system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do the photos I take not match exactly what I'm seeing?

For example: It's a gorgeous sunrise. The sunlight is shining through tree branches and illuminating streaks of light through the morning fog. I snap a picture to capture it, and end up with a photo of... a nondescript tree with some light behind it. Why doesn't the camera capture the image like I'm seeing it?
gpt
A camera lens and processor (or film) aren't exact analogs for your eyes and brain. 

There are a lot of things that control what an image looks like - the ammount of light coming in, the focus, the color pallet, etc. Your brain manages all these things automatically. Cameras let you adjust these settings manually, or try to approximate a "best fit" automatically, but they're inevitably going to be a bit different than what your brain interprets, and the resulting photo looks different. 

Getting the camera to take the picture you *want* exactly the way you want is why photography is still considered an art and a profession - computers just can't get there on their own most of the time.