Creating a hillshade raster from your DEM with ogr

Our DEM can be the basis for many types of derived raster datasets. One of these derivatives is the so called hillshade raster dataset. A hillshade raster represents a 2D view of 3D elevation data, assigning gray raster shades and giving them a 3D effect by enabling you to see the highs and lows of your terrain. The hillshade is a pure visualization helper to create a nice looking map and show relief on a 2D map.

The pure Python solution to creating a hillshade is written by Roger Veciana i Rovira and you can find it at http://geoexamples.blogspot.co.at/2014/03/shaded-relief-images-using-gdal-python.html. There is also a nice solution by Joel Lawhead in Chapter 7, Python and Elevation Data of Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python. For those of you looking for a detailed description of the hillshade from ESRI, check this page out at http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=How%20Hillshade%20works. The gdaldem hillshade...