[Geysers] great APOD pic!--Faked!

[Mike O'Brien]

I agree with Janet's opinion.  This is an HDR shot.  Some people love 'em, some people hate 'em.  I make realistically-toned HDR shots myself. My Yellowstone pix are at http://protocolpix.smugmug.com.  Some are HDR, some aren't.  I don't think it's easy to tell, with most of my shots, which are HDR and which aren't.

However, a lot of the objection to the shot in question is that White Dome "ought" to be in silhouette.  There is a technique in use by people who do time exposures where part of a scene is painted with a bright flashlight or Q-beam while the exposure is being taken.  It makes that part of the subject look like it was illuminated with a super-bright flash.  That's what seems to have been done here.  Whether the photographer did it or whether it's someone's headlights sweeping across White Dome, as he mentions in the blog, the effect is the same.

Mike O'Brien