What is reality?

Can a camera capture 'reality'? Is your 'reality' the same as MY 'reality'? What is the REAL 'reality'?
There are too many variables.
Can you be sure that early brain development durung infancy caused the synapses in your brain to end up wired exactly the same as the ones in my brain?  We know the wiring in people's brains varies because a few people 'see' words or scents as colours.
You look at a post-box and say it is 'red' because that is what you were taught and you associate the word 'red' with that perception. I do likewise, but is my perception the same as yours and how would we know if it wasn't?  Also, we can imagine a scene is in some way different from reality depending on our emotional state at the time.

Furthermore, a small proportion of women and about 15% of men have some degree of what we call colour-blindness so we know fo sure that they perceive colours in a different way.


So much for the eyes and brain - what about a camera? Does IT record reality?  In short: No.
Firstly, a camera cannot accutately record every single possible colour. It has a finite range of possible values that it can record.
The accuracy of the colour recorded depends too on the spectral characteristics of the grid of colour filters used over the sensor.

Once captured, software within the camera adjusts the image for 'white balance', sharpness and contrast and that can vary from one type of camera to another.


So where is this leading?
It is my way of justifying my processing of images on my computer and some may disagree with the level of adjustments that I make.
Today was dull, grey and misty, almost devoid of any colour.  Any such unprocessed blip wouldn't draw a second glance - probably not even a first glance.

Today, even after my usual tweaks, the result was still too drab and so I finally resorted to adding a colour filter.
Usually, I make my colour filters from other images taken the same day, thus staying within the rules of this site. Sadly there was no colour in the sky to capture and use so unusually, I resorted to extracting the colour from an image taken 3 days ago. It doesn't change the content of my blip, just the colour, so I hope you'll forgive that.


Today's blip was taken at Lochore Country Park, also known as Lochore Meadows, or even simply as 'The Meedies'.