The other day I happened to come across profile of a fellow bird photographer who has mentioned a quote by Magnum Photographer Inge Morath as having said, “ Photography is a strange phenomenon, you trust your eye and cannot help but bare your soul”. Yes, we trust our eyes without paying too much attention to technical issues as these can interfere with creative aspects. No doubt a good photographer makes image with his feelings and some images do touch our soul.
Inge Morath has
rightly mentioned her feelings, but her emphasis on trusting our eyes made me
ponder over a question does camera sees more than our eyes. If so, how and why.
The answer to this question holds more significance for bird photographers and
birders who keenly observe not only behaviour and anatomy of birds, but also
their morphology.
An
inquisitive mind may question similarities as well as differences between the
camera and the human eye. Those who have better understanding of functions of
optical devices also know that camera sees more than the human eye.
I have seen many
birders who first see birds with their bare eyes, then through their binocular
or monocular and then make a ‘record’ photo of the bird with the help of a long
lens in the given situation so as to observe and study bird’s distinctive
markings. They all understand that bare eyes or say ‘unaided eyes’ need modern
gadgets to see beyond their limiting factors.
The technology is fast developing
thus widening the gap between the functions of human eye and the camera. While
the human eye has always remained as such, the technological developments that
have taken place since the invention of camera obscura have unfolded a whole
new world of visual media. This process is unending and future inventions may
be more startling.
When we capture an image, only a visual record is
made, which is flat and has two
dimensions, but when we see the visual impact remains in our memory for a
longer period of time and is of three dimensions-- length, height and has depth
of field. Also, a camera can create a brighter picture as it has the potential
to collect light for a longer period.
We all know both the
eye and the camera have a lens and both receive light through an aperture
device. They also have a method
to interpret that light as an image. In
camera we can adjust light through aperture, automatically or manually whereas
eyes have pupil, a round area in the iris, which controls light. In both, the
camera and our eyes, the light and image are inverted by the receiving
mechanism.
In eye, light is received by retina, which is almost of the same size of sensor of a full frame(35mm) camera and is
an extension of brain. Light is transmitted to the back portion of brain
and image is perceived. It is because of curvature of retina that its edges are
about the same distance from the lens as the center. Therefore, unlike camera
lenses, the retina has corner sharpness and we also see more in corners. On
the other hand the flange
distance, the space between where the lens is mounted to the camera body and to
the camera’s image sensor, is comparatively larger. The shorter a flange
distance, the smaller and lighter a camera body can be. The mirrorless cameras
have, therefore, shorter flange distance thus are lighter and smaller than the
DSLRs. In case of lenses generally the corners are not as
sharp as the center of an image is.
The question remains
why camera sees more than our eyes. We know the camera sends every pixel data
from sensor to the computer which may result in certain distortions like barrel distortion, colour variation and vignetting. Contrary to it, eyes are not so capable because
data passes through optic nerve. Eyes adjust their sensitivity to see
naturally, but cameras have a feature to adjust ISO manually or let it get
adjusted automatically.
Camera sensor has
regular grid of pixels with every square millimeter having exactly the same
number and pattern of pixels. In cameras the field of view depends on the kind
of lens. On the other hand, retina, a small central area of about 6 mm, has
dense concentration of photo receptors. Interestingly this portion has best
resolving ability than any camera.
Although our peripheral
vision has high refresh rate, our eye is sensitive to moving objects, but has
not much resolution to read letters. The
focal length of the human eye is the distance between the retina and the eye
lens and this focal length varies from person to person. Not many know that 50 mm camera lens closely matches the human eye
as the angle of view created by the 50 mm focal length is almost the same as
the viewing angle of the human eye. The built-in technology of
eye can’t match the ever-improving modern technology of camera.
The old saying
goes, ‘eyes are the windows to the soul’. Photography makes us
trust our eyes, but it is also such a magical phenomenon where silence speaks louder
than words. At times its sound is more deafening than words. Let’s keep enjoying
the sound of silence of this strange phenomenon of photography.
As
I conclude, I am reminded of another female photographer, Maggie Steber, who
has also rightly said, “The camera can open many doors, but sometimes you need
to put it down and live."
--Subhash Sapru
