Our Perception of Color

While wandering the Internet, between kitten videos and political rants, I found “The Dress”.  Link after link, hashtag after hashtag, #thedress.  I relented and looked at what was causing all the fuss.  Something about a dress that some people see as white and gold, where others view it as blue and black; how different could these hues be?  Yet to others it changes colors.

So there I found myself staring at this bright white and gold dress.  I scrolled through the article and read a shallow but enjoyable description about how we view colors and white balance.  As I scrolled back up the page, I couldn’t find the original image of the white and gold dress; now there was a black and purple dress!  Finally something on the Internet that surprised me.

You can wander around the Net and find plenty of information about “The Dress” and it acts as a nice reminder for photographers, everyone sees things differently.  After leading many photo workshops I’ve seen this at work when a group of photographers all go to the same location.  The same scene is in front of everyone, but the person behind the camera sees something different as they press the shutter.  This is one of the reasons why I have photographs of locations I’ve visited, taken by other photographers, hanging on the walls of my house.  There have been many a critique session where I have seen two students like the other person’s photo better than their own. 

I’m glad we all see the dress differently.