system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Eli5: Why do even high tech new phone cameras take great pictures of objects and people, but terrible pictures of landscapes and sunsets?

I often see beautiful views of mountains or sunsets and want to capture them, but the pictures are always incredibly underwhelming. Why?
gpt
Landscapes are difficult to photograph with any camera. One big issue is that our eyes can see fine detail in a small area *and* moderate detail over a large area (peripheral vision) *at the same time*. So you can see fine detail in a tiny distant mountain peak *and* the trees surrounding you at the same time. Cameras don't work that way - it captures a rectangular area with equal sharpness (or at least everything that's in focus). If you try to photograph a landscape with a wide-angle lens, the central subject looks tiny and unimpressive. If you zoom in on the subject, you don't capture the wider area and this can be a boring photo as well. You really have to work at it to find a composition that works for a photo - e.g. you want to make sure there is interesting background and foreground in the same direction, and probably zoom in more than you normally would.

Sunsets pose an additional difficulty. The setting sun is incredibly bright. The foreground is very dark. Human eyes are great at seeing detail both bright and dark things at the same time (i.e. it has a large "dynamic range"). Cameras are getting better in this respect, but they still have much worse dynamic range than the human eye. So you end up with a photo with a completely dark foreground, or completely bright and featureless sky.

edit: For sunsets, if your phone has a HDR (high dynamic range) option, that can help, but for best photos you need to wait for a day when the setting sun is somewhat dimmed by thin clouds.  Sunset on a clear day are pretty, but not photogenic.