K3 HDR...

Want to have a go at this but will need some software to make it a goer, I think?
From what I can make out the three RAWS in an HDR are written to one file or three with one header?
Lightroom splits em back into three, does DCU work better with these HDR files or is there anything better (And disgustingly cheap!) out there? Can't stretch to the full photoshop package and even though it's only nine quid I cannot even stretch to the adobe subs (Just don't ask!) So is there anything out there that'll save em as one file proper so I can work on em in DXO or Lightroom, afterwards? Now I may have got totally the wrong end of the stick here with this but any help pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated! Never really been that fussed with HDR but want to do some experimenting this year with different looks etc, and this will be part of it if I can only get my poor little brain around it...

They are there as a JPEG file. In fact, as far as I recall, they are only available as a JPEG as the processing and combination is done by the camera.

"The K-3’s HDR (High Dynamic Range) function takes a set of three images at three different exposure levels, then picks properly exposed areas from the original set to synthesize a single, wide-gradation image. Since the K-3 automatically compensates for slight misalignment of the composition among the original images,** you can take advantage of this convenient function even during handheld shooting. You can also save the original images in the RAW format,. Since you can store them as a single RAW-format file, you can easily locate them for subsequent data redevelopments."

Just need to know how to stop my software splitting em back up, or get something that is happy to read em as a single file, just not Photoshop...

I think if you split them then the easiest way to deal with them is in an HDR program such as Photomatix.

To be honest, if that were the case I don't think there's much point in letting the camera align anything. Photomatix can do that if necessary, but if the camera's on a tripod then there shouldn't really be any misalignment. Would you want hand held HDR?

Sorry I can't help with DXO or Lightroom, but maybe somebody else can.

Assuming they're aligned Jules, why not just process them individually in Adobe Camera RAW (I use the free CS2 version of Photoshop), optimise each one for the particular areas that they are exposed for (eg sky, or ground, or shadows etc) .... then save as TIFFs and load into Photoshop as separate layers. Then using masks you can hide or reveal the appropriate bits of each to create a combined (blended) final version.

Very small alignment problems shouldn't matter with this method, depending on the subject matter (eg landscapes are usually fairly easy to 'fudge' if need be).

If you do find an HDR programme, you could load the TIFFs into that and see if can do better. Photomatix will take RAW files directly, but some others may not. And this type of software will most likely have alignment options as its designed to combine multiple files.

Kinda what I thought too really John, so it's not quite a complete feature in reality, the RAW's are fine and dandy but only if you can write all three to a single TIFF/RAW in camera or something like that, and your photo editor then reads them as such, theres not much point in using the in camera HDR if Photomatix can do the job on it's own, thought I was missing something, and you could save em to a single TIFF file for editing later but it seems not. Ho hum...
K3 is not perfect any more Bwahhhhh!

Sorry Nigel don't have photoshop, simply can't afford it and frankly thought I'd never need it again, so ditched all my old copies, I'll seek out some software from somewhere, I usually shoot em on a tripod so the aligmment is not a problem, photomatix does sound good, I'm pretty sure I tried it once before, I'll take a look about, I've watched some vids recently on you-tube by a guy from new zealand who shoots pretty much nothing else and some of them are amazing, HDR to me is only any good if it doesn't look HDR...

Trey Ratcliff, thats him...

HDR software is worth a try for sure ... As I said, I use CS2 which is available as freeware now (a search should being it up, and you get a free registration code) ... It has all the key elements needed, including full 16 bit layers, so its a great free option.

To start with, just try the inbuilt option.

I don't think you actually do want the camera to combine he raws Jules.
Raw is raw, and you want FULL control over raw processing.
HDR programs auto align themselves easily, so it's no biggy.

If you are going to work on it yourself later, then just take bracketed shots right from the outset.
If you want the camera to do it then use the HDR function which has to process these to jpg.
Having the raw files available Forster use sounds like an upgrade over my k-30

I think the confusion is over the nature of the extracted HDR RAWs . Are they anything other than just 3 bracketed shots? I'd assumed the option to save them was just to give the choice to have a go yourself and try and do better than the camera. In any case, if you've shot camera HDR, then you might as well use the output JPEG and see if its any good.