The photograph above shows approximately how the Milky Way appears to the naked eye (especially when you look at the screen from across the room), you can sense that the nebulosity is there, but you can't quite pin it down - 15 seconds @ f1.4 ISO 1600 Canon 400D 24mm (fixed camera) from my back garden in Forest Row on the 14th July 2007.   Below are some film images made previously:

Milky Way photograph above taken from Oaken Wood, Dunsfold, around midnight of the night 2/3 August 2003.   Fuji 400F Film pushed to 3200 ISO, Nikkor 28mm @ f1.4 25 seconds with a fixed camera.   The image below is an enhancement of the red channel of this image: