Human eye still amazes me over cameras

[mtbdudex]

I’m 63 years old, been amateur photographer since , well 1981 I’d say, my B&W college class started me out.
Seen so much change, innovation, etc.

After all that, here’s my take:
Human eye still amazes me over cameras, yep.

Ability to focus, blend light & dark seamlessly(rods n cones individual ISO ability or brain imaging memory trick?), other.

Simply my iPhone 17 pro I took these 2 pictures , exposure and focus different .
My eyes / brain sees both “proper”, instantly.

Yea, I could blend them, etc.
I know that, just .. us humans, kinda cool.

 

[mollyc]

it’s actually more the brain that causes this. the eyeballs are just sort of a receptor but your brain is basically a big algorithm drawing on millions of previous instances to create an image that is “correct.”

 

[Slartibart]

neuroscientist specialised in vision science here: as @mollyc indicated, it is your brain. on eye level it is actually a quite bad designed camera… engineers actually do better. 🤓

(to give some context: photoreceptors are actually located behind various cell layers through which light has to path before hitting them; there is a asymmetric density gradient of photoreceptors over the retina; sharp vision happens only in the fovea; and more

 

[drrich2]

Ability to focus, blend light & dark seamlessly

Human vision has a bit of a 'cheat' function compared to what a camera renders. At least this is my understanding.

When I first look at your first photo, I don't necessarily perceive the whole scene at once. My eyes are instinctively drawn to big, contrasty highlights like that window with bright snow in the background. My eyes adjust 'exposure' to render that appropriately without blown highlights, and since my vision and attention are focused on that, I don't really notice right away if the rest of the photo loses shadow detail while I'm looking at the bright part.

My curiosity about the big, bright section satisfied, I then aim my vision at other, darker parts of the scene, and my body adjusts exposure so it, too, looks appropriate. This happens fast enough I don't consciously realize it.

Unlike our eyes, the camera can't re-take a new 'photo' (image) of the scene every time our eyes dart about looking at different parts. The camera has to take a one time photo comprising the whole seen, which will be judged by how it looks to a human. The camera can't adjust exposure up and down after-the-fact as we look at different parts, to compensate for blown highlights and lost shadow detail.

All that said, human visual compensation is impressive. I recall hearing this makes things look more 'normal' under fluorescent lighting, but a photo of the same scene can look 'off' because our brains don't instinctively compensate looking at a photo of a scene taken under fluorescent lighting.