yup, real - it's called
HDR Photography
Love it or hate it, it's cool - but that's an example of extreme HDR...
Photomatix Pro is what I have and it's cool and helps create a "realistic photo" in scenes where high dynamic range means something would be underexposed or overexposed. I never use to those extremes as you showed, and I guess PS could do the same as what I want, but photomatix does it far simpler and quicker (especially tone mapping)