High Dynamic Range or HDR photography is a comparatively new technique.

It involves taking multiple exposures of the same scene and then letting software blend them together to produce an image that is correctly exposed across each pixel of the final image.

A series of standard images are merged into a single 32-bit image which has a dynamic range up to 15 stops. This is then converted back into a 16bit image for display or print.

The homepage of http://www.hdrsoft.com/ shows what can be achieved with just three images merged together.

The most common use of HDR is when the right exposure for a scene results in washed out sky and a flat looking image. By creating a tone mapped HDR image you get the sky details and the correctly exposed image together in the same picture.

How do you create an HDR photo?

The simple answer is that you need software to do it for you. Currently your options are to buy photomatix or a similar tool, or download the free , open source tool called "qtpfsgui" which is a dreadful name for an excellent bit of kit.