High Dynamic Range (known as HDR) photography has been around a long time. New tools and the increased usage of RAW images however have now made it perhaps the hottest new focus for many photographers. HDR is a long topic, but best thought of using multiple images to capture a higher range of contrast, light and it also is the primary method for creating panoramic photos with digital cameras. It can do wonders when the natural light is either too dark or too light. Photoshop and many other tools now have HDR tools to help merge and adjust multiple photos. I have been using a plug-in from  Photomatix  that is perhaps the best tool available.  I'll go into more detail in future topics. One of the coolest new options with RAW files is that you can use HDR with just one photo. Below is an example of a picture I took at the mission in San Francisco before and after using one raw file in Photomax. I think the result was very impressive considering I had no tripod and the light was extremely low.
BEFORE & AFTER