[masraum]

Ok, yesterday I pulled the article up on the BBC website. The first time that I looked at the pic in the article, it was very, VERY plainly white and gold. The white looked like it was underexposed due to harsh backlighting which made it look a little bit bluish gray. I got distracted by work and then went back to finish reading the article a bit later, and that time, I thought I was looking at a completely different picture. I even reloaded the page and waited a bit to see if they had used an animated gif to show two different pictures, because the second time, the shot was clearly of a blue and black dress. Same picture, same webpage, same environment, but my brain perceived it completely differently.

The original image is in the middle. At left, white-balanced as if the dress is white-gold. At right, white-balanced to blue-black. swiked

Interesting, my wife hadn't seen/heard of this. I sent her to a website to look at the pic and she saw white and tan/gold. I then changed the lighting in the room and she pulled her glasses off and she saw how it could be blue and black.

The problem to me is clear, it's a crappy cell phone pic, but I have to say, I was shocked, shocked to the point of believing that I was being screwed with at how different the same pic on the same website on the same computer screen at the same desk in the same lighting looked to me when I looked two times but a few mins apart. I think the dress is blue/black, BTW.