How to do it - HDR imagery

Jetty, originally uploaded by Huey_J.

Just check out this staggeringly good HDR (high dynamic range) image which recently won the TWIP photo contest for HDR shots.

For those who haven't yet tried HDR takes the information from a range of exposures of the same subject and then, through tonal mapping, puts the info from the darkest darks and lightest lights and merges it all into one image that shows details from shadows right through to highlights in a way that would overwhelm a single exposure.

Wonderful modern-day photographic trickery (in the most honest sense of the word).