[wanderer2]

I occasionally find I like landscape photos taken with the K-1 using one of the HDR features, usually #3. I would like to do some mild editing of some of these images but am having difficulty finding a way to do so. I am referring to the merged photo of the three exposures taken in the camera and merged in the camera. I have four editing programs in my computer, Affinity Photo, PSE 14, RawTherapee, and FastStone, although I haven't been able to develop a high level of proficiency with any of the four, being an old guy still stuck in film era thinking. When I attempt to import the merged photo file in all four programs instead of that file one of the three exposures that are used in the merge is imported instead, and that image looks very different than the merged file. Researching online I can't find any mention of a program that can do this and I didn't find anything doing a search on Pentax Forums either. If this is covered somewhere please let me know.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would really like to process some of these in camera HDR files.
'

[biz-engineer]

You can always to a partial editing in camera (white balance, jpeg style, ev correction, global contrast, shadow and highlight contrast and sharpness) while keeping your preferred HDR style property, export into a TIF and eventually finish editing with your favorite software.

[Rondec]

I think at this point if you want to work on RAW HDR files you will need to use the Digital Camera Utility that came with the camera. It should be able to merge them. Raw Therapee can separate the files after the fact, but you would need a second program to merge them again into HDR. Most of the rest of the programs you mentioned will just see the first image in three image stack.

[MrB1]

I occasionally find I like landscape photos taken with the K-1 using one of the HDR features, usually #3. I would like to do some mild editing of some of these images but am having difficulty finding a way to do so. I am referring to the merged photo of the three exposures taken in the camera and merged in the camera. I have four editing programs in my computer, Affinity Photo, PSE 14, RawTherapee, and FastStone, although I haven't been able to develop a high level of proficiency with any of the four, being an old guy still stuck in film era thinking. When I attempt to import the merged photo file in all four programs instead of that file one of the three exposures that are used in the merge is imported instead, and that image looks very different than the merged file. Researching online I can't find any mention of a program that can do this and I didn't find anything doing a search on Pentax Forums either. If this is covered somewhere please let me know.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would really like to process some of these in camera HDR files.
'

it would seem that you have been trying to open the raw data file (.dng or .pef) for the merged images, and your software is only capable of opening just one of the three images stored within that file. If you set your camera to save RAW+JPEG, in respect of the highlighted statements above, you can achieve your tweaking by opening the JPEG file (.jpg) of the merged images in your software and editing that.

Philip

[aaacb]

I'm going to guess that the difference you're seeing is because those programs render the raw file flat, without applying presets. Since you're already using rawtherapee, give darktable a shot. It applies at import a default tone curve based on your camera ("base curve" module in darktable, for example "pentax like" is applied for... pentax cameras https://www.darktable.org/usermanual/en/modules.html#base_curve ),
and it gives more usable results without tinkering, while still offering a wide range of tools. And of course, you can disable the default tone curve in darktable and have it be flat (linear).

For high dynamic range landscapes in darktable, I tend to use the modules shadow/highlights and levels in addition to basic exposure. Load the RAW file merged by the camera, apply the base curve to get a more usable starting point, then edit away and keep an eye on highlight/shadow warnings. Here's an older darktable tutorial that I found, keep in mind that the program has evolved and improved A LOT since 2012, you get many more modules/options. Process HDR images using darktable. | darktable

[wanderer2]

You can always to a partial editing in camera (white balance, jpeg style, ev correction, global contrast, shadow and highlight contrast and sharpness) while keeping your preferred HDR style property, export into a TIF and eventually finish editing with your favorite software.

Thanks for your feedback. Is this in camera editing done in JPEG or Raw? If it's in JPEG wouldn't that result in files with less data than with RAW? How is a file exported from the camera (or SD card) as a Tiff (couldn't find that in the manual)? Sorry I don't understand this better - as I said in my post, my knowledge and understanding in this area are rudimentary.

---------- Post added 02-10-19 at 11:06 AM ----------

I think at this point if you want to work on RAW HDR files you will need to use the Digital Camera Utility that came with the camera. It should be able to merge them. Raw Therapee can separate the files after the fact, but you would need a second program to merge them again into HDR. Most of the rest of the programs you mentioned will just see the first image in three image stack.

Thanks for this info. I've lost the CD/DVD that came with the camera. I've tried to download DCU5 directly from Ricoh's website but it won't do it because it's an upgrade and I do not have an earlier version of the program in my computer. Any advice as to how to get the CD or how to download the program directly from Ricoh? Thanks again.

---------- Post added 02-10-19 at 11:10 AM ----------

it would seem that you have been trying to open the raw data file (.dng or .pef) for the merged images, and your software is only capable of opening just one of the three images stored within that file. If you set your camera to save RAW+JPEG, in respect of the highlighted statements above, you can achieve your tweaking by opening the JPEG file (.jpg) of the merged images in your software and editing that.

Philip

Yes, that's exactly what I've been trying to do. I've tried DNG only, not PEF. I do have my camera set to RAW+JPEG. But, if I do it as you described above won't editing the JPEG file result in less data and detail as compared to editing in RAW? I hope to do some very large prints of some of these and would like as much resolution as possible. Thanks very much for the input.

