High Definition Range (HDR) photography is popping up everywhere these days, usually with beautiful results, but sometimes not.

Even the best photographs tend to leave out details that a human can see with their eyes.  HDR Photography allows you to capture a greater range of detail in a photograph, so it looks more like what you would see in real life.

It works by capturing an image three times - normal exposure, slightly under exposed, and slightly over exposed.  The three images are then combined into one, creating a blend of the details from all three.

The images are usually combined by software, which can lead to some interesting results.  Most modern HDR photo software can handle this process pretty well automatically, but usually leave some settings up to the user, and these settings can be tweaked to find interesting effects.

Here are some examples of cool  HDR photography effects.