I guess like different exposures then merging them together in Photoshop. I saw a picture of a subie a few days ago where they took like 5 different pics at different exposures and made one image. I liked the use of light painting they did to high light certain areas too
there is a tool you can use in photoshop called photo merge, but it depends which kind of overall effect your looking for.. setting your camera at different exposures in raw mode can help you as well.
It does take time and patience..some people take up to 15-20 different exposure shots adjusting it a lil at a time.
Others set for 1-2 hours apart at a time..but i don't believe that is what you are going for.
if i was going to recommend this id say get a nice sturdy tripod and make sure its not windy outside
and if you have a wireless remote which is even better.
Then onward to your DSLR camera. It needs to be in manual mode to change different settings such as these.
Set your high exposure and then get a shot of a mid exposure setting ...and then finally set your low exposure.
It is up to you how much different exposures you want and how much light you want in each picture.
that would be the way i would do what you are asking..otherwise you can do light painting as you described before.
This stuff is much harder to explain then to just show u how to do it in person..lol
Stuff you need though
DSLR Camera
Tripod
wireless remote if you can afford one. You dont want to bother or touch the camera while its reading long exposures..
Oh and one more thing...format your sd card in your camera...you dont want long and short exposures or other photos...mixed in ...would just make rearranging your photos much easier when you convert them more into photoshop..idk sorry i like to be organized...:lol: