Are you questioning your own sanity because of the white/gold or black/blue dress controversy? Is the dress in the image above white and gold or black and blue? As it turns out, people see it differently. Who is right and who is wrong? What is the real color of the dress? And finally, what does it mean if you see it, let’s say, white and gold instead of black and blue? Does it mean you are aging? Does it mean there is something about your perception? Your brain? Your defense mechanisms?
Our perception of colors differ — there is nothing new about that, but to the point of seeing white what is “clearly” black? Could it really be that bad? Even high profile websites got into the game, trying to explain the science behind this phenomenon. Many assured that the dress is really black and blue and, if you see it gold and white, it’s your faulty perception, your aging eyes and something in your brain.
This video was widely accepted as a proof that the dress in the image above is actually black and blue:
We didn’t buy into that. We decided not to rely on our aging eyes and our subjective perception. We aren’t even going to believe the above video — after all, there could be other color variations available or the image itself could be altered. What we did was very simple: we took several color samples using Photoshop Eyedropper tool. You can see the results in the image above.
- The lace appears golden/brownish color, which is perfectly normal if that area of the dress is really golden.
- The lighter areas are bluish, which is also perfectly normal if the dress is really white.
The white color is almost never absolute white (HTML color code #FFFFFF) on this type of photos due to lighting and other elements. Digital artists know that bluish and grayish colors are often used where the white is required and the result will look just right — it will look white.
We included HTML color codes so that you can carry out your own investigation. There is no chance that these HTML samples are wrong. We filled larger rectangles with the sample colors so you can see how different it may look on plain (absolute) white background. What appears to be white on this photo is indeed light blue but that doesn’t mean that the dress is royal blue as shown in the video.
So what is the conclusion? Based on our color test, we would dare to suggest that the dress in this photo is really white and gold, or white and brown. Another possibility is that the image was intentionally altered. What about the video? It could be another dress. What about those who see it black and blue? That is a great question! 🙂