[Geysers] great APOD pic!--Faked!

[Davis, Brian L.]

Janet White wrote:

> This photo doesn't look so much fake to me as simply an HDR version... is it really 'fake' if
> it's the same night, same time, just different exposures combined?

That's a really good point. What's a "real" picture? One that faithfully renders how a silver emulsion reacted to some very specific wavelengths of light? Or one that captures the three specific frequencies of light that your eye does? Or one that evokes what your brain remembers of a scene? My eye/brain combination has an amazing dynamic range... far far better than film, or digital. And a camera doesn't capture what I see in the first place (eye integration times are on the order of 0.1 seconds, while the majority of cameras capture far faster, and so can record "invisible detail" to the eye).

I tend to agree with Janet - this may not be a "real" picture... but that's not actually why most pictures are taken. They are taken to capture the experience.

-- 
Brian Davis