On the Skew!

@e11even: High Dynamic Range is fairly straight forward. It involves taking shots at different exposures and then combining them together in order to increase the somewhat limited exposure latitude of the digital sensor.

I use Auto Exposure Bracketing set at 2 stops over and 2 stops under. The camera will then shoot 3 shots - 1 at the 'correct' exposure and the other 2 'incorrect' exposures. This means you will have every part of your scene exposed correctly in one of those 3 shots. It's important that you use a tripod or something to steady the camera as all 3 shots will need to be in exact register when later combined. I also put it on Self-Timer so I only have to press the Shutter button once to take all 3 shots. Also make sure that it's set on Aperture Priority as you don't want the aperture to change between each shot or it will give you 3 different depths of field.

Then combine the shots in an HDR program - Photomatix Pro is widely regarded as being one of the best (it's what I use). Photoshop has an HDR feature but I don't think it's very good. Try not to over-cook the tone mapping process - I think the trick to good HDR is that the image looks just a little surreal and not like some bad acid trip! This link http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-tutorial/ is a great hdr tutorial, with a lot more info on what to do in Photomatix. Good luck with the HDR.