Why have I not heard about this before now?

Photoshop CS2 apparently has a new feature, called "Merge to HDR." A brief summary is provided here. Excerpt:

Producing an HDR image requires taking enough separate exposures so that you place all of the brightness levels that you want in your final image into a range that your camera's sensor can record properly. Ideally this means putting the darkest values no lower than somewhere in the mid-range of the sensor's sensitivity range. [...]

According to Adobe's instructions you want to take enough exposures to cover the complete dynamic range – not less than three, and as many as five to seven, or even more.

These shots should be taken at between one and two stops apart. They should also be done by varying the exposure time, not the aperture, because changing aperture also changes depth of field.

The results are absolutely breathtaking in their contrast and texures. I recommend checking out these examples on Flickr, right now.

There are a few photos there where the photographer varied the f/stop instead of the exposure time; when you see them, the disorienting feeling is almost sickening (or at least it is to me!). This was a whole new "thing" in photography that was only recently brought to my attention.

If anybody ever plays around with this in their spare time, I'd love to see the results — send 'em this way!

[via latemodel]