Practical spectral characterization of trichromatic cameras

Simple and effective geometric and radiometric calibration of camera devices has enabled the use of consumer digital cameras for HDR photography, for image based measurement and similar applications requiring a deeper understanding about the camera characteristics. However, to date no such practical methods for estimating the spectral response of cameras are available. Existing approaches require costly hardware and controlled acquisition conditions limiting their applicability. Consequently, even though being highly desirable for color correction and color processing purposes as well as for designing image-based measurement or photographic setups, the spectral response of a camera is rarely considered. Our objective is to close this gap. In this work a practical approach for multi-spectral characterization of trichromatic cameras is presented. Taking photographs of a color chart and measuring the average lighting using a spectrophotometer the effective spectral response of a camera can be estimated for a wide range of out-of-lab environments. By comprehensive cross validation experiments we prove that the new method performs well compared to costly reference measurements. Moreover, we show that our technique can also be used to generate ICC profiles with higher accuracy and less constrained capturing conditions compared to state-of-the-art ICC profilers.