Question Home

Position:Home>Visual Arts> Is there a SLR camera setting equivalent to the human eye?


Question: Is there a SLR camera setting equivalent to the human eye!?
By that I mean, with a certain film ISO speed, at a certain aperture and shutter speed, the film would be exposed just as the human eye sees the world!. If it's bright and sunny, the picture is bright!. If it's overcast, the scene looks subdued, etc!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Simple, non-philosophical answer:
The eye has a field of view approximately the same as the focal length of a "normal" lens (approx!. 50mm in full frame 35mm film)!. Keeping in mind the "sunny 'f' 16 rule," your eye will stop down to accommodate the brighter light on sunny days and open up to accommodate more light in low light situations!. The human eye has no real "focal length" so the iris of your eye relates to the sensitivity of the retina not any real number!. There is no "shutter speed" to contend with as your eyes generally are open for exposure the whole time you are looking at things, hence you may not be able to approximate either ISO or shutter speed for that reason!.

You may be interested in knowing the human eye, given enough time to adapt, can see light levels far lower than the most sensitive film can record!. However, at those low levels, color is no longer a part of "the picture!."Www@QuestionHome@Com

Visual information from the retina travels from the eye to the brain via the optic nerve!. Because eyes see from slightly different positions, the brain must mix the two images it receives to get a complete picture!.

What we think of as seeing is the result of a series of events that occur between the eye, the brain, and the outside world!. Light reflected from an object passes through the cornea of the eye, moves through the lens which focuses it, and then reaches the retina at the very back where it meets with a thin layer of color-sensitive cells called the rods and cones!. Because the light criss-crosses while going through the cornea, the retina "sees" the image upside down!. The brain then "reads" the image right-side up!.

I think the closest you could relate photography and the human eye is ISO and aperture of the lens!. When you are in a dark room, your iris opens up and you can "see in the dark" after your eyes adjust!. Focusing your eye on something close to your face will also cause everything beyond it to go out of focus, like a macro lens!. I've also read that the 20/24mm lens is the closest to resembling the human perspective!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

To be more specific, the 50mm lens (or in other's minds, the 45mm or the 55mm) on a 35mm film format is considered as "what the eye sees normally!." You would have to know the comparative lens for the camera that you have!. I would say automatic mode instead of Program mode because the automatic mode will change the f stops automatically in varying conditions!. What you need to be equivalent to the eye is a continuously variable f stopWww@QuestionHome@Com

To add to "fhotoace"s answer, it is less the camera's settings and more the film sensitivity that mimic what you "see" in a photograph!. The camera may mimic the eye, but it is the film (or the light recievers in a digital camera) that mimics how the brain has processed the image!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Nope

All the processing happens in your brain!.

" Our eyes don't send images to our brains!. Images are constructed in our brains based on very simple signals sent from our eyes" -- Ken Rockwell

http://www!.kenrockwell!.com/tech/how-we-s!.!.!.

The closest to what you are asking it to use the "program mode"Www@QuestionHome@Com