[aaacb]

I've tried to download DCU5 directly from Ricoh's website but it won't do it because it's an upgrade and I do not have an earlier version of the program in my computer.

Did you click the "agree" orange button? Despite what it says, I remember it just installs if there's no previous version to upgrade. I can't test it now because I only have an Ubuntu computer, but I have no problem downloading the zip. Digital Camera Utility 5 Update for Windows : Software Downloads | RICOH IMAGING

[wanderer2]

I'm going to guess that the difference you're seeing is because those programs render the raw file flat, without applying presets. Since you're already using rawtherapee, give darktable a shot. It applies at import a default tone curve based on your camera ("base curve" module in darktable, for example "pentax like" is applied for... pentax cameras 3.4.*Modules | usermanual | darktable ),
and it gives more usable results without tinkering, while still offering a wide range of tools. And of course, you can disable the default tone curve in darktable and have it be flat (linear).

For high dynamic range landscapes in darktable, I tend to use the modules shadow/highlights and levels in addition to basic exposure. Load the RAW file merged by the camera, apply the base curve to get a more usable starting point, then edit away and keep an eye on highlight/shadow warnings. Here's an older darktable tutorial that I found, keep in mind that the program has evolved and improved A LOT since 2012, you get many more modules/options. Process HDR images using darktable. | darktable

Thanks very much for this info and recommendation. I'll try Darktable, which I know nothing about. I'll try anything that will simply allow me to edit the actual in camera merged HDR files and I hope Darktable can do that.

[aaacb]

in camera merged HDR files

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that hdr raw files merged in camera are just single images, and not four-in-one like pixelshift images. So you shouldn't need special plugins to edit them. For pixelshift images, you can do it in DCU or Rawtherapee, last time I checked darktable could read them.

[thepedant]

I think only the camera's internal development process can produce a jpeg from a raw HDR shot in a one step process. But Digital Camera Utility 5 (DCU5) can split the HDR file into three separate raw files which can subsequently be combined by quite a few software packages. RawTherapee can separate them but only into jpeg/tiff not raw. DCU5 cannot combine them at all, you have to use something else. I really only know the Linux ones like pfstools and Luminance HDR but there are Windows ones too.

[K1N8]

See Page 86 in the manual to develope in camera as TIFF

[wanderer2]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that hdr raw files merged in camera are just single images, and not four-in-one like pixelshift images. So you shouldn't need special plugins to edit them. For pixelshift images, you can do it in DCU or Rawtherapee, last time I checked darktable could read them.

The raw files in the HDR settings in the K-1 involve taking 3 images in quick succession (automated) and then the camera merges them in one image file. The resultant merged file is about 120 mb (40 X 3).

---------- Post added 02-10-19 at 12:32 PM ----------

See Page 86 in the manual to develope in camera as TIFF

Thanks, I missed that.

[aaacb]

The raw files in the HDR settings in the K-1 involve taking 3 images in quick succession (automated) and then the camera merges them in one image file. The resultant merged file is about 120 mb (40 X 3).

I've been using raw hdr incorrectly (and rarely) all along. I've always selected "auto" so the difference was probably subtle, never noticed I was in fact editing a single image until I did a test with "hdr 3" in extreme contrast just now... glad I learned this.

[K1N8]

This will report the number of RAW images embedded in a DNG (not previews/thumbnails).

Code:

 $ dcraw -i -v FILE.DNG

This will "develop" individual RAW data as 3x 16 bit TIFF images, before the HDR merge.

Code:

 $ dcraw -s all -w -T -6 FILE.DNG

[wanderer2]

Did you click the "agree" orange button? Despite what it says, I remember it just installs if there's no previous version to upgrade. I can't test it now because I only have an Ubuntu computer, but I have no problem downloading the zip. Digital Camera Utility 5 Update for Windows : Software Downloads | RICOH IMAGING

I think I did click on the agree button when I first tried this but to be sure I tried the process again, using the link you supplied. The downloading did proceed and said there were 32 bit and 64 bit versions available. Installation was the next process and when I tried this with the 64 bit version after a bit I got the following message:

"Cannot to find (sic) old version that is valid target of upgrading. Installation is cancelled." (something lost in translation here).

When I tried installing the 32 bit version I got the message:

"The operating system is not adequate for running Digital Camera Utility 5." It's Windows 10.

When I clicked on OK it just rotated back to the beginning of the download and it became a vicious circle and I was never able to install either version of DCU5.

So unless I can get the DCU5 cd it appears I'm stuck. I'll try calling Ricoh and asking if I can get one unless someone has another solution. Thanks for trying to help me.

---------- Post added 02-11-19 at 05:01 AM ----------

This will report the number of RAW images embedded in a DNG (not previews/thumbnails).

Code:

 $ dcraw -i -v FILE.DNG

This will "develop" individual RAW data as 3x 16 bit TIFF images, before the HDR merge.

Code:

 $ dcraw -s all -w -T -6 FILE.DNG

Sorry but this is way over my head. I don't know how to use this info. As I said earlier, my knowledge in this area is rudimentary compared to many of you.