I’ve posted before about High-Dynamic Range photography, with, err, lackluster photos to demonstrate the concept. I’ve been trying my hand with Photomatix, which has given be slightly better results:
It’s worth noting that those were dark, ominous clouds. I shot this with auto bracketing on in my camera, meaning it took one “normal” shot, one overexposed +2 EV, and one underexposed -2 EV. And then, in very simple terms, Photomatix ‘merges’ them into one shot, taking the ‘best’ parts of each.