal the dress picture (on the right) a little bit at a time, from the bottom up. > > Does that look blue & black to you? > > I am in the “white and gold at first glance” camp but when I see it from the bottom up I definitely see the blue. I’m blocked from that site at work. I’ll try tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/177 "2015-02-27T19:20:21Z")
I see dark gold and light, dim blue. Seriously, how can you see anything else? [Look at this! How are you not seeing this?](http://oi61.tinypic.com/27ymy34.jpg) This prank the whole internet is playing on me has gone long enough. You can all stop now. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/178 "2015-02-27T19:21:49Z")
To me there are a few interesting things about this: 1. That several people could stand around the same monitor and report different colors. 2. That I could say it was white and gold, scroll down to read comments, then scroll back up and have the dress be blue and black. 3. If you look at the image and see it as white and gold and then squint your eyes, it will turn blue and black. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/179 "2015-02-27T19:24:37Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > I’m still trying to understand how people see it as white and gold. Even turning my laptop screen up, it still looks like a (washed out) dark blue and black. Squinting at the lightest picture in that article, if that’s gold trim, it’s the ugliest gold I’ve ever seen - it looks like the River Ankh or something. Hey, you’re the color of magic, you’ve got an unfair advantage in this discussion! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742/180 "2015-02-27T19:28:08Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Similarly, those of us who see periwinkle and mustard/bronze or white and gold can’t understand how the “black” part of the dress can be interpreted as black or a neutral gray. It’s not even close to that color in the photograph, and it’s especially evident if you see it in isolation. Seriously, no matter how hard I try I can’t see that as black. The “white” part definitely looks blue–there’s no question about that for me. But how can the color in the [top left](http://www.pawinskiphotography.com/public/swatch.jpg) be characterized as “black”? The black isn’t because of the flat color, though, it’s because of the gradient. I took a bunch of random samples from the black parts of the dress: [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/sPLeDNB.png "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/sPLeDNB) All the colors are clearly on a gradient from a washed out yellow to a deep brown, but since the whole room is washed out it’s obvious (to me) that it’s a washed out black. Hell, there’s a curtain in the background of the photo most people agree has black cow-like spots, and the browns in that curtain are almost the same as the dress. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-color-is-this-dress/713742.md?page=10)