I don't know what the effect is, but i like it a lot.
But i can't tell if its done with the camera or what, nor can i tell how its done.
Kind of like a really detailed painting.

Moved to Graphics Help.

Maybe it's a filter the photographer used. Maybe. I don't really see the detailed painting part like you say. It just looks sharp/high quality to me.

It just looks like a filtered, mildly edited photograph. Nothing really else done to it.

What program are you using?

im using Photoshop cs2

Try a verrrryyyyyyyy muted "Smart Blur" filter, located under Filters >> Blur >> Smart Blur.

Muted as in..not that noticeable. On very low settings.

Looks like a photo, with a high pass filter, and overly sharpened.

^That's what I was going to say. And to dull down colors set a gray scale image to a really low opacity. I would imagine adding a overlay layer would help with the effect to.

Wow I feel like such an idiot not knowing how to do this.

Alright i think those methods might actually work, i'll try ASAP

yeahh when i found high pass im like "IS THAT IT?" haha but i can't find a way to make it work

The high pass will work differently on different layers.

It just looks very very sharpened, desaturated a bit maybe. Just remember to use "Unsharp mask"

Or it could be high-pass.

Duplicate layer (on top of original image)
Filter -> Other -> High Pass. 5-10px depending on size of image
Set duplicate layer to "Overlay"

I learned that goodie from Roxanne many years ago before I had unsharp mask ^_^

those look like HDR pictures! alot.. maybe they are idk
just take a look at this articles and there's a little tutorial
Great Photography by Dave Hill + Quick Tutorial
HDR: Not Only The 'Magic' Effect

Ahhh I know exactly what it is. It's a photoshop plugin called topazadjust. I have it, it's very cool, and has a preset which does exactly that.