High Dynamic Range

The human eye can see a greater range of light than a camera sensor. In a nutshell this means that in a situation where you have a lot of dark areas and light areas in a view you have to sacrifice detail in either the dark or the light areas. You cant have both. Take a picture inside on a sunny day and the camera will expose for the inside of the room and any views through the window will be totally lost, just a white window. Expose for the view out of the window and the inside of the room will be dark. Your eyes can see both at the same time, a camera sensor at this point in time can not.There is a technique called HDR High Dynamic Range which will allow an image to show both. What you do is to take 3 or more exposures, one for the dark areas, one for the mid range areas and one for the light areas. You then use special software to blend all three shots together. Simple. Here's an HDR I took a few years ago in Yellowstone NP.

Madison River