I've often wondered if we do a disservice to recommend paint colors based on photos of someone's home. We just see one snapshot in time. There's so much that we don't know about their lighting and the rest of their home. I've learned to refrain from giving any color opinion, especially since everyone takes cell phone/iPad photos now.

I have seen it on TV and on my ipad this morning, and I have seen it both ways! Why?! And when I'm seeing it as gold and white, I absolutely cannot fathom why it might be blue and black. And vice versa. Oh, and now I'm seeing it as light blue and brown. No, I did not spike my coffee this morning.

Initially I thought it wasa monitor issue but it is not. It is how each person perceives color differently issue. I asked five people to view the dress on the same device. 2 saw dark blue with brown, 2 saw light blue almost white with brown and the last saw white and gold.

It looks lavender with brown trim, to me. No way is it showing up white and gold. DH says blue/brown.

Roarah, that's very interesting, showing it to five people on the same device. If it is a personal perception issue, no wonder I can't find the right greige.

May_flowers, I don't think it's doing a disservice to suggest colors here; I think most people who read about decorating on the web know it's just a starting point, and everyone's mileage varies. It's at least a push in the right direction, many times.

I can only see white and gold. Have been staring at it from all kinds of angles.

Can anybody see it both ways?OK, so if I stare at the screen and scroll up and down, I can sort of see the white become a lavender and the lace a darker gold/brown, but I'm still far from blue and black.

Link to the real dress?

Yes, this one I can clearly see in a cobalt blue and black lace.

"—Blue and Black: In conclusion, your retina's
cones are more high functioning, and this results in your eyes doing
subtractive mixing.

—White and Gold: our eyes don't work well in dim
light so our retinas rods see white, and this makes them less light
sensitive, causing additive mixing, (that of green and red), to make
gold."

And this user says he turned his phone's brightness from low to high and saw the colors switching.

So give that a shot, maybe."

Lol, just walked through the kitchen, and this dress and color question is on Fox News! Apparently this question is tearing the country apart.

Dr. Siegal ageed with the above, and said we see it differently because it's a matter of rods and cones, and we all have differing amounts. He also said the dress is really blue and black (as shown in nosoccermom's link above.)

I tried fiddling with my contrast on my monitor, but I can't lose the blue no matter what.

I kind of like the sound of "high functioning cones." There isn't much of me that is high functioning anymore, so I'm greatly cheered.

Read the dress reviews and laugh. And go to Snopes to see how this got started.

Nosoccermom, I see it both ways, but I can't control it! On the same device, too.

I look at photos online, and I'll see a nice pale grey and decide to copy it. But I don't ask what that exact shade of grey is, I'll look at local samples to find something that looks similar to me to what *I* see in the photo online.

Last night I arrived late for the dress discussion. I'll go on record as saying I see it as white and gold *in the image I was shown* all blown out and over adjusted. Anyone can do that with Levels. When you look at the two versions (and they are two separate versions) you can tell something's awry by looking at the audience off to the right. The white/gold version is totally wrong. I don't think it's an optical illusion at all, just mischief with editing software.

The interesting thing, however, is how different people looking at the same image on the same monitor see different things!

Linelle, people are looking at the SAME IMAGE and seeing different colours. DH is one of those people. He looks at it, sees white & gold. He looks away for a few minutes, then goes back to the same image on the same device, and sees black & blue. I have looked at a couple versions of the picture next to each other and see different levels. But it can't be explained by adjusting levels.

Robo and amber said what we experienced in our household. DH and I looked at the same image on the news and he saw black/blue while I saw gold/white. Both DDs could look at the same image on twitter, from the same angles and with no change in settings and see it differently if they looked away and looked back. It never changes for me though.

Okay, I believe you. I've just seen two photos side by side. I'm not even experiencing an after-image thing like when you stare at a red shape, look away, and see a green image.

Why this image of this dress? If white/gold is wrong (and the blown out audience to the right), why am I not seeing other things wrong as well?

Linelle maybe it's because most things in life, like wall paint color, are not quite as (wait for it) black and white? Seriously! We discuss and dissect nuances of color all the time here - this is different but I can't scientifically tell you why. I've read the rods and cones thing - whatever! My husband and I look at the pictures at the same time, different times of day and night, different screen brightness, different room light, on the same device and he sees deep purple/blue and black lace every time while i see white and gold every time. The only time I see the blue/black is with the picture of the mother of the bride at the wedding. I believe there's something in the specific lighting at the time the photo was taken that's causing this, otherwise I'd see the one at the wedding as white and gold, too.

That's my completely unscientific explanation and I'm sticking to it!

There is a thread about this on conversations too titled "White and gold or black and blue?"

