Effects of Black Luminance Level on Image Quality

Abstract

The image quality is affected by the black luminance level of the image. This research aimed to investigate how low luminance levels are required to maintain image quality. The psychophysical experiment was carried out in a dark room using OLED display. Total of 6 different black luminance levels (0.003, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 1 cd/m2) were used in the experiment. Total of 20 participants was invited to evaluate the image quality. For the experiment, twelve test images are used and these test images categorized into three groups as dark, medium bright and bright image group by image histogram distribution. Each image is rendered by adjusting six different black luminance levels. Result found that the black level is higher than 0.1 cd/m2, the preference for the image is decreased. The best performance is achieved when the black level is 0.003 cd/m2, but there is no big difference from 0.1 cd/m2. The final result shows that a change in black level between about 0.003 cd/m2 and 0.1 cd/m2 does not significantly affect image quality.