Ask someone about HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography and they’ll probably tell you that is the latest and newest thing in digital photography. 
That is if they know what it is at all. The truth is that it’s not at all new and has been around for a long long time.
Just take a look a the works of the master, Ansel Adams, and you’ll probably agree he was one of the first to use and develop the technique. Not only was he one of the first but he did it with film, not a digital camera. His landscape photos of the Sierra Nevada mountains and Yosemite National Park are good examples.
The problem that has plagued photographers from it’s invention, has been how to accurately reproduce on paper (or monitor) what one can see with their eyes. You see our eyes have the ability to see the details that lie in dark shadows and the detail that is illuminated in the bright highlights. Film and digital don’t capture that range of detail, it’s just not possible.
Ansel Adams did do editing to his photos in the darkroom. Techniques like ‘burning’ and ‘dodging’ the highlights and shadow. He started with great photos and made them even better.
Fast forward to today and HDR is a ‘trick’ or a setting on your digital camera. Apple has enhanced the iPhone 4 and 4s with HDR built right in to the camera phone. Technology has made capturing the dynamic ranges in a photo easier than ever before, but you should still know a little about what is being done and just how it all comes together.
Basically what happens is this. Choose the photo you want to capture, set up your digital camera on a tripod and take a series of photos all at different exposers. From over-exposed to under-exposed. On you DSLR this is often called “bracketing”. The series is then put through a software system like Photoshop that combines them into one photo. One photo that has the detail in the highlight and the shadow. After that there are several other steps that can be taken to enhance the surreal effects in the photo. A lot of that depends on what software you are using and what the desired finish is.
If you want to learn more about HDR photography there are many books and websites devoted to it. Just Google the term and you should be able to find what you need.
