Is it turquoise or pink? This shoe sparks another internet debate
By: Stephen Brokalis
Jr. Layout Editor
In 2015 a tremendous internet debate ensued over the color of a dress. There has been many oddly colored objects that have sparked numerous debates since then.
In the past weeks a picture of a shoe has surfaced and divided the internet once again. Some say it has turquoise accents with grey surfaces and others say white accents with pink surfaces. In the end, who is right? How can you tell what color it actually is?
To start we can easily check what color the image is by using Adobe Photoshop. I took numerous samples from different parts of the shoe. The laces have a mixture of blue and green which creates the shade of turquoise and the surfaces of the shoe are 11% darker than white with light shades of turquoise creating a shade of grey.
Now that settles the debate but is that the original color of the shoe?
Depending on the object, there can be many different theories and explanations of what is causing the confusion. To grasp what is happening with the shoe, the viewer needs to understand the fundamentals of white balance.
White balance is how accurately the color white is represented. There are many mediums that have to adjust for white balance including our own eyes, cameras and other photosensitive devices.
Specifically with cameras, they need to balance warm vs. cold and green vs. purple. By adjusting these values you can capture an accurate version of white. For example, in a orange-lit room the camera has to add blue to accurately capture the image.
According to some sources the original shoe was white and pink, so why does the shoe look turquoise and grey in the image?
The answer is the flash from the camera. By analyzing the image it is obvious it was taken using a flash. The LEDs used in some smartphone flashes emit a blue hue. In this situation the smartphone failed to correctly adjust the white balance, resulting in a cold image. The blue hue caused the white laces to become turquoise, pink to become light grey.
Today we can use programs like Adobe Lightroom to adjust white balance after a photo has been taken. Correcting the white balance in the image returns the shoe to the original pink and white colors.
This brings up the final point: why do we see the image differently?
My theory is that the answer is geared towards white balance and how we perceive it. Our eyes and brain can actually make adjustments similar to white balance which enables us to accurately see color in many different circumstances. For example, when wearing a colored shade of sunglasses, our eyes adjust to see colors correctly even though our vision is being distorted. Our eyes can even adjust the color in multiple parts of our vision to make specific objects look natural.
When some people look at the shoe their mind automatically corrects the white balance for them, resulting in the turquoise and grey image appearing pink and white. Other factors like environmental lighting, screen brightness and display color calibration can also impact how people see the image. Others speculate it could have something to do with which side of our brain is dominant.
Even in all the confusion, this shoe is yet another example of our eyes working in amazing and mysterious ways. This shows how cameras are very similar to our eyes in the way they perceive and manipulate light to create a visible image.