I’ve been meaning to post Tom Patterson’s Shaded Relief site for a while: this is a massive site that deals with the technical issues of creating relief maps. Way too technical for me, but the detail is absolutely fascinating. From Patterson’s introduction:

The goal of this site is to assist practicing cartographers with the presentation of relief on maps. The articles and tutorials that follow cover 2D shaded relief, 3D panoramas, and other types of raster map art. Using mostly graphics software and free data, I developed the techniques to support my work as a cartographer for the US National Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center. Attractively presented shaded relief has long been a hallmark of Park Service maps — a tradition that I attempt to continue through digital means.

Via The Cartoonist.