A reality check for tone-mapping operators

A large number of high-quality tone-mapping operators is currently available. In addition to inherent practical value, comparing their performance is necessary to further advance the field and can provide better understanding of visual realism. In this paper, we show that it becomes very difficult to meaningfully judge relative performance of modern tone-mapping techniques with existing comparison methods and demonstrate that using real environments is crucial in such experiments. We report results of a new study comparing five recent tone-mapping techniques using this approach.

[1]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  Perceptual illumination components , 2004, ACM Trans. Graph..

[2]  Alexei A. Efros,et al.  Fast bilateral filtering for the display of high-dynamic-range images , 2002 .

[3]  Hans-Peter Seidel,et al.  A perceptual framework for contrast processing of high dynamic range images , 2006, TAP.

[4]  Dani Lischinski,et al.  Gradient Domain High Dynamic Range Compression , 2023 .

[5]  Erik Reinhard,et al.  Photographic tone reproduction for digital images , 2002, ACM Trans. Graph..

[6]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  A model of visual adaptation for realistic image synthesis , 1996, SIGGRAPH.

[7]  Werner Purgathofer,et al.  Verification of Physically Based Rendering Algorithms , 2006, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[8]  Holly E. Rushmeier,et al.  Tone reproduction for realistic images , 1993, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[9]  H. Seidel,et al.  Perceptual Evaluation of Tone Mapping Operators with Regard to Similarity and Preference , 2002 .

[10]  Donald P. Greenberg,et al.  An experimental evaluation of computer graphics imagery , 1986, TOGS.

[11]  Jessica K. Hodgins,et al.  Two methods for display of high contrast images , 1999, TOGS.

[12]  M. Kendall,et al.  ON THE METHOD OF PAIRED COMPARISONS , 1940 .

[13]  Jitendra Malik,et al.  Recovering high dynamic range radiance maps from photographs , 1997, SIGGRAPH '08.

[14]  Karol Myszkowski,et al.  Adaptive Logarithmic Mapping For Displaying High Contrast Scenes , 2003, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[15]  Hans-Peter Seidel,et al.  Lightness Perception in Tone Reproduction for High Dynamic Range Images , 2005, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[16]  Christine D. Piatko,et al.  A visibility matching tone reproduction operator for high dynamic range scenes , 1997, SIGGRAPH '97.

[17]  Hans-Peter Seidel,et al.  Perceptual evaluation of tone mapping operators with real-world scenes , 2005, IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging.

[18]  Greg Turk,et al.  LCIS: a boundary hierarchy for detail-preserving contrast reduction , 1999, SIGGRAPH.

[19]  Jack Tumblin,et al.  The Trilateral Filter for High Contrast Images and Meshes , 2003, Rendering Techniques.

[20]  Joseph L. Zinnes,et al.  Theory and Methods of Scaling. , 1958 .

[21]  Ann McNamara,et al.  Comparing Real & Synthetic Scenes using Human Judgements of Lightness , 2000, Rendering Techniques.

[22]  G. Ward,et al.  54.2: A High Dynamic Range Display Using Low and High Resolution Modulators , 2003 .

[23]  Michael Ashikhmin,et al.  A Tone Mapping Algorithm for High Contrast Images , 2002, Rendering Techniques.

[24]  Werner Purgathofer,et al.  Tone Reproduction and Physically Based Spectral Rendering , 2002, Eurographics.

[25]  Alan Chalmers,et al.  Evaluation of tone mapping operators using a High Dynamic Range display , 2005, SIGGRAPH 2005.

[26]  Hujun Bao,et al.  A New Interpolatory Subdivision for Quadrilateral Meshes , 2005, Comput. Graph. Forum.

[27]  Jr. Thomas G. Stockham,et al.  Image processing in the context of a visual model , 1972 .

[28]  Joseph L. Zinnes,et al.  Theory and Methods of Scaling. , 1958 .

[29]  P. Moran.  On the method of paired comparisons. , 1947, Biometrika.

[30]  Hiroshi Yamaguchi,et al.  Testing HDR Image Rendering Algorithms , 2004, CIC.

[31]  Greg Ward,et al.  A Contrast-Based Scalefactor for Luminance Display , 1994, Graphics Gems.

[32]  AshikhminMichael,et al.  A reality check for tone-mapping operators , 2006 .