how did they create this effect?

[dustydirtbiker]

http://www.smugmug.com/popular/People#244975735_PeMKf

This has to be edited in some way. I like the almost gloomy/dark/dirty look.


This guy uses a similar effect on a lot of his photos. I like this guys work a lot>>> http://www.ericryananderson.com/

[trahanw]

Definatlly actions through photoshop. Nice work

[Anacott]

It looks like it could be HDR. Since hands won't stay steady they probably processed one RAW file into an HDR shot. Or, in Photoshop they duplicated the layer, added some gausian blur to it, changed the layer to Soft Light from normal, then changed the blending options by splitting the "this layer" triangle and moving them apart from each other.

[gtakacs]

It's a technique called HIRALOAM. High Radius Low Amount sharpening. It's also called detail enhancement or local contrast enhancement. There are several plugins/tools/actions you can use with Photoshop to accomplish this look.