Color Image Enhancement Using A Retinex-Based Adaptive Filter

We present a new adaptation of Retinex to enhance the rendering of high dynamic range digital color images. The image is processed using an adaptive Gaussian filter. The shape of the filter basis is adapted to follow the high contrasted edges of the image. In this way, the artifacts introduced by a circularly symmetric filter at the border of high contrasted areas are reduced. This method provides a way of rendering natural images that is inspired by human local adaptation. It is included into a framework that takes raw linear images or radiance maps and outputs 24-bit images rendered for display.