DD has shown me some hilarious posts on twitter where this topic has morphed into parodies of the responses and battles people are having over the colors.

DLM - The same perception difference for me and DH!

DLM, I get it. We see things differently. We appreciate things differently. I would never buy paint based on an online view. I get undertones and how light affects color perception.

The dress. Why this photo of this dress? Are we all seeing the rest of life so differently? Some of us see light and bright while at the same time others are seeing a nightscape?

Linelle - that is the really interesting question.

BTW, you look exactly like my cat :)

I had the same question (are we all seeing the rest of life so differently?)

The doc on TV implied that our color perception changes as we age, which is another complicating factor. He said blues are more difficult to see for some older people (I'm sure it varies a lot, from one person to the next.) That made me think about how my grandmother began loving very hot pinks and vibrant oranges, when she got into her mid-80s. Possibly, to her, these colors were the same as the colors she had liked all her life...but to us they seemed much brighter.

The whole topic of color perception is so interesting. My Dad was colorblind so I grew up thinking about some of this.

Color is purely subjective.

And, yes, posting digital swatches of paint chips on the forum is absolutely ridiculous.

But people have done it here for years and will continue to do it.

Even tho it's been discussed a million times that online digital color does not mimic in real life color in any way whatsoever, many still choose to believe in the fairy tale that a digital image of color can somehow, some way represent in real life paint colors.

As far as the dress debate:

Color is subjective. If you see it as white and gold, then it is white and gold. If you see it as blue and black, then it is blue and black. It's 100% perception which is a mix of individual color acuity, viewing conditions and color capabilities of the camera that captured the image and the different monitors/screens rendering the image.

The objective color reality of the dress can only be confirmed by measuring the colors with a device, like colorimeter or spectrophotometer. Take a measurement of actual wavelengths and then compute that data into a hue value/chroma color notation. A hue value/chroma color notation is the one and only objective way to identify and communicate what the true colors are.

I think this dress is the anomaly and most other colors in life are perceived within a much more narrow scope although there are exceptions as with color blindness. But most of us look at a red sofa and see a red sofa. Some may pick out nuances of color within that red that others don't see or the same sofa looks great in a dimly lit cozy room but screams with magenta undertones in a sunlit white room. Those are the kinds of differences we grapple with all the time here. That dress, however is a different animal. I wish funcolors would chime in on this - or have I missed her response?

Aha!! there you are Lori!! cross posted with you - But what color do YOU see the dress as???

Hey Lori, I was hoping you'd chime in.

What if a photo of the many-hued dress were to be printed out on a properly calibrated-to-monitor printer. Is that possible, give or take? Then someone used colorimeter or spectrophotometer to get a reading. What would the numbers tell us? Would the blue/black and white/gold perceptions both be right? Wouldn't the numbers no longer be subjective?

I have no idea what I'm talking about. :P

I look like remodelorbuild's cat.

Both.

If you stare at the lower left, dark spots the dress will grow more blue and black. If you stare at the upper right white spot of the glare the dress gets whiter and more gold. It's the same color constancy function of the eye/brain visual system that allows you to see a banana as yellow no matter if the light in the room is very bright or very dim.

From experience we know bananas are yellow. We have no experience or reference for the dress.

Changing what you are looking at right before you look at the dress will change how you see it. Which is why it appears white and gold to some people at first glance, then changes to either the black and blue or a periwinkle and bronzy gold.

It's such a conundrum because of the unique overexposure of the image and the extreme range of white points, lower left and upper right, that exist within the same, very small area. It's not a 'normal' color/light puzzle our eye/brain vision system has been practiced to solve and because it's just an image of a random dress, and unlike a banana, we don't have a reference on file in our brains to provide an answer.

So, different eye/brain vision systems are going to find different ways to solve the puzzle. Which is why some people solve it as white and gold and some solve it as black and blue.

Again, why hue value/chroma color notations are so important. They are an objective benchmark for us to compare how we're perceiving color.

I hope I'm not becoming obnoxious about this. :) Same image, same perceiver, same viewing medium.

I pulled up an image of the dress and pushed my monitor back at an angle. Perception: Black/blue

Then I pulled my monitor towards me, same image. Perception: White/gold.

Yep. Changing viewing conditions, change perception.

What if a photo of the many-hued dress were to be printed out on a properly calibrated-to-monitor printer.

The result would depend on the color gamut of the printer doing the printing. Gamut is like a bucket. Different printers have different buckets of color to use to print images. So, the resulting printed image would be more of a representation of the printer's color gamut (or bucket of colors it has to work with) than the photo of the dress.

