Rendering high dynamic range images by using integrated global and local processing

Abstract

We propose a new and effective tone reproduction technique that preserves the visibility, contrast, and natural impression of scenes when rendering high dynamic range images on conventional low dynamic range display devices. The method is simple and easy to implement. Our new approach uses a modified mapping function that takes into account the block-level log-average, as well as the log-average of the whole image. This allows for increased visibility in dark regions. For those images with sharp edges that may cause a halo effect, the halo effect can be reduced by using bilateral filtering when the block-level log-average is computed. Furthermore, the local details of the image can be enhanced by using a median filter. Experimental results show that the technique gives satisfactory results for a variety of images and avoids common artefacts, such as halos, gradient reversals, and the loss of local contrast. In particular, our method produces excellent results when an image has both dark and bright regions due to new block-level processing during tone mapping.