The Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi/450D Companion

CHAPTER 8

LEARNING TO SEE AGAIN

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Learning to See Again

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably experienced something like this: You

can’t find your keys (or your sunglasses, your favorite pen, your wallet, or what-

ever) so you look on your desk, in your pockets, in your coat, and on the kitchen

table. You try to retrace your steps to determine where you might have been

when you last had your keys. You look and look and then, finally, an hour later,

you see them sitting out in the open in the middle of your desk—right there in

the first place you looked.

is type of maddening situation happens because, while it’s very easy to look at

something, it can be far more complicated to actually see it. We tend to use the

words look and see synonymously, but for a photographer, there are very impor-

tant differences between the two terms.

Let’s return to the lost key scenario. How is it that you can look at the desk, spe-

cifically trying to find your keys, and not see them? e answer has to do with the

fact that your eyes are far more than a simple optical instrument. It’s very easy

to draw a parallel between a digital camera and your eye—they both have lenses

with irises, and they both have separate receptors for red, green, and blue light.

But the optical system in your head has a very important additional component

attached to it, in the form of a human brain. While we like to think ...