Cameras have gamuts too. Usually called color space. And you can often set the color space you want your camera to use to take pictures. It's like having different sizes of buckets of color to choose from - ranging from small, medium to large.

I'm sure this photo was taken with a camera set to the factory default color space settings - a really small bucket of colors to work with. So it's not like the original photo did a good job of capturing the 'color reality' of the dress to begin with.

@Linelle.
And, yes, I too see these two images you posted as blue and black (no 1) and white and gold (no 2) --- which obviously doesn't make sense if it's all subjective and depends on my color rods.

Check out the this scientific explanation.

Subjectivity isn't only about the human vision system involved.

Color perception is a mix of individual color acuity, viewing conditions, and color capabilities of the camera that captured the image and the different monitors/screens rendering the image.

Linelle changed the viewing conditions - she moved the monitor which altered how the image can be perceived.

I've always wondered if what I perceive as "green" is the same as what everyone else perceives as "green". I know that grass is green, because it looks the same to me as the green colour squares I was shown in kindergarten. But does everyone else see green the same way I do?

And assuming we all see it differently, do we all have the same favourite colour? If my favourite colour is blue, and my husband's favourite colour is red, is it because we are seeing blue and red the same way? If he could see blue through my eyes, would he see it as red?

Linelle, I thought the same thing at first. But DH sees both, and he says it's different from the way it changes when he moves the screen.

Well, there are the old experiments by Sapir Whorff, who found that whether we have a name for a color will affect whether we see it. For instance, there are language that don't distinguish between yellow and red, and people have a hard time distinguishing between the two. Or people who see numbers or sounds as colors (synesthesia, chromestesia)

I encourage everyone to watch at least the first few minutes of this video. This is why I was not surprised yesterday to learn a dress I saw as gold and yellow was actually black and blue.

Color names are incredibly powerful and influential. They are a mighty sword to wield. I just finished a color rebranding project for a mattress company. I chose a dark teal for their brand color. I named it 'midnight teal' because it spoke directly to their business. In certain circles the color would be called something like peacock blue. But that color name would not have helped me convince my client that the color I chose was the best fit. Whereas midnight teal did.

Amber, I have often wondered if we all perceive color differently. I see the sky as my perception of blue but maybe DH's perception of blue is how I see pink. I guess I overthink things but glad to see I'm not alone.

Or people who see numbers or sounds as colors (synesthesia, chromestesia) Really, other people do this? My kids insist that certain numbers have corresponding colors, (yet they'll argue which numbers are which colors.) I thought they were just a little goofy. : ) Now you've all got me wondering if they think a number is a different color because they're perceiving those colors uniquely. Ugh. Or maybe it's all because a math major and an art major fell in love. sigh...

In our house it had nothing to do with monitors, viewing angles or anything else like that. It was a more profound optical illusion than that and persisted across platforms, brightness, viewing conditions, etc. My brain persists on seeing the dress as lit by bluish daylight.

I use photos from the Internet in lieu of buying one million paint samples and it seems to go ok. For example, I recently decided to paint my dining room gold. II start googling Ben moore golds, I thought my Stuart gold paint chip looked pretty good but when I look at Stuart good rooms online they are glaringly yellow. Bam, $8 saved. I'll still have to buy five samples but otherwise I'd be looking at 15.

I see both of Linelle's pics as blue and black. I've never seen the white and gold yet, from any device, on any website, from any angle, in any lighting. Always blue and black.

I first read about the dress on another forum, and commented there, but I saw the lighter picture as a silvery-gray and gold. After seeing the blue/black version, I scrolled back, and now see the first pic as more periwinkle and bronze/brown.

I've commented before that I don't decorate with anything in the blue range, and maybe that's because of how my aging eyes perceive the color (or evidently barely perceive it). I occasionally wear blue, especially the more lavender/periwinkle shades, but I can change my shirt more easily than I can change my couch or the color on my walls. Now when I wear a pretty light-blue shirt, I'll wonder if I appear a little bolder than I intend.

I thought my Stuart gold paint chip looked pretty good but when I look at Stuart good rooms online they are glaringly yellow. Bam, $8 saved.

Or because you trusted what you saw online vs. a chip in your hand and a sample in your own space, you missed out on a legitimate contender for a pretty gold. Because you have zero information about the quality of the actual photo, the camera used, the lighting or how the file was saved for the web - or even if the paint color was correctly identified.

I can't say it enough, that there is absolutely nothing about viewing color on a monitor that is trustworthy or useful.

Now when I wear a pretty light-blue shirt, I'll wonder if I appear a little bolder than I intend.

The dress photo is a freaky coincidence where all the right factors aligned to create an unusual context for a visual illusion. Which is very different from our normal, everyday context for the colors around us.

naturalpalette, I understand that some see it one way, some the other, and others end up seeing it both ways. That's with a single photo and nothing else with which to compare it. What about this photo? Do you still see them all as blue/black?

