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Cake day: June 30th, 2025

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  • My issue with this illustration vs “the dress” is that in the dress, the background is bright, not a darker blue.

    In theory, this illustration just serves to show that nobody should be seeing “the dress” as white and gold. Thy do, and that breaks my brain, but I still feel that there is no logical way for that to be justified (and yes, I read all the research).



  • RougeEric@lemmy.ziptoOptical Illusions@feddit.nlThe dress
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    2 months ago

    For that to work, the light would have to be exactly behind the dress (it is coming from the top based on what we can see), and the surrounding room dark. Otherwise you get “light bleed” along the sides of any curved object due to reflection and ambient refraction.


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    2 months ago

    But then you would have light bleed around the edges. Unless you are in an extremely dark room, reflection and diffusion would make the curved edges of the dress receive some of that outside light. Yet the floor at the foot of the dress is well lit.

    Back to my original conception of things: understanding of lighting and photography makes the white-gold seem impossible.

    I do not deny that people can instinctually miss these details… But I am surprised that further analysis doesn’t inevitably resolve in these conclusions.




  • RougeEric@lemmy.ziptoOptical Illusions@feddit.nlThe dress
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    2 months ago

    But that only works if you completely disregard the surrounding environment, right?

    Otherwise how do you explain the bright yellow lighting and overexposure? It would have to be blue… like in the example.

    That’s the part I never got. In fact, that illustration seems like the perfect way of pointing out how it should not appear white and gold, based on the surrounding colors.


  • RougeEric@lemmy.ziptoOptical Illusions@feddit.nlThe dress
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    2 months ago

    The right side is white near the top (nearly pure white, likely sunlight overblown by the photo), there is some generally dark clutter with a spot of red, and then a white or pale beige lit with yellow-ish lighting.

    The “beam” is either some light wood, or just the shadow on a ledge; it is made brown-ish because of the yellow lighting’s illumination but lack of exposure to the exterior backlighting.

    The dress on the left is white and black. Made yellow and dark-ish brown-ish by overexposure and strong yellow indoor lighting.


    Fundamentally, and the science points to this, you are likely seeing the environmental yellow as actual colors, and not the result of lighting; which I understand on paper… but I cannot see a scenario where blue lighting would produce a bright yellow when overexposed; even if there is yellow in the actual object colors (because blue-ish light would tarnish the warm colors to light grays or possibly light greens I guess)



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    2 months ago

    I am used to manipulating digital images (photoshop, 3D, etc.). Even in the gifs that supposedly show how people can see both by changing the exposure and warmth, I still see black and blue… just even more overexposed. I do not personally know a single person who manipulates digital images frequently that sees white and gold. (anecdotal)

    I know some people have “shifted” their view at some point… and I still cannot fathom getting this wrong, or changing how it can be seen. Even when scientists break down how it works, my brain just points out the overexposed background and bright yellow lighting, and is convinced roughly 50% of humanity is just trolling.

    The part that kills me is how the dress(?) behind it on the left has the same black and… actual white… and people don’t seem to notice that. How‽

    Edit: to be clear, I am genuinely curious here.