High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography

So just what is HDR photography and why does it look more like a painting than a photograph? 

Well, here's the scoop....The human eye is capable of seeing a much wider range of light and dark than the camera lense (even the really good/expenseive ones do not measure up to the human eye), so photographs that record scenes with exteme range variances cannot fully convey the true picture.  If the photo is properly exposed for the bright light outside the window, then the detail in the shadows will be lost.  Conversley, if we expose to pull out the details in the shadow areas of the scene, the highlights will be overexposed and all detail will be lost on that end of the spectrum.  The solution?  Multiple exposures overlayed to produce a picture that is properly exposed at both ends of the spectrum with no lost detail.  The final result has much more depth than a traditional photograph and therefore takes on a surreal look that surpasses the tradtional photograph we are used to seeing.  HDR photography is not new, it was around in the good old days of film, however it is much more commonly used today as digital photography and cost effective software solutions have made the process of merging multiple photographs as easy as 1-2-3.  The trick to a great HDR photograph is conservatisim.  These photos are such a joy to work with, and the results are so dynamic (no pun intended), that it's easy to get carried away and overprocess.  To sum it up - HDR photography rocks - so grab your camera and go have some fun.