What the Camera Sees

When we take a photograph with a digital camera (as in this case), does the camera reproduce what we see, or what is actually in the scene? One element of photography that is always of concern is the dynamic range of the camera, and the scene we are photographing. The eye can see an equivalent of about 24 "stops", while the camera can see only 14 to 16 "stops". So the camera does not reproduce the actual scene as it is, in most cases. If the scene does have a very narrow dynamic range then the camera does come closer to doing that. Because the eye is so much more capable of seeing such a wide dynamic range, we can become disappointed when we see the final outcome of a photograph that we have taken. I used to believe that I needed to have a "better camera" because my pictures were so awful. Not only did I not understand the aspect of dynamic range, I also did not know how to actually expose a picture properly, and I always chose the "auto" mode, believing that the camera would know how to expose the shot properly. In some cases a good exposure can result, especially with today's modern cameras, but in situations of high contrast, it is very unlikely that the camera will know how to expose the scene properly. Dynamic range and proper exposure are just a few aspects of this topic.