Those three photos illustrate the color combos that I saw--the fabric in the first is silvery-gray, the second is periwinkle, and the third is more of a royal blue. But silver, periwinkle and royal might mean something different to each of us.

Linelle, they do all appear blue and black to me, although the first two seem over-lit.

From left to right, the photos are progressively more vivid.

I still couldn't call them anything but blue and black.

So interesting that so many of my friends see white and gold. I'd like to see it in white and gold just once!

Or because you trusted what you saw online vs. a chip in your hand and a sample in your own space, you missed out on a legitimate contender for a pretty gold. Because you have zero information about the quality of the actual photo, the camera used, the lighting or how the file was saved for the web - or even if the paint color was correctly identified.

I can't say it enough, that there is absolutely nothing about viewing color on a monitor that is trustworthy or useful.

Anything's possible of course but I think tell ten or so photos I looked at that all told the same story...were likely telling a similar story. I need all the help I can get and online research is the second tool in the toolbox after my fandecks. I look for multiple photos of any color I'm considering and use them to help me narrow down my options, since I'm not inclined to put up a million samples, especially since I'm now paying $10 a sample (!!!) Once my options are a bit narrower, I go to tool 3, start sampling. Unfortunately I can't commit to every chip... I'm now on my fourth gold sample...$40 down the drain already, and I haven't even lifted up a roller, all from small chips I thought looked perfectly nice in the space. I have an unfortunate combo of good color sensitivity and pickiness with low prediction of how a paint chip will translate to an entire room. And laziness over painting, which I detest.

Our family was together and saw this on TV (same TV at the same time). DH, DS and I saw white and gold. MIL in her eighties saw light gray and brown. FIL who is also in his eighties (but is legally blind) saw blue and black. According to the internet the dress is actually blue and black. Strange.

I like seeing suggestions for paint colours from GWbers and pics of rooms with the suggested colour. I like the advice of what goes with what, and the descriptions of undertones, etc. Then I can go to the store and pick up the chips, sample pots, etc.

Linelle, to me, the first photo is Gold & White, the second, a darker/ less bright gold & white and the third Blue & Black. Turn my head and my monitor as I did, there were no other colours which I saw.

What a great correlation to make reg picking colours off the internet.

My story has a happy ending anyway as sample #4 is a winner (concord ivory).

Main topic of conversation at coffee hour after church was not the sermon, but this wretched dress. I even pulled up on my iPhone my post here of the three dresses in a row for illustration. Like it or not, the consensus was, it's a trick and eye cones and rods be damned. :D

robo, I hesitate to comment on posts for reasons I won't go into. You mentioned Stuart Gold, I had a hallway painted in Stuart Gold in one of our previous homes and while I liked in certain light it was a little harsh at times. I sought out the perfect yellow/gold and came across Concord Ivory. I almost mentioned it to you last night but decided not to. It is the perfect yellow, soft and rich without being harsh. It has been one of my favorite colours ever since. Good Luck! I hope you love it.

Thanks old house! So far my sample has looked great in all lights so I'm crossing my fingers :) Love to hear a positive review (even though I know light/context is different for everyone). I shied away from yellow BC my room is windowless but I think this is strong enough to be fine.

Linelle I overheard conversations about the dress out in public today in three different locations! I kinda like it when something takes the world by storm though, almost reminds me of the days when everyone would watch and discuss the same TV shows.

Lori, thank you for the interesting explanation. I first saw the dress as white and gold, perhaps because when I pulled up the page only the top part of the dress was showing. After reading your post, I scrolled down so only the bottom part of the dress was showing, looked away, and looked back. Presto! Blue and black.

It's freaky. If someone tried to create an illusion like that, they'd never do it. So it is quite amazing.

This is the best, most accurate and easiest to understand explanation of the dress meme. https://creativemarket.com/blog/2015/02/28/how-we-see-color-and-yes-the-dress/

Everything else I've seen is incorrect, IMHO. Especially explanations that are chalking it up to metamerism. Metamerism is actually quite simple and involves two colors with differing spectral distributions (or color fingerprints) that look identical to each other under one light source but do not look at all similar under other sources of light.

The dress thing is not metamerism. There's a lot more at play than that.

It must be a realllllly S-L-O-W news day/days or perhaps a lot of people simply need a break from hearing and seeing the mess our world is in. I saw this on tv last night and thought it must be a joke. But, I agree, never by paint from a picture on the internet :) It's white and gold :) You can take the image into PhotoShop and make it any color you want with a few simple adjustments.