Why don't my night photos with my DSLR don't come out as i see them with my eye?

So i'm new to photography, and i have the Nikon D3000, nothing fancy. Tonight i went out the take some sunset pictures, however my camera made the pictures seem brighter than they really are, taking away from the beauty of the sunset. Why are the pictures on the camera different from how i see it with my eye?

I was thinking about just this phenomenon, the other day. I concluded that our eyes are shifting the focus of interest at lightning fast speeds. I'm not even talking about the opening and closing of our iris because I can see clearly the dark part of the image in front of me as well as the daylit sky.

but my camera CAN'T unless I use Photoscape and manipulate it using "Backlight".

The picture comes out wrong unless I shop it through Photoscape. (photoscape is free and it ain't bad!)

Because your eye is a lot fancier than a camera. One of the reason HDR was invented back in the 1930's by the way.

You need to learn how to use your camera to get the most out of it.

Here's a place to start after you read your manual a few times: http://www.amazon.com/...0817463003

At night, you need to shoot manual exposure, or use exposure compensation. The camera likes to meter for daytime look, so at twilight, it overexposes to make it look like daytime.

Use a 2/3 underexposure to make it look more natural.

Wrong and Wrong

Your camera is trying to make the scene bright enough for you to see everything. Your eye sees the beautiful, dark sunset.

Hit the [+/-] button on the top of the camera and rotate the thumb dial so that you get -1.0 or -2.0 That tells the camera to expose darker than it normally would, and should bring out the color in the sunset.

This is only available in P, S, A, and M modes. I'd use P (program auto) mode

Also, if you set the camera to vivid, it makes the colors even more brilliant! You can also fiddle with the White Balance to get just the look you want

HDR with Photomatix Pro works great for this. It doesn't have to be over saturated and look like an illustration as many HDR user do. That and a camera with multiple bracketing and either a cable release wired or wireless depending on your camera. Here is the link www.hdrsoft.com/ They have a simple version for $39 and I think you can try a month for free with water marks. Play and see how realistic you can make it meaning what your eye sees.
Using HDR does not mean you have to see every detail it allows you to choose what detail you want the viewer to see. If you use the software properly it works like a charm. Then there's the old school ways as well. It just depends who you talk to. HDR has been given a bad name by people that don't get it and don't use it to it's full potential. You can choose just what you want the viewer to see you don't have to show details in every part of the image you have the option to create a photo realistic image that no one can tell is HDR if you practice. I say use every tool in the box and after 22 years I have gone from dark room to lightroom.
We used to dip and dunk our 4x5s in a water bath method a la Ansel Adams to control the highlights and open the shadows, just like HDR. New times new tools.

If your are shooting in Auto - the camera is trying to expose it so you see everything. The result is that the sky is over exposed.

The solution is to shoot in manual - so that you control the exposure. Reduce the exposure a little by closing down the aperture, or increasing the shutter speed (or do both), and it should look much better. You may need to experiment. To be safe, take several different exposures, and choose the best one.

The human eye is not the same as a camera, and the human eye has a much higher dynamic range (the range of light and dark tones which are visible to us). One of the solutions to this problem is to use HDR photography - where different exposures are taken and blended in post processing.

Unlike your eye, your camera is not attached directly to your brain and will record exactly what it sees based on the settings you use.
When looking with your eyes, your brain adjusts everything many many times a second and also your emotions at the time make a difference to what you "think" you see.

Once you learn how to use the camera properly and learn how to expose for the specific scene then you will see a change in how the camera records things.