Nikon D300 User Manual page 666

eye and brain combination. There are very few situations in
which our eyes cannot adjust to the available light range. So,
as photographers, we are always seeking ways to record even
a small portion of what our eye and mind can see.
Since our eyes tend to know that shadows are black, and
expect that, it is usually better to expose for the highlights. If
you see dark shadows, that seems normal. We're simply not
used to seeing light that's so bright that all detail is lost. An
image exposed for the dark values will look very weird
because most highlight detail will be burned out.
Your eyes can see a huge range of light in comparison to your
digital sensor. The only time you will ever see light values
that are so bright that detail is lost is when you are looking
directly at an overwhelmingly bright light, like the sun. So, in
a worst-case scenario, expose the image so that the right side
of the histogram graph just touches the right side of the
histogram window, and the image will look more normal.
Since photography's beginning, we have always fought with
only being able to record a limited range of light. But, with
the digital camera and its histogram, we can now see a visual
representation of the light values and can immediately
approve of the image, reshoot it with emphasis on lighter or
darker values, or see that we must use a filter or
multiple-exposure high dynamic range imaging (HDR) to
capture it at all.
Computer Adjustment of Images
Looking at the image in Figure 9-19, taken in mid-day
overhead sunshine, we see an example of a range of light that
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