[wim]

We can adapt the brightness coming on with the size of the pupil, which is pretty fast. But bigger changes are done chemically, and can take upto 30 minutes to adjust. We know this adjustment from going from light to dark, where we need a couple of minutes to adjust, or the other way around (coming from for instance a dark cinema into the sunlight).

 

Looking at images on screens or print will always be viewed at the 6.5 stops at one time DR our eyes have.

 

That you could develop the high contrast under exposed film or over exposed film does not mean the film gave high DR results. 

 

Thanks for the expansion on chemical adjustment.

 

I didn;t say film gave high DR results; you mentioned 12 stops, I mentioned 10. Whether that si high or low is debatable, it just depends on where you draw the limit.

 

However, what I meant, and maybe didn't say so clearly, is that you could adjust the gamma and therefore DR range of a film by exposing and developing it in a certain way. In a way, that is tone mapping to a degree, plus burning and dodging, in the digital age, although personally I like to do this manually to have absolute control, and get the image to look the way I want it to look, as I pre-visualized it, and remember it.

 

Very much back to analog for me, but then in digital . I have never been a person to develop and/or print exactly as things were recorded, to me there is no fun in that or even use for that, and once I started to work in my own darkroom, and develop and print everything myself, 40+ years ago, I never did anymore, with the exception of a few snaps, which I would not print myself.

 

Kind regards